PRODUCTION AND POST
ASK NO QUESTIONS, HEAR NO LIES
PICTURED ABOVE: Honda’s Real View Test Drive campaign
Dan Meier meets James Digby-Jones and Ian Clarke from production company Saddington Baynes
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hat’s the best way to work out how someone feels about something, assuming you don’t have access to their diary or the desire to hack their data? Asking them seems like a good place to start, but when it comes to market research, this is far from the best approach. The way questions are framed or the answers interpreted can skew your results. Even in a focus group, respondents might subconsciously shape their answers based on other people’s. Maybe they just don’t like the person asking the questions, or are secretly displeased with the snacks on offer. So how do you conduct market research without asking questions? Production company Saddington Baynes has a solution, and it’s based around the idea of neurocreativity.
36 | TVBEUROPE APRIL 2019
Partnering with a team of neuroscientists, the company developed its ‘Engagement Insights’ service to test non-conscious responses to different images. “We create content for ad agencies, for direct brands, we execute on their ideas,” explains executive creative director James Digby-Jones. “But all throughout that execution you’re making creative choices, using your gut instinct; change the composition, change the colour, the lighting, all these different things - and with the goal of trying to create an emotionally engaging piece of content that’s going to tick the boxes for that brand. They want to be seen a certain way, they want that car to look a certain way.” To evaluate their imagery, the company has deployed online sorting tests based on implicit bias testing,