Future of Media Research: 2012 – audio watermarking, facial recognition and more

Torin Douglas rounded-up MediaTel’s Future of Media Research event on Friday by asking the panel what they think 2012 (and beyond) holds for the industry.

Audio watermarking was one of the first answers. John Carroll, senior director at Ipsos MediaCT, explained the concept of having an invisible ‘chip’ on a device (mobile, radio, TV etc.), which detects what consumers are being exposed to. “No diary is needed – respondents will just carry a device with the facility (an app on your phone, for example),” he said. “It is passive and very easy but has big implication and it will be the future of radio audience measurement. The same principle could be extended to TV and outdoor – one device capturing multi-media usage.”

Meanwhile, ITV’s head of commercial research & insight Sarah Messer predicts that 2012 will be the year of connected TV. With ownership accelerating and the Olympics coming up – as well as YouView due to launch – it is going to change things, Messer said. She pointed out that moving consumers to a connected world is still a fairly slow process but says there are “some interesting and exciting changes going on”.

Messer also mentioned the idea of facial recognition and cameras on TVs, which she referred to as an interesting opportunity. “Facial recognition on a TV makes a cookie seem really innocent,” joked Chris Worrell, European research director at Specific Media, in response.

Jim Kite, strategic development director at Starcom MediaVest Group, focused on connected TV too, suggesting that Zeebox is one of the most exciting products around at the moment. “I don’t know if Zeebox is going to change anything but the harmonisation of set-top box data will certainly be the next big thing, though we’re a few years away from it,” he said.

For Worrell, the mobile device will “fundamentally change how people behave this year (and in the future) – the way they buy things and watch things etc. It will be good to see how digital really has an impact on people’s lives”.