From laboratory to living room

IN a world first for interactive television research, Murdoch PhD student Anika Schweda turned the real world into a laboratory to examine how advertisers could tune into the way audiences use digital television technology.

Ms Schweda worked with the UK’s leading provider of broadband interactive television Video Networks to test a number of different approaches to the use of interactive television in the marketing of travel destinations.

Ms Schweda said that Video Networks has an arm called Home Choice that provides an archive of television show episodes, movies, and music videos, on demand for approximately 5000 subscribers.

Participants were recruited via a screening survey through their televisions depending upon their experience as international travellers.

These viewers were then shown one of six treatments featuring an advertisement for Western Australia or a travel show segment on Western Australia. Each was either in a traditional viewing format, or offered interactive opportunities to receive a brochure or to watch a short video on the different regions of Western Australia. Each completed survey received a shopping voucher and entry into the major prize draw to win a trip to Australia.

Although Ms Schweda has only just started to analyse her data from the UK television subscribers, the study is already revealing exciting results.

“We are getting a real feel for appropriate ways to approach consumers and gaining insights into the way people use interactive digital television,” she said.

Her supervisor Professor Duane Varan, Director of the Interactive Television Research Institute (ITRI) at Murdoch, also believes this study heralds a new era for interactive television research.

“This study was groundbreaking, as we studied audiences with their consent in a highly controlled way without having to bring them into a laboratory,” said Professor Varan.

“We have a lot to learn about this very technically challenging field, and this is a great example of research driven by the humanities. We are investigating what technologies should do, rather than trying to figure out the capabilities of technology.”

This project is an indication that ITRI truly is a global centre.

Ms Schweda is funded by the Australian Research Council, the Western Australian Tourism Commission, Market Equity and 303 Advertising.

She aims to complete her PhD by the end of the year.