Press Release

TouchPoints USA Releases eDiary Data from Sochi Winter Olympics

By March 27, 2014 No Comments

TouchPoints USA, the market leader in the provision of consumer media behavior data, has released the results of findings collected during the recent Sochi Winter Olympics. The data, which was collected using TouchPoints USA’s well-established, mobile phone-based eDiary, will allow media planners, owners, buyers and sellers to build a full picture on how consumers tapped into this major sporting event, enabling a better understanding of how to target future marketing campaigns accordingly.

TouchPoints USA used its eDiary to collect data on what viewers were doing and how they were feeling while they watched the Sochi events. The panel of respondents was questioned every half hour between Friday 7 and Sunday 23 February, with the data revealing some useful findings for brand advertisers.

  • 7.00pm to 9.00pm on Sunday evenings – traditionally ‘family TV time’ – was when most people tuned in to watch the Sochi Winter Olympics.
  • The highest viewing levels took place on Sunday 9 February, when respondents spent 19% of their time glued to the Sochi events. Snowboarding, ski jumping and ice hockey events were all broadcast on this date, indicating that these were the most popular sports to watch.
  • Lowest viewing levels were on Thursday 13 February, when the panel spent less than 5% of their time watching the Winter Olympics.
  • Saturday 15 February was when people felt ‘most excited’ whilst watching the events (27%). This is perhaps not surprising as it was finals day for the men’s ski jump, skeleton and 1500m speed skating, which saw the winners being presented with medals.

Garry Partington, CEO of mobile passive behavior tools, technologies and big data analytics specialist, RealityMine, who acquired TouchPoints USA in November 2013, commented, “The Sochi Winter Olympics presented a golden opportunity for advertisers to capitalize on raising brand awareness, as they could be certain of a high audience exposure via a relatively small number of channels. 31.7 million US television viewers watched the opening ceremony at Sochi, which provides some indication of the scale of the audience available to advertisers.

“The data collected by TouchPoints USA’s innovative e-diary method highlights the times and days of the week when consumers were most – and least – receptive to advertising during the Sochi Winter Olympics and how they were feeling during these periods. The findings will help brand advertisers to spot patterns of consumer behavior around such key sporting events, helping them to better understand how they can effectively reach their target audiences in the future.”

TouchPoints USA is currently used by many of the top media planning agencies, media companies and brands including Spafax, Katz Radio Group, Omnicom, Zenith, ESPN, OMD, PHD, Digitas, Mediavest, among others.

About TouchPoints USA

Since 2011, TouchPoints USA has provided a nationally projectable picture of how consumers use media in the context of where they are, who they’re with, what they’re doing and how they’re feeling throughout the day and week. The service is the only syndicated study of its kind and is used by most major media agencies and media owners.

About RealityMine

RealityMine was founded by mobile industry veteran Garry Partington and research expert Rolfe Swinton. The company is a leading provider of opt-in Mobile Passive Behavior Tools, Technologies and Big Data Analytics, collecting and analyzing data from mobile phones, tablets, desktop PCs and third party data sources, which can then be used to help businesses understand consumer behavior. Since launching the company in April 2012, RealityMine has expanded rapidly and its services are now live in almost every continent around the world. The company has offices in New York, Los Angeles and the UK.