Bryon Schafer, Senior Vice President, Media Research & Insights for Warner Bros. Television Group and chair of the CRE's Digital Research Committee, will provide an update on his committee's two-year ethnography of digital-video consumption at The Market Research Event (TMRE), October 20-22 at the Boca Resort & Club in Boca Raton, Florida. TMRE bills itself as the "#1 insights event in the world."

The longitudinal ethnography, and an accompanying acceleration ethnography overseen by the CRE's Media Consumption & Engagement Committee, are designed to help researchers understand the impact of increased video availability across a growing number of devices and how people think about and consume video. Among the questions the CRE seeks to address: "How is the role of video in everyday life changing?"

The studies encompass viewing via TV sets, PCs/laptops, connected TVs (gaming consoles, smart TVs, wi-fi enabled devices), smart phones, tablets, personal gaming devices and DVRs. A research team from GfK, the Council's research associate on the effort, already has visited each of some 150 participating households at least once. In many of these homes, researchers have been using small "fisheye"-lens cameras to record behavior, later tagging interesting video footage. Participants also have been provided a video-journal "toolkit" including software enabling them to record their viewing habits.

Richard Zackon, CRE Facilitator, joined the April 24 conference on cross-platform measurement hosted by the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) to provide a brief update on the progress of the acceleration study conducted alongside the CRE's ongoing digital-video ethnography.

Among the initial revelations Zackon offered attendees: Consumer sophistication with devices and platforms, regardless of household type, was higher than expected; children and teens are influencing not only technology purchasing decisions but which content is consumed; and -- in a sort of modern-day version of "fighting for the remote" -- where, when and how content is consumed often results from negotiation among multiple household members.

A common theme among these early observations is that the media-industry adage "content is king" still holds; content, researchers found, is driving consumers' decisions about which devices to purchase, and they are demanding devices that can stream that content.

Zackon also issued a call for increased collaboration among the "alphabet soup" of industry organizations that are involved to various extents with audience research – including the ARF, CIMM, CRE, MRC, and even broader industry groups including 4As, ANA, IAB, TVB and others, all of whom share member companies and individual members – to capitalize on the progress made in recent years in improving the quality, understanding and communication of audience-measurement data and methodology.

An important step, Zackon noted, would be for the ARF to move forward with a shared calendar of major industry meetings and events, and to pursue its vision of a "Council of Councils" to facilitate industry dialogue. A fundamental challenge, he noted, is the sheer "competition for (research executives') time and attention for these activities."

Mobile devices of course are increasingly embraced by consumers for media consumption – so it stands to reason they also can be used increasingly to survey people about their media consumption.

Three recent studies sponsored by or involving the Council relied extensively on the use of mobile devices for journaling consumer media behavior: "TV Untethered," the CRE's 2013 study of video consumption on mobile devices, encompassing nearly 6,000 participants and more than 393,000 TV viewing occasions; "Talking Social TV," the CRE's 2013-2014 studies of the relationship of social media use and TV viewing, whose most recent portion involved more than 78,000 mobile-app diary entries submitted by nearly 1,700 study participants; and "Whatcha Watchin'?," a 2013 study of college students' media consumption conducted by Nielsen, the University of Alabama and Raycom Media -- whose Vice President of Research, Billy McDowell, chairs the CRE's Local Measurement Committee – for which Alabama students were furnished a Whatcha Watchin'? app to help them report their consumption of news, weather and sports.

Laura Cowan, Research Director at LIN Media and chair of the CRE's Media Consumption & Engagement Committee, and Beth Rockwood, Senior Vice President, Market Resources and Advertising Sales Research, Discovery Communications, and chair of the CRE's Social Media Committee, joined McDowell and research associates on their respective studies for an April 23 webinar to detail for listeners what they found to have worked, and to offer guidance on the use of mobile devices for future studies.

The "in-the-moment" immediacy of reporting via mobile devices was commonly cited as a measurement benefit. That said, speakers noted that instructions to and requirements of participants must be kept short and simple; as with more traditional measurement devices and methodologies, there are limits to consumers' interest in participating.

Guest presenter and former CRE member Liz Nash addressed best-practices recommendations emerging from these three studies as well as other studies recently presented at the ARF.

Among the best practices: Survey length should be limited to 10 questions or 10 minutes; researchers need to over-recruit to compensate for low completion rates; if broad representation is required, consider allowing respondents to select their device; gamification may incentivize participants but exercise care in using for longer term participations vs. shorter surveys; customize and test the screen for each type of device and operating system (OS), taking into account OS updates; and keep in mind SMS/data streaming fees and battery life.

Above all, presenters noted, researchers contemplating mobile journaling will need to "test, test, test."

The presentation can be found on the CRE website.

Jed Meyer, U.S. Research Director of Annalect and chair of the CRE's Education Committee, has developed an ambitious agenda – not only for his committee, but for sustaining the flow of new talent into the audience research profession.

Meyer took time from his busy schedule to answer some questions about his committee's efforts, and why they are important.

Q: Why did you agree to take on the chair of the Education Committee?

I am excited and passionate about the field of research and I think it is critical that we attract new people to the field – people that bring diverse backgrounds and experiences to shape the future of research.

Q: What were the biggest challenges you found?

People are generally interested in this subject; the biggest challenge is getting them to carve out some time and attention to help develop and shape programs. I know the payoff will be big – in attracting new talent and getting people energized about this field – but it does require some time and input.

Q: What were the most surprising challenges you found?

It is surprising to hear this topic come up in a number of forums and industry groups. The themes are consistent: the need for us to attract new talent, and to train people on key methodology and critical thinking skills. But there has been a dearth of action; we hope to address that.

Q: You're still in the early stage of running the Education Committee, but, so far, how receptive have you found colleagues in the audience-research field – both within the CRE and industry-wide – to your efforts?

People are very receptive to the efforts. My objective is for the work of this committee to reach out beyond just the CRE and partner with existing programs to create a more integrated plan. One early example of that is the work that we're doing with the 4A's to build a research track/component into their MAIP (Multicultural Advertising Intern Program) internship program.

Q: How serious is the challenge of recruiting the next generation of audience researchers? Are there any examples, anecdotally or statistically, that you'd like to offer?

I would not overstate the challenge of recruiting the next generation of researchers. Will it be difficult? Sure. But it is a surmountable goal. There is so much change going on in the media and consumer landscape. Research sits in the nexus of this change. There are endless opportunities to build our understanding of these trends and I believe the dynamic nature of the landscape will attract many young people looking to build their work/life capabilities.

Q: How encouraged are you about the prospects for meeting that challenge?

Very encouraged. This is a great time to be in research. There are endless opportunities to contribute.

Q: You mentioned internships. The CRE has an Internship page on its website and, ahead of the summer season, it features available internships from several companies representing all facets of media. What are some of the other projects the Education Committee has in the works?

We have three core goals: setting up an "Ad Research College"; exploring and defining the many different pieces of the research puzzle – 'Research Facets,' if you will; and building awareness of the research function and profession by seizing opportunities to promote media research.

For our Ad Research College we'll work to identify what internship programs are out there, and to determine how best to approach and partner up with these programs.

As part of "Research Facets," we plan, for starters, to address the fundamental question "What does 'research' really mean?" We then propose to delve into the different areas of research (agency research, media research, vendor, sales, etc.), and to communicate that all of these sectors can be a part of the research function.

For our awareness-building campaign we intend to identify opportunities we can leverage in order to promote media research to those that are beginners, intermediate, and advanced. Our initial focus would be promoting to those that are in their early career.

Q: If there were one "big" request you'd like to make of the Newsletter's readers, what would that be?

Our biggest ask is this: "Get involved." If you are a senior leader, create internship opportunities for your company to participate in attracting new talent. If you are a mid-career researcher, provide us feedback about what types of programs would provide value to you. And, once we have events – come to the events and be an active participant!

Participation within a CRE committee can be a rewarding and sometimes demanding use of members' time. So we'd like to take this opportunity especially to thank members of various CRE committees who are not also full members of the CRE. In this edition we acknowledge participants within the Digital, Media Consumption & Engagement, and Education Committees. These people have devoted their time and services over an extended period to contribute to our committees and help advance the work of the CRE:

• Digital Committee: Shari Cleary (Viacom), Doug Pulick (National Cinemedia)
• Media Consumption & Engagement Committee: Joe Abruzzo (Havas), Susie Thomas (UM), Redjeb Shah (Univision)
• Education Committee: Priscilla Aydin (Annalect), Crystal Clark-Archer (Annalect), Kebrina Robinson (Omnicom)

At the CRE's quarterly meeting in March, the Council welcomed as a member John McMorrow, Senior Vice President, Programming & Research, at Cox Television's HRP subsidiary.

Longtime CRE member Jack Wakshlag stepped down at the end of March from his position as Chief Research Officer at Turner Broadcasting. During his 12-year term in that role, he has been credited with innovations such as establishing Turner as the first TV organization to begin coding its programming to measure the impact of over-the-top video consumption on commercial viewing; digital ad load testing that persuaded Turner to place content online with full ad loads; CNN All Screen; Advanced Media Targeting; a highly regarded promo testing data base; and successful program/movie estimating processes, among other achievements. We know readers join us in congratulating Jack on this recently concluded phase of his distinguished career and in wishing him the best on his next endeavors.

The CRE has begun a committee for the study of the effects of commercial pod length. The committee, chaired by Hadassa Gerber, Director of Research for the Syndicated Network Television Association (SNTA), expects to begin its inaugural research effort in 2014.

We're pleased to welcome back Judy Vogel, Vice President of Research at Gannett Company, Inc.; Michael Nathanson, Senior Research Analyst at MoffettNathanson, LLC; and Bryon Schafer, Senior Vice President of Research at Warner Bros. Television. All three were prior CRE members while with other companies, and were re-admitted at the CRE's December quarterly meeting.

The Steering Committee of the CRE voted to approve the establishment of a $30,000 scholarship in the name of Susan Whiting, at her alma mater Denison University. Susan, who will be retiring from her position as vice chair at Nielsen at year-end, was instrumental in the creation of the CRE in 2005.

The CRE welcomes its newest members: