When the head of the Cognitive Machines group at MIT Media Lab says he’s linked TV viewing with social media, well, you read the press release. Deb Roy, who recently gave a compelling TED talk about “the birth of the word,” teamed up with colleague Michael Fleischman to turn their research into a company called Bluefin Labs.
Bluefin’s proposition is compelling, and the examples it provided us seems to back it up. “With the combination of science and large-scale computing, we are solving a problem that has eluded TV for more than 60 years: how to measure actual audience engagement and not just simple media consumption,” said Roy. “Marketers and TV networks are looking to us to understand how their audiences are responding to ads and shows on TV, and we are able to provide them with data in near real time.”
In essence, reinventing TV ratings beyond audiences to engagement. How does Bluefin do it? Deep science and some heavy-duty data crunching. Bluefin fingerprints 43 U.S. TV broadcast and cable networks into a library of 200,000 “distinct airings.” It simultaneously analyzes 3 billion social media comments each month. Then it maps the video against social discussions down to specific scenes, characters or even certain words.
For example, here’s an “audience response heatmap” (click here for the interactive) that maps TV shows on a traditional programming schedule against “intensity of audience response.” Purple is cold, yellow is hot. Beyond audience response, Bluefin says it can all drill down to sentiment and viewer intent. Even more tangible examples, provided by Bluefin:
- Geico TV commercials aired most frequently on NBC, followed by Spike TV, then TNT. But social engagement with the ads, as measured by highest response per airing, was highest for the ads appearing on FOX, Cartoon Network and CNBC (in that order).
- Racy AXE TV commercials actually trigger slightly more responses from women [51%] than men — and their response is generally positive [72%].
- Thus far in 2011, FOX ranks as the most engaging network (as measured by audience response per show airing). Its top programming includes NFL, American Idol and Glee.
Bluefin is just entering its first pilot tests, and it’s already signed up some heavyweight partners: Best Buy Co., Razorfish, SS+K, Hill Holliday and FOX Sports are among the first to give it a try. “We’re impressed by the technology that Bluefin Labs has developed and the potential impact it could have, bridging the current broadcast system and evolving social graph,” said Bob Lord, CEO, Razorfish.
If the pilot goes as planned, Bluefin says it will launch its first product later this summer.
