The next best thing to being there?

With time and money in short supply, it's no wonder more and more companies are turning to videoconferencing to get the most out of their qualitative research efforts. Why send a handful of staffers to a distant city - and pay for their airfare, lodging and meals - to observe a group when you can shuttle them to a local focus group facility or into a conference room down the hall to watch the groups on a TV monitor?

While rates and capabilities vary, the services that specialize in serving the research market, such as the VideoConferencing Alliance Network (VCAN), FocusVision, VideoFocus Direct and Market Window, allow clients the basic ability to view groups remotely. Some clients view the groups on their own equipment, some buy or lease from the services.

At its Basking Ridge, N.J., offices, AT&T uses GroupNet, a service provided by VCAN, a network of research firms that provide facilities for videoconferencing focus groups in 20 U.S. markets, using PictureTel equipment. AT&T has set up viewing rooms at its offices and at the offices of its ad agency partners in New York. It also uses the facilities of Wolf/Altschul/Callahan, Inc., a New York research firm and member of VCAN.

Sara Lipson, director of marketing sciences, AT&T Consumer Communication Services, says that videoconferencing makes better use of scarce time and also gets senior people re-involved in research. "We saw videoconferencing as a means to an end, which was to make our staff more efficient and get the active involvement of marketing and agency people in the qualitative research process," she says.

"Before we began using it, junior people from the product or agency side and research people were the only ones attending qualitative when it took place. We felt that we weren't really taking full advantage of the benefits of qualitative. Now we have a very robust backroom, which is where a lot of the creativity happens. Videoconferencing has allowed us to have more senior people in attendance and more vitality in the work that we do."

Having videoconferencing at multiple sites also helped AT&T resolve a sticky political situation, Lipson says. Ad executions from multiple agencies were being evaluated during a week-long series of focus groups in locations across the country. "Having multiple sites for viewing was imperative," Lipson says. "We had a focus group that two different agency groups had to watch but it would have been uncomfortable for them to do that together. We set up three different sites - one here at AT&T, one at an agency and one at Wolf/Altschul/Callahan because one of the agencies didn't have videoconferencing capability. We were able to have consistent top-level participation with AT&T folks and people from the two agencies because - and only because of - this technology."

Lipson says that videoconferencing came in handy for the viewing of some focus groups that were conducted in Spanish at the Wolf/Altschul/Callahan facility. Via GroupNet, AT&T representatives watched from their offices and listened as a translator described the proceedings in English from the backroom.
Rita McMahon, a New York-based moderator, says communication between distant observers and the moderators is easy with GroupNet. "Either the moderator can run back and speak to observers through the system between groups or a person from the client company can be there throughout the group, ready to take any communication back and forth. It's as good as being in the backroom."

"In my opinion, you don't lose anything when you observe a group by videoconferencing," says Lipson. "There is always someone in the backroom, so at any point we can communicate from our office to the person in the backroom, asking them to slip the moderator a note to do a real-time modification of the moderator's guide. You're not losing any of the benefits of being there."

Larger audience

For Nancy Canali Lucas, vice president of research for TBS Superstation, Atlanta, using videoconferencing has helped expose more TBS staffers to the live research process. "It allows us to get a larger audience of people who don't normally attend focus groups, people like the head of the network, for example, or the head of the entertainment division, who may not be interested in the micro issues that we deal with but who can step in and take a look at the group because it's being shown right here."

On the other end of the hierarchy, it also allows assistants and coordinators who aren't directly involved in the project to see what research is all about. "A lot more people buy-in to the process when they understand it," Canali Lucas says.

For recent research on how to market some original TBS programming, Canali Lucas was able to send a project manager on the road to supervise the groups while she tuned in from a TBS conference room. Respondents were shown print materials that were in development, taglines, photos of people featured in the program, some on-air promos and a trailer.

"The more meetings we're all in day after day, the more we have to travel, the less time it seems we have," Canali Lucas says. "Being able to watch groups during the day and have them beamed right into our offices is great.

"It's also very cost-effective. We usually average six people who will travel to outside cities to attend focus groups. The small cost associated with videoconferencing makes it well worth it if we all don't have to travel."

Growing in popularity

Things are just as hectic at Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis, where videoconferencing is growing in popularity, says Patrick Ayres, the company's director of video operations. "We're coming up with new applications all the time. People have been amazed at how successful it has been so we expect a lot more use of it in the near future," he says. In addition to testing ad executions and product concepts, Anheuser-Busch has used it to take legal depositions, perform crisis management, and train employees.
(The corporate engineering department even used videoconferencing to check on the progress of a new building in another city by wheeling a camera over to a window and pointing it at the new structure.)
Early next year, Anheuser-Busch is hoping to set up a multi-city focus group broadcast, where viewers would dial up to connect with any location that interests them. "Sort of like channel surfing for focus groups," Ayres says.

More enhancements

With technology changing and growing, and as more applications are found, videoconferencing providers will introduce more enhancements to the basic service. For example, VCAN is working towards incorporating readings from hand-held preference meters into the video feed, so that researchers can view respondent responses in real time.

But while technological savvy is an important feature to look for in a videoconferencing provider, so are things like good recruiting and customer service, Lipson says. "I think a magical component of some of the success of videoconferencing is not just the nifty technology but it's the quality of the facilities that are members of the network we use. One of the things that sold me on VCAN was seeing the names of the facilities in the network. Having been in research for a number of years I've had personal experience with their recruiting quality."

Nancy Canali Lucas agrees: "I've had good experiences in the past with a lot of the facilities on the list. From a facility standpoint I was impressed with their services. Everything went off without a hitch the very first time."