Tuesday 13 May 2008

Does Advertising Need a Lab? Disney Thinks So....

via Mr. J.Moonah's tweet, Disney is staring a new media lab.

Wow cool right? It's going to be some innovation lab where they rethink the ways in which they engage with kids and create content. Yes?

Well, kinda,...sorta...Not. It's about content alright, but it's about trying to figure out new models of engagement for advertising content.

"the [Disney] facility will conduct year-round tests to evaluate viewer engagement and emotional responses to advertising across media platforms"

Not sure how a focus on advertising is going to help any media company figure out how to connect with kids in a networked world. But probably they have some other division to do that. Right?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Leigh, first of all thanks for the props!

There's more information on this in Disney's press release:

http://tinyurl.com/6nnuxm

I seems they are focused on more than just kids ("we have an important opportunity to further explore the connection that viewers of all ages have with our entertainment, news and sports programming").

I do think there is a need for research to establish that new forms of media have the ability to connect emotionally with the audience, especially when you have people like BBDO ex-Chair Emertius Allen Rosenshine saying things like "the Internet doesn’t have the capacity to deliver the emotional capacity of branding." (I covered this on my podcast a little while back at http://tinyurl.com/6yrh7e FYI.)

Disney is clearly self-interested here, but I think all of us who work in emerging media will potentially benefit from research that will hopefully disprove the blanket statements made by the old guard leaders such as Mr. Rosenshine

Leigh said...

Hi Jay,

Actually i agree with your point about the usefulness of exploring emotional connection in the digital space. I fear however, that methodology is everything and if their focus is specifically advertising and a traditional notion of branding (vs. network branding that is embracive of both traditional and interactive) then there won't be much value.

It will be an interesting one to watch.....

David Himel said...

We can all go to the Coca Cola Movie and have electrodes test our drool response. Im looking forward to the Palovian response after great new spaces are invaded with marketing. Maybe disney can get some interactive toy porn over kids urinals!

Jay said...

Leigh: Agreed. Hopefully this research will be broad both in terms of the types of content as well as the levels of audience interaction. If they're just testing updated ways to do the same old crap it would certainly be a missed opportunity.

 
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