FreeWheel has announced that it is working with MediaScience on a new initiative, The Viewer Experience Lab, that will help media companies ensure a quality experience for viewers across the growing array of traditional and emerging advertising channels.
“Over the past few years, the ability for media companies to provide a uniform, quality experience across all of the diverse platforms into which they now serve advertising has grown exponentially harder,” said Mark McKee, general manager, FreeWheel. “Couple this with the reality that protecting their relationship with viewers has become paramount in an increasingly competitive ad marketplace, and you can see why we’re committed to helping our clients solve this complex challenge.”
In launching the Viewer Experience Lab, FreeWheel explained that dynamically serving advertising outside of the traditional linear ad environment, whether on AVOD, FAST or other streaming platforms, can result in such problems as latency, ad repetition and other unwanted consequences that hurt the viewing experience and reduce the effectiveness of ad campaigns.
The new Viewer Experience Lab intends to address those issues in two ways:
- Conduct quantifiable research to help advertising buyers and sellers understand the impact of different ad experiences on viewer experience and performance, including viewer response to new and evolving ad formats;
- Develop solutions and interoperable technologies fueled by these new insights that allow video content providers to implement best practices and provide seamless ad viewing experiences in a multi- platform, premium video ecosystem.
In launching the initiative, FreeWheel said that it has chosen MediaScience as an inaugural research partner to provide bespoke research for The Viewer Experience Lab.
“We have completed extensive research into viewing experience, especially as it relates to the impact on advertising performance, but as the media world changes, our research needs to keep on evolving,” said Dr. Duane Varan, CEO, MediaScience. “We are thrilled that FreeWheel, with the support of its council of leading media companies, has chosen us to spearhead this important initiative.”
The Viewer Experience Lab has also released its first research, a new State of TV Advertising Viewer Experience Report, which is a comprehensive analysis of viewer experience today and an exploration of how our industry should define and approach this important subject.
As part of The Viewer Experience Lab, FreeWheel will use emerging insights and recommendations to enhance and build new products within its VX suite.
In addition, FreeWheel has lined up a number of companies to support the effort. Companies that have joined the FreeWheel Council for Video Excellence include A+E Networks, AMC, FOX, NBCUniversal, Warner Brothers Discovery and Paramount.
“Our viewer relationships are at the center of everything we do as a media company and the unique value we are able to deliver to our advertising clients. These relationships are rooted in a viewer-first strategy across a broad, ad-supported distribution ecosystem that spans linear networks, streaming services and emerging, connected TV/FAST platforms,” said Evan Adlman, executive vice president of commercial sales and revenue operations for AMC Networks. “We are focused on offering the best data targeting capabilities across all of our inventories, so having insights into the consumer experience that allow us to deliver the best products is invaluable in this dynamic and changing environment. We are thrilled to partner with FreeWheel in this new and novel effort.”
In addition to launching the State of TV Advertising Viewer Experience Report, FreeWheel and MediaScience have begun work on a custom analysis into viewing experience that will analyze consumers’ responses to viewer experience stimuli in a lab environment and provide best practices for the industry. Initial findings are expected to be released in January 2024.
For additional VX information and access to all VX research, visit freewheel.com/viewerexperiencelab.
