Successful Marketing

For this year’s Superbowl, NBC reportedly charged up to $3 million per 30-second commercial slots. Millions of Americans viewed the Superbowl, and these commercials will most likely have lucrative results, but how popular was each of them individually?

With MediaCurves.com™, companies and consumers can find out who dug seeing MC Hammer in the Cash4Gold commercial and who thought Bud Light made one commercial too many.

MediaCurves extends to more than just commercials, however. Web surfers can check out the opinions of diverse demographic groups on recent debates, talk shows, special interest stories, and more. For both the inner sociologist or the average Joe, MediaCurves offers up a new perspective on things we view daily.

How It Works

MediaCurves is a service of HCD Research, Inc, which offers a series of Internet-based products and services to companies covering all phases of the advertising cycle: message selection and optimization, advertising testing, and tracking.

MediaCurves offers audiences the ability to observe some of the research that has been done. According to the website, survey participants view a video of the popular or controversial event, such as a past Obama/McCain debate or a Paris Hilton commercial, and move their mouse back and forth on a scale which indicates the participant’s believability or agreement with the video. The responses are compiled, and curves are created so that you can see when people agree/disagree or believe/disbelieve what is being said in the video.

According to MediaCurves, this FedEx ad was the best Superbowl commercial in 2008.

Whether it’s the desire to be a part in this research or the payment offered, many people are signing up to participate in this new trend. According to MediaCurves, you will be invited to participate in surveys regarding your specific interests and concerns.

In the months after my college graduation, I participated quite frequently in $3 surveys with SurveySpot.com, sometimes even answering 20 minutes worth of questions on my favorite hair products just to realize it was only for $1. It seems that paid surveys are paving the way for companies to easily find out more about specific demographics and how they can market to them better.

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus

Depending on the nature and topic of the video, sometimes females and males, Democrats, Independents and Republicans or Christians and other religious affiliations opinions’ are recorded separately, so their opinions and perspectives can be shown against one another.

For example, on a recent CNN special interest story, men and women were both polled to see how they felt about a couple who had reconnected after years apart. While the opinions of both genders were surprisingly similar in this study, the slightest tone or syntax change in the segment showed varying results. Data is presented underneath the videos so viewers can get a more detailed look at what the two opposing sides had to say about the video.

The Future

The future possibilities that MediaCurves offer us are exciting yet scary. With the research gathered by MediaCurves, will companies be able to market so precisely to certain groups that large packs of nine-year-old boys are begging to get to the store to buy the newest video game after just one commercial view? Will women aged 55-60 stare with zombie-like expression at the computer screen, numb to the fact that they just booked yet another cruise to Malta with little Johnny’s college fund?

Sure I used to beg for another cart-ride down the cereal aisle to find the color-changing spoon or spin-art pen, but with this newer, more powerful information, people could even more influenced to spend the big bucks.