Tests show viewers react to ads, TV networks say

NEW YORK: In new experiments for NBC, people are hooked up to sensors as they watch television, and researchers observe changes in their heart rate, palm sweat, eye movement and breathing patterns.

But the panelists are not watching just NBC programs. They are watching commercials - in fast-forward mode.

So far, the findings have been just what NBC hoped: Judging from the biological reactions, the test subjects were just as engaged while watching fast-forwarded advertisements as they were while viewing opening scenes from the NBC show "Heroes" at regular speed.

And that conclusion - which is still preliminary - could have big implications for NBC and other networks as they negotiate rates for air time with advertisers. Although advertisers have steadfastly refused to pay the networks for viewers who fast-forward commercials, as more households buy digital video recorders like TiVo, the networks may one day argue that this system should change.

When it comes to fast-forward advertisements, "the assumption has always been that they have no economic value, that they have no communication value," said Alan Wurtzel, president for research at NBC Universal. "But the fact of the matter is we're learning that they are valuable."

The thesis flies in the face of the assumption among advertisers that their ads have no effect when played at a high speed over a DVR.

Over the past month, as advertising agencies and television networks negotiated billions of dollars in deals for commercials during next year's season, executives who buy commercial airtime did not waver in their position that people who zap past advertisements are of no value to them.

"Would we pay when they're fast-forwarding? No," said Jason Maltby, president and co-executive director for national broadcast at MindShare North America, an agency that buys advertisements in the WPP Group. "You've created a message that in theory requires 15 seconds or 30 seconds to get that selling message across. On a high-speed DVR, 30 seconds gets pushed down to 1.5 seconds with no audio. It just wouldn't work."

Some researchers said efforts like NBC's to find alternative measurements are a step in the right direction.

"Whether people watch or not is not a useful measure of anything," said Joe Plummer, chief research officer for the Advertising Research Foundation. "Exposure has very, very weak correlation with purchase intent and actual sales whereas an engagement measure has high correlation and are closer to what really matters, which is brand growth and creating brand demand."

Media executives have long discussed the potential of using physical reactions and brain scanning to track their messages, and advances in medical research in the past few years have made this more practical. NBC is working with Innerscope Research, a small company in Boston that uses wearable sensors to translate physical responses into what the company calls "emotional engagement."

Innerscope has developed its own scale for engagement that combines the biometric factors that it tracks. On a scale of 1 to 100, a 50 is neutral, and above 60 is engaged. In Innerscope's test for NBC, viewers of the first 20 seconds of live ads clocked in with a 66 and those fast-forwarding scored 68.

"People don't turn off their emotional responses while they're fast-forwarding," said Carl Marci, the chief science officer of Innerscope. "People are obviously getting the information."