CNN Airport Network recently announced a new initiative
using Computer Vision and Deep Learning technology developed by Tunity that has
the capability of adding a new dimension to out of home television viewing.
How
often are we at an airport or at bar and can view the screens but can’t quite
hear what is going on? Tunity’s download-able app enables viewers to also
become listeners. Yaniv Davidson, Founder of Tunity, believes that it is
possible to attribute actual listening to specific out of home viewing. “Turner’s
bold decision to adopt Tunity and promote it first to its CNN Airport Network
viewers opens up a whole new era in out of home viewing,” he explained.
“Viewers will now be able to receive crystal clear audio via their cell phones
at the same time they see the video on a live TV set.”
“Our goal is to constantly improve the passenger experience
by bringing air travelers quality news and entertainment programming wherever
they may be in the airport,” explains Debbie Cooper, President of Turner
Private Networks . “Bringing a technology like Tunity to CNN Airport Network
allows us to better serve the passenger, allowing them to be engaged with the
screens not only with a visual but with clear, synchronized sound at their
personal volume level. We know through years of research that if someone cannot
hear the audio clearly, they are less likely to pay attention. Tunity is a
unique opportunity to take advantage of the technology that many of us use
every day, a smart phone and headphones,” she adds.
Charlene Weisler: What
is the unique advantage of using Tunity for television out of home measurement?
Yaniv Davidson: Currently there is no good metric for TV Out of Home because
there is no technology out there that can capture who is watching what and
where. For example, the Portable people meter needs to capture audio, which either
doesn't exist in out of home, or exists, but might be just a background noise
to a consumer that is merely in the TV's general area. Tunity can prove that a
viewer is actively watching a TV, when and where. It is not an anecdotal piece
of information, like a survey, it's hard, detailed data about real viewers. It
can be the first platform one to shed a light on an audience that's never been
measured before.
Charlene Weisler: How do you
expect CNN Airport Network will use the information gained from Tunity?
Debbie Cooper: The data sets that we are creating with Tunity will
give us insights into who our audience is, what they are interested in and,
maybe even someday, where they are headed on their next flight. The strategic
knowledge we get from this information will allow us to deliver a more
personalized, engaging experience.
Yaniv Davidson: We are still in the phase of working on the data and
we want CNN Airport Network to be a partner in that. We would like CNN Airport
Network to give us their input so the end result is something they could use as
a metric to evaluate how many (additional) viewers are watching a specific
channel at a specific time in a specific location and communicate this to their
potential advertisers. This is just the beginning. Eventually, I think
that Tunity will enable content creators like Turner, to push personalized
content to viewers' screens while they are watching TV - this will be based on
who the viewers are, what they are watching at the moment, where they are and
their past preference (or preference of viewers who belong to the same segment and
are in the same context as them). Tunity can help Turner evaluate the
effectivity of every piece of content - by segment, location context, etc.
Charlene Weisler: Will CNN
Airport Network get demographic or lifestyle attributes?
Yaniv Davidson: There is some direct data that we have - like age and
location - and there is additional demographic data that can be extracted or
added to the data we already have. For now, we are focusing on location, age
and gender - but there is a lot more we plan to add in the future.
Charlene Weisler: What makes
this unique compared to other out-of-home measurement applications?
Debbie Cooper: For CNN Airport Network, it’s not just an issue of
out-of-home measurement but constantly improving the customer experience. If we
can be more available to more people regardless of their proximity to a
television screen, that’s a benefit to us and to the audience. We will continue
to use our other measurement tools and systems but having Tunity data will give
us the best available data using best technology in as close to real time as
possible. This allows us to know who, when and where our audience is. There
have been several times I’ve been at an airport, either in a gate-hold area,
restaurant or lounge and I’ve seen one person see the promotion we’re running
for Tunity that explains how it works. They download the app and in a matter of
seconds the audio is synched to the screen. Another few seconds pass and the
person sitting next to them asks how they are able to get the audio and they
repeat the download process. You can see the light bulbs go off as people
experience Tunity for the first time. They have their phones out constantly,
they typically have their headphones in too. Tying those together with what’s
on the screen across the room or seating area is a breakthrough for CNN Airport
Network.
Yaniv Davidson: This is the first time a major media company is working
to solve the issue of measuring Out-of-Home TV viewership and leveraging a new
and unique solution to both solve a real issue for its audience and advertisers
as well as extract unique data - not available until today. Turner is
leveraging the latest technology (this level of Computer Vision and Deep
Learning could not have been done 4 years ago - computing power was just too
expensive and Deep Learning did not really exist...) to statistically and
scientifically measure what is a significant portion of their viewership. It
also solves an issue for their viewers on the go - and the advertisers trying
to engage with them.
This article first appeared in www.MediaBizBloggers.com
