Innerscope Research and Fox Broadcasting Company Debut Biometric Study Scientifically Validating the Creation of Brand Equity through Immersive Media Exposure

NEW YORK, May 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Innerscope Research, Inc. and Fox Broadcasting Company (FOX) today released new biometric research on the roles of television and online media in creating and extending brand equity.  Using Innerscope's Brand Immersion Model, a framework for defining the relationship between the immersive platform of TV and the web's flexible platform, the research found that TV, through its unmatched ability to create new, unconscious emotional connections, has the power to form need states — which make consumers receptive to brand messages — where none existed before. 

FOX and Innerscope Research tested this "connection creation" process by comparing exposure to brands unfamiliar to U.S. audiences within the context of TV and online rich media. They found that TV's heightened ability to engage and sustain unconscious emotional response confirmed it as the medium best able to create personal relevance and, therefore, brand equity. 

More importantly, the FOX-Innerscope study found that while online advertising required brand relevance to be established in order to be effective, the most effective advertising leverages common content and brand synergy across the two media, extending the impact and value of both by invoking and reinforcing the environment where the original association was created.  This highly innovative research offers a new way of looking at consumer response to brand advertising on the two platforms individually and when used in concert through the lens of biometrically measured engagement.  

"Based on our clients' continued support and through various ROI measures, we know that advertising in highly engaging content on TV drives sales results, and we felt our online offerings were a supplement to TV's strength," said Toby Byrne, President of Advertising Sales, Fox Broadcasting Company. "This study gives real evidence that the best way to build brands is to be in both places with similar content, capitalizing on the already high-impact nature of television advertising."

This large industry study looked at 240 participants viewing 18 U.S. brands from the automotive, technology and entertainment categories, as well as six international brands that were unfamiliar to U.S. audiences, while naturally watching TV, surfing the web or a succession of the two, using Innerscope's patented neuroscience-based research approach.  The resulting study gives marketers a scientifically validated rationale for the best means to connect with consumers when and where they are most receptive to engaging with brands.

Additional findings include:  

• Television, an immersive environment that draws consumers into an onscreen experience that extends to the advertising seen within, creates relevance for brands at a rate far beyond that which the online platform — a flexible environment that requires consumers to actively direct their own experience — can when used alone. In general, television ads across the spectrum of familiarity evoked 38x more emotional engagement, a combination of intensity of and time spent in engagement, than the same brands seen in online rich media display advertising.  
• Even when advertising in a contextually relevant web environment, e.g., an automotive ad on an auto information page, television engagement was 30x higher than the online rich media display alone.
• Brands with a greater need to sustain top-of-mind relevance with consumers, e.g., those with longer purchase cycles, particularly benefited from television's immersive environment:
  • Movie promos seen on TV produced 24x more emotional engagement than the same movie ads seen in online rich media, while automotive brands seen on TV produced 42x more.
• Brand resonance, the lasting, positive effect of ad messaging post-exposure, was nearly tripled when measured after a brand was viewed on television compared to an online ad never associated with a TV campaign.
• Content synergy proved to be the most effective combination of television and online advertising; online ads for familiar brands seen on a FOX program website after on-air exposure to the program generated 48x the emotional response and four times the lasting brand resonance than online display alone.

"These exciting results quantify the impact of advertising on an unconscious level when brands are experienced on different platforms," said Dr. Carl Marci, CEO and Chief Science Officer of Innerscope. "A core component of brand equity is the strength of unconscious associations, which we saw significantly increase when advertisements on television and online were combined."

Innerscope's Brand Immersion Model is based on decades of academic research and over five years of biometric and eye tracking research into how consumers interact with content on different platforms. The model accounts for the complex intersection of environment, content engagement, screen size, platform approach and flexibility, as well as how these factors affect the creation of emotional connections to brands. It delivers advertisers groundbreaking insights that help optimize content in any platform individually and in combination.

About Fox Broadcasting Company

Fox Broadcasting Company (FOX) is a unit of News Corporation and the leading broadcast television network among Adults 18-49. FOX finished the 2009-2010 season at No. 1 for the sixth consecutive year – a broadcast television industry record – and continued to dominate all network competition in the more targeted Adults 18-34 and Teen demographics. FOX airs 15 hours of primetime programming a week, as well as late-night entertainment programming, major sports and Sunday morning news.

About Innerscope Research, Inc.

Innerscope Research, Inc. is dedicated to solving difficult market research questions by measuring and analyzing unconscious emotional responses to media and marketing stimuli. With its breakthrough Biometric Monitoring System™, Innerscope accurately predicts consumer behavior, providing Fortune 100 advertisers and media companies with an unprecedented level of consumer insight.  Founded by Harvard and MIT scientists, Innerscope leverages the latest advances in biometrics, neuroscience and eye tracking to measure moment-to-moment emotional engagement, the primary driver of behavior and choice.  For more information, visit www.innerscope.com.

SOURCE Innerscope Research, Inc.