20|20 RESEARCH MOVES DIAL TESTING ONLINE, EXPANDING REACH AND AUDIENCE

Dial testing has been a staple of the advertising world for years to test the effectiveness of television ads, political ads, videos, movie trailers, speeches and the like.  Today, the technique went on steroids.

Global research technology and service company 20|20 Research has introduced an online version of dial testing that can include respondents from anywhere in any dial test project, while eliminating travel, facility rental and the need for specialized equipment. 

The product is expected to dramatically increase dial testing's reach and effectiveness while lowering its cost.  

A process to measure the reactions of consumers to certain video stimuli, dial testing has generally required an in-person central location such as focus group facilities for tests.  The 20|20 innovation moves the process totally online.  The only requirements:  a computer, the internet and a mouse.

"Our development team harnessed the technology found in many of our other products to greatly simplify this widely-used evaluation process," said Jim Bryson, CEO, 20|20 Research.  “Online dial testing allows the researcher to reach a broader audience from a diverse geography, giving the marketer a truer picture of an ad’s impact.  The fact that it will be faster and cheaper to execute simply makes it a win-win." 

The tool is easy to use.  Respondents selected from 20|20's panel of more than a half million people begin by watching a short, introductory video about the process (sample here).  Then the subject video plays for them.  They simply use their mouse to slide the dial to the positive or negative end of the scale depending upon their like or dislike of what they are seeing and hearing.  Endpoints are determined by the researcher.  Responses are tracked, compiled and can be quickly broken out and displayed back to a client segmented by any number of audience attributes, such as age, gender, political affiliation, geography, etc. 

Implementation has also been simplified with 20|20 handling recruitment, full set-up, management and executional support for researchers for each study.

"Another nice benefit is that 20|20's dial testing opens up the possible sample size pretty dramatically," Bryson said.  "For instance, since we bring dial testing to the respondent instead of the respondent to a dial test facility, researchers can now dial test people in, say, ten cities over the course of several days rather than several weeks.  It can also be executed as either a 'plug-in' or 'add-on' to both qualitative and quantitative studies."

The news comes on the heels of several technological advances recently announced by 20|20.  In May, the company unveiled a Quant+Qual service that unites both quant and qual research into one survey product, as well as a series of next gen updates to their signature QualBoard and QualMeeting platforms.

              

About 20¦20 Research
20|20 Research is a global leader in the development, support and service of online qualitative market research... and the software and technology that sustains it.  Founded in 1986, the company works with market research and advertising firms around the world, with projects in more than 122 countries and 30+ languages.  The past three years it has been named one of the most innovative research firms in the world by GreenBook Research Industry Trends, a top arbiter of the market research industry.  The firm's operations are headquartered in Nashville and the company additionally maintains traditional focus group facilities in Nashville, Charlotte and Miami and a European office in London, England.  www.2020research.com