VBS calls for testing of new formats

by Fiona Ramsay, Media Week 20-Nov-07, 10:00

LONDON - Sales house Viacom Brand Solutions is calling on brands and agencies to test their new ad formats out on a group of 15 TV families as part of a new six-month research project.

The Digital Drive project, launched with Decipher, is aimed at testing how typical households are likely to use new technologies in the future by measuring the media consumption and behaviour of 15 families.

The second phase of the project will involve state-of-the-art Microsoft Media Centres inter- linking Xboxes, PVRs, laptops and mobile devices, installed in each home.

Agostino Di Falco, VBS director of insight and research, said: “Thus far, we’ve mainly left them to their own devices, to get used to the technology and sort out any glitches, but then we’re going to point them in the direction of ‘content’ they might want to try and access and see what happens.”
Di Falco said advertisers could ask the families what they thought of ad content formats and go to a community site to pitch questions to the families about their use of technology and content.
Early indications showed that young audiences in Freeview homes were interested in the MTV Overdrive site that sits on the Media Player, but most adults were still finding the content they wanted using linear TV, Di Falco said.
He added that families also used the PVRs to create family time. “We know this type of group behaviour is marketable,” he said.