Today’s Mediapost article announcing our very exciting relationship with global research firm OTX, caps several months of negotiations. Aside from the purely financial aspects of the deal, it strengthens and solidifies the Lab’s place, as not just a unique facility to learn about emerging media through our immersion based facilities but now a place to come and study emerging media by way of research. While the Lab has been championing the virtues of doing research, this relationship adds an exciting layer to our product set and consequently our ability to help provide a comprehensive package for agency/client research needs.
The relationship with OTX actually dates back to last year. Ongoing conversations brought us tougher to help them on their unique projects for “mobile Jeopardy” and MTV’s – Comedy Central/SpikeTV.
In the case of “mobile Jeopardy” we provided a unique space where by the respondents could watch TV in a relaxed environment and follow the pace of the game. That same content was sent to our observation room with the research designers and TV producers could observe. The MTV work started with the intent of being in the conference room but because we have cameras in many locations the respondents were actually engaged in conversations with the moderator in the kitchen, gaming area, device kiosks and living room. All this before the formal process started in the conference. It is this organic and unassuming element of the space that makes the research experience so unique and one of the reasons why OTX agreed to partner with the Lab.
From the point of view of OTX, the space would be able to give them “early adopter” access to the Lab’s space and people. The multi location, multi directional cameras would be able to open up the entire space and provide a free flowing dynamic space for their respondents. For the Lab it would give us the chance to provide an end to end solution to our agencies and their important brands. Collectively we could populate the space with third part research assets in the area of biometric monitoring, eye tracking, data collection software, etc. We could also come together to drive unique co-branded research.
In the final analysis, this relationship is a huge plus for both partners but more specifically for both of our customers.
Welcome to the family OTX!
