Intersperience to use Olympics as test lab to monitor digital media use

UK— Intersperience is launching an ethnographic study of how digital media is used by British families during the London 2012 Olympics, called ‘Connected Olympics’.

The research will see cameras installed in 20 homes to monitor how consumers follow the action on a variety of technology platforms – including tablets, smartphones, laptops and TVs (including internet-enabled sets). It will also involve in-depth interviews with family members with an emphasis on lifestyle and household dynamics to augment the video footage and add context.

Participants in the project will keep a ‘mobile media diary’ recording their use of digital media with the aid of Intersperience’s location-based diary app, taking the project out of people’s homes and ‘following’ them as they go about their lives.

In addition, Intersperience will recruit a 300-strong online community to report how they are watching the Olympics and test findings across a wider base of consumers.

Paul Hudson, Intersperience chief executive, said the Olympics create “the perfect conditions for a unique ‘live testing lab’ designed to deliver fresh insight into how consumers interact with digital technology on a daily basis”.

“This research project is not about the Olympics per se – it is about using the behavioural insights we gather to identify the rate of adoption of new devices and explain how people are using them.”

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