Our Solutions

Recent Media, Technology and Entertainment Studies:

Corporate and Brand Strategy Insight and Tracking

We were commissioned by one of the largest UK Radio groups to investigate the value to consumers and advertisers of its local identities and production strategy at a time when its largest competitor was aggressively rolling out networked brands across long-standing local station identities, along with increased networked programming.

As a popular and mainstream medium, heritage radio brands have struggled to demonstrate differential values inherent in their audiences, since large mainstream audiences generally tend to be normalised, better defined by being not like listeners to other niche brands than in any specific attributes they share in common. This study proved no exception; in common with a decade of experience of segmentation, the study showed that the overall audience was large, mainstream, but by that nature, struggled to offer specialised value or efficiencies.

However, our study went further, by looking not just at the nature of the individuals, their demographic and attitudinal traits, but also at the specific needs and moods they had when they tuned into specific stations. In essence, this was an extension of occasion-based segmentation (often used, for example, in categories such as alcoholic drinks), seeking to differentiate brands not on who tuned to them, but on what they offer that drives that choice.
Through the application of this technique, we were able to identify the very specific role that the localness of radio plays in the choice of stations, and to identify the specific values that consumers feel are met most uniquely by stations with local identities and a local brand heritage.

Using our Insight, our client has realigned its stations into two key “portfolios”, defined by the core connection they share with the audience, and thereby the values that their audiences share with each other. This realignment ensures that the stations programming and marketing teams have the right messages at the core of the brand within their individual local campaigns and areas, yet also the sales teams are able to outline clearly and simply to clients and agencies the unifying principles across these diverse local stations.

Our initial analysis of the portfolio as a whole has since developed into an ongoing project at a local TSA level monitoring station health and brand connections, with regular half-year reporting of programming marketing and sales insights.

Global Customer Loyalty Tracking for a Leading Technology Firm

We have been working with our client since 2006 on customer loyalty measurement. Over time we have moved from a rationally led CVA approach to a more holistic customer loyalty/relationship framework.

The decision to move to the new framework was in line with the project extending from EMEA out to South America, North America and APAC and the need to establish a global tracking benchmark (we also kept some trend metrics within the survey for EMEA)

Because of the change in approach, there was a need to convince internal stakeholders that it would deliver something more. Specific aims were to benchmark globally, regionally and at country level, vs competition, measure performance for each of their four business units, and identify key loyalty drivers, strengths and weaknesses, and priorities for action.

By introducing new strategic metrics we could provide a different perspective and new insight; e.g. although our client was performing well on likelihood to recommend and repurchase (traditional metrics), they were behind the market on newer metrics like vendor of choice, values me as a customer, and competitive advantage. We also pinpointed specific attributes around reputation and cost of doing business that were key loyalty drivers and we identified a key challenge in their largest business unit, where there is tough competition, but gave specific areas for improvement to enable them to tackle it.

Presentations and workshops with internal stakeholders enable them to derive significant value from the research, particularly through in-depth drill-down analysis and the creation of scorecards and tailored action planning.

This tracking study is conducted in 27 countries with interviews amongst B2B decision maker customers and competitor customers, using native languages. CATI surveys are complimented by online if preferred by the respondents.

UK Film Council (now effectively the BFI – British Film Institute) - Published Study

Our reference from the client summarises the whole study:

“Harris Interactive were able to deliver an excellent report to a challenging deadline and I would have no hesitation in recommending them for future work.”

“In 2010, the UK Film Council commissioned Harris Interactive to undertake a major national survey of diverse film audiences. The competitive tendering process attracted a high quality field of applicants and Harris Interactive was selected following interviews with the shortlisted candidates. Their impressive proposal set out a clear and rigorous method by which they would seek to research diverse film audiences whilst also contextualising their viewing behaviour and preferences with an additional nationally representative omnibus survey.”

“The initial wave of qualitative research (12 face-to-face focus groups) produced a fascinating array of rich material on the film viewing preferences of the diverse audiences groups. In the subsequent quantitative phase, Harris Interactive conducted a nationally representative survey of 2,228 interviews among adults aged 16+ using the Harris Poll GB Omnibus. In addition, a targeted online panel survey of the diverse audience groups was conducted (2,087 interviews among adults aged 18+).”

“The surveys delivered a wealth of new information on diverse audiences and we were able to compare and contrast the responses of those groups with the national population as a whole thanks to the results of the omnibus survey. The comprehensive final report, ‘Portrayal vs Betrayal: An investigation of diverse and mainstream UK film audiences’, provided a new level of understanding of the definitive drivers and barriers for diverse film audiences in the UK. The findings are being used to inform UK film development, production, distribution, exhibition and education activity by providing, for the first time, detailed information on diverse audience groups.”

Download a copy of the report - Portrayal vs Betrayal

TV Programme Pilot Testing

We work extensively with a global entertainment brand to provide website visitor profiling, ad sales satisfaction and service improvement, website design/usability and pilot testing, across Europe.

Our client needs an ongoing quantitative pilot testing programme across several European markets. We use our dedicated streaming server to serve local language online surveys, with a built-in media player showing c.15 minute streamed pilot shows, to robust samples of several hundred respondents.

For each pilot test we deliver analysis of style, theme, setting, characters, plot etc, as well as a benchmarking database with the capability to compare every metric in each test to other shows, genres, best-in-class etc. Initially, we tested a number of shows that had been “greenlit” in the US, in order to establish a baseline for norms, and this has been constantly updated by the performance of European pilots to build-in cultural differences. The pilot testing and greenlit norms help to optimise our client’s programming and production costs.

Qualitative website site design and re-launch

This global entertainment brand had an online pre-school presence to support visibility and engagement with key pre-school properties. The client had web visitor profiling data but lacked an understanding of how pre-schoolers and carers were using the internet and how the website was performing. With a site overhaul and rebrand in the planning stages, the client commissioned us to evaluate the user experience in terms of needs and expectations, satisfaction, usability and navigation, content engagement and preferences, as well as an understanding of how the brand drives usage and impacts experience.

The three phase study went as follows:

Harris – Exploration of web usage, needs and site satisfaction: 12 x accompanied home surfs with children aged 2-5 with primary carer, plus a short ‘Harris Poll ParentQuery’ omnibus survey for frame of reference

Client - design and beta site development
Harris – Beta site testing: 12 x accompanied surfs to test reactions to the new site, usability, content engagement

Client – further development and launch of new site
Harris – Post-launch review: 24 x accompanied home surfs plus 2 x web clinics (8 parents with PCs web surfing intersected with group discussion of experience, frustrations and potential developments).

The study evaluated the strengths of the existing site to retain in the new design and the changes and developments for the re-launch to drive satisfaction and engagement and greater usage in terms of frequency and variety of experience. The qualitative depth and interaction with pre-school children and carers at each stage of the process ensured user insight and feedback supported the development of the site.

The re-launch has been a great success: The NMA reviewed the website very positively and after the first month traffic to the website was up 50% year-on-year.

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BPI (British Phonographic Industry): Music Piracy Landscape and Trends - Published Study

Using an online panel approach, weighted to be nationally representative of online demographics, Harris Interactive has worked intensively with the BPI since 2009, conducting three major investigations on consumer music piracy. These major independent studies have formed an important part of the music industry’s official responses to Government and media.

BPI client reference:

“Harris Interactive have conducted several research projects for BPI which have been very useful in helping to understand online behaviour around all channels of illegal (and legal) music acquisition. Their knowledge of the digital landscape has helped to provide insightful research regarding attitudes and opinions of people engaged in unlawful activity. Their work most recently featured in our Digital Music Nation 2010 report, published at the end of last year which was extensively covered in the media.”

Outputs & usage:

BPI’s Digital Music Nation 2010 report - and BPI’s official submission.

As indicated above, our research has been used extensively by the BPI in a number of ways:

To understand from an independent perspective the landscape of the consumer music market, with specific reference to understanding the extent and volume of unauthorised music acquisition, including P2P (peer-to-peer), Cyberlocker, FTP, newsgroup and other unlawful means of sharing copyrighted music
To understand the potential impacts of strategies designed to deter consumers from acquiring music from unauthorised channels
Beyond behaviours, to understand the underlying attitudes of consumers engaging in unauthorised music acquisition
To use all the evidence gathered to lobby the UK Government and media organisations to further the cause of encouraging consumers to use exclusively legal channels

CBS Outdoor – Europe on the Move: Out of Home Media Opportunities - Published Study

Open this mobile research case study as a .pdf

We were commissioned on a major project to help the client understand the mass audiences to out-of-home media and the opportunities to reach these mass audiences in moods and modes which offer unique need states for advertisers. While out-of-home is one of the oldest media opportunities, our aim was also to help CBS and its advertisers understand the huge potential offered by new technologies – not just the growing digital and connected infrastructure that the out-of-home industry has invested in, but also the opportunities for digital interaction that increasingly lie with the customer through mobile connected devices such as smartphones and tablets. One of the study objectives was to begin to understand the degree to which new media could be “activated” by relevant prompting.

Our study, across 6 European countries, identified a series of vital audiences and opportunities for out of home media, including smartphone users as a core commercial target. The research identified not simply the basic demographics of these users (who tend unsurprisingly to be younger, and richer than average consumers), but also help CBS paint a picture of how they travel, and vitally, how they feel on those journeys. The insights allow CBS to take a leading stand as “Expert on Audience”: in an industry which is often focussed on what technology can do, they differentiate themselves by having a focus on what the audience needs the technology to do, and wants the technology to do. With this they can not only focus their own investment, but also help advertisers ensure they use the out-of-home media assets most effectively to appeal to these consumers in ways that are most likely to connect with their moods and feelings.

The main quantitative sample consisted of over 9,500 online interviews across 6 markets, drawn from a broad audience definition (the eligibility criteria were simply to have left the house, and not have been on holiday over the previous week). Because the survey covered moods and feelings when out-of-home, this survey, which was completed by most respondents while at home, was also followed by a mobile survey among a subset (3,000) of respondents, which was used to map objective data (length, purpose, and mode of journey) as well as subjective reporting of feelings, in order to demonstrate the accuracy with which feelings were reported in the in-home environment.

Having carried out the large scale quantitative survey, we recruited carefully selected respondents into a series of online bulletin boards (1 in each of the 6 countries) to deliver qualitative insight into the impact of out-of-home media in real consumers’ lives.

The boards consisted of 5-days of exercises, to which individuals would contribute at the end of each day. They began with an introduction, which included a description of their most regular journeys (which for most was a work commute), and then of a less regular journey (a trip to see a friend, for example). Each journey description was probed to encourage respondents to note how they felt, and what they saw and did in as much detail as possible, with a specific emphasis on the way their needs and feelings altered during the journey: needing coffee, needing music as a distraction, needing a paper for the news/Sudoku, and so on. As the week progressed, the tasks developed, with an increasing emphasis on asking people to note different adverts they saw and the degree to which each connected with the needs and moods they were in at that time. By the end, all the respondents were very self-aware and able to report the adverts and the way that they connected with them; but an interesting additional analysis was to look at the degree to which some of this ad-noticing was reported even in early stages of the boards, when they are seen not just to meet needs and moods, but also to set and change them.

Our insights from the main quantitative project provide a convincing picture of the scale of the out-of-home media opportunity, but the qualitative insight tells this story in a very human way, allowing CBS to approach clients with the angle that is right for them.

More Information

For more information contact us on:

+44 (0) 20 8263 5200

info-uk@harrisinteractive.com