Media shops to study when ads work best

A new research tool from MindShare promises to chart how people's changing moods affects the way they view marketing messages, while a Carat study further undermines the received opinion that the first and last ads in a commercial break are the most watched. MindShare will be rolling out MindSet this year. It will be available throughout Asia-Pacific, though greatest demand is anticipated in India and Japan. It will equip a sample of people with special PDAs, which prompt them hourly to record their location, what kind of marketing messages they can see and how they feel. "Factors such as state of mind and time have an impact upon how well people absorb advertising messages," said MindShare's global director of consumer insight, Sheila Byfield. "MindSet will give advertisers access to this type of information." MindShare is currently testing the hypothesis that people in a relaxed frame of mind are more receptive to advertising, as part of its investigations into people's moods. Once it has clear findings it plans to publish the results. The agency hopes the tool will appeal to clients running multimedia campaigns. It estimates studies will cost clients in Asia-Pacific upwards of US$60,000, depending on the sample size and number of brands included in the study. A minimum of 300 people will need to take part though typical studies will involve 400 to 500 participants. Meanwhile, rival agency Carat has unveiled the early findings from a study, which indicates that more people watch ads in the middle of a break than those at the beginning or end, challenging the prices TV stations charge for these slots. "It will negate the reason for these positions enjoying a premium," commented Anna Azilli, managing director of Carat Asia-Pacific. However, Azilli did not expect broadcasters' pricing policy to change in the near future. Carat also found that viewing patterns during the break vary, depending on the programme genre and daypart. Viewers of a cricket match were most likely to watch the early ads in a break while people watching an action film most often caught the ads at the end. The middle minutes of afternoon and early primetime slots tend to offer higher than average ratings. Although the analysis was based on TV viewing in India, Carat expects the general findings to be reflected throughout the region. The analysis will be continued monthly and extended to China, Singapore, Indonesia, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines and Malaysia. The agency said it could take up to 12 months to establish norms of viewing behaviour.