ASI's History of Innovation and Leadership in Television Market Research

For half a century ASI Entertainment has provided continued leadership in the advancement of custom research and consulting for the TV industry. It pioneered the development of new and innovative methodologies for measuring and evaluating audience response and has maintained both innovation and data continuity over decades of research and data analysis. The following benchmarks punctuate ASI's long history of vision and innovation

1960's

ASI is born as a program research division of Columbia Pictures and quickly evolves into an independent resource for the entertainment industries. ASI builds and operates the famous "Preview House" in Hollywood, a 400-seat laboratory theater which utilized ASI's proprietary instantaneous response "dial system" to capture audience members' second-by-second reactions to motion pictures, TV programs and commercials.

1970's

ASI pioneers another ground breaking method of testing audience responses in the home environment through the use of controlled cable channels and telephone administered questionnaires. During this period new developments in the acquisition and analysis of advertising recall and attitudinal metrics were created and implemented on a large scale.

1980's

ASI opens a digital dial audience testing facility in Burbank, California. The company also establishes 13 telephone data collection facilities nationally utilizing more than 450 employees.   During this period ASI enters a new period of intensive activity testing both television programs and television advertising and testing both advertising and programs together at the same time with major discoveries about the interplay of the two content types. 

1990's

ASI continues to take the lead in entertainment research by opening the world's most technologically advanced audience research and testing facilities in Glendale, and North Hollywood, California at the Television Academy of Arts. The AllMedia Centers offer advanced market research for testing traditional media venues as well as every segment of the emerging media universe. In the late 90s, ASI introduces Audience Link, a breakthrough research tool using desktop computers and digital technology to analyze audience real time and detailed content metadata simultaneously.

2000 - 2009

ASI, introduces several new releases of the advanced ViewTrac real time response dial hardware and software, which has maintained data and biometric compatibility for data continuity with the dials systems developed and evolved from the early 1960's until this day. With the continuity of data acquisition, and the tens of thousands of hours of content we have tested, ASI's highly experienced analysts are able to interpret the data within the context of deep normative data and read not only the amplitudes but the patterns of real-time audience feedback as they unfold over the course of the show or ad being tested. No other research company comes close to this depth of real time data response experience and corresponding insight into the interpretation of media content and advertising effectiveness of such data over time.

During this period ASI migrated its operational data systems to Oracle Database. ASI has developed a very large sample database for the great Los Angles area and has tremendous diversity and depth from one of the most demographically diverse regions in the world and can provide superior sampling and screening. These screening systems have continued to evolve as database technology has evolved and such large and diverse sample allows us to serve Mock Jury and other market research venues with the most representative target sample. ASI has continued to develop its national testing capability with a team of advanced mobile real time testing engineers and systems. We can test content in all major and secondary and many tertiary markets on short notice. This can be done stand alone or to supplement testing from the very large and diverse LA sample database.

To help meet the marketing requirements presented by the ever expanding new media frontiers ASI has evolved its focus to overall media convergence and addressing the market research and consultation needs brought to the entertainment, advertising and technology industries by the global advent of new technology. This includes media mix and multiple qualitative and quantitative approaches to evaluating media interfaces and how each medium and associated content feeds related mediums and associated content and how cross branding and brand strategy can be optimized cross medium and within various contexts.

ASI has continued to research and review the changing landscape of viewer attitudes toward media content and advertising brought on by the advent personal video recorders, on demand offerings, portable media viewers, HD technologies and the ever more pervasive internet based media offerings among other substantial changes and additions to the industry.

ASI continues to evolve its testing designs for the infomercial markets as well as traditional advertising content and continues to study and expand the insights gained from direct marketing research to traditional advertising testing and specifically in the area of content elements which directly impact advertising effectiveness and audience response to advertisements, whether on Television or the Internet. Most of what ASI has learned about Audience Response, Customer Satisfaction and other content metrics translates directly to Internet based content and gives us unique insights that companies without such deep visual content research simply do not have.

These insights and other research continue to prove increasingly valuable to advertisers and advertising agencies in the development of advertising of non direct-marketing ad venues. Often ASI's methodologies uncover marketing paradigms not discovered by strictly behavioral data analysis. Combining ASI's research with large scale behavioral data can often optimize decision support and provide a valuable framework for evaluating raw data.

2010 and onward:

In late 2009 ASI Entertainment designed and built the new Real Time Digital High Definition Media Market Research Facility in North Hollywood. The facility has two high technology high definition theaters with five advanced focus groups facilities and advanced multi-media support and multiple remote data transmission capabilities. The facility is equipped to handle the latest media and display technology. Whether testing WEB content , high definition, Blu Ray or standard definition media content, ASI does it.

ASI provides real time access to your market research efforts via WEB streaming, high definition IP based video conferencing and can provide high level content testing for your media content saving you travel time and money without sacrificing quality.