Legends of Media Research

An interview with Julya Fridman, where she discusses a range of initiatives across her career, including her early engagement with cross-platform measurement at A+E (and her quest for finding common metrics and developing a methodology for aggregating 100+ unique data sources), her pioneering research utilizing biometric measurement and, ultimately, her transition to big data analytics / data science at Charter Communications.

An interview with Steve Schlesinger, Executive Chairman of Sago.  In this interview, we walk through Steve's career building his research empire - initially as Schlesinger Group (a business his mom started back in their home in 1966) which grew to a truly global enterprise. We explore the story of how the company grew, how it weathered adversity, and what all this means for the future of media and marketing research.   It's an interview you won't want to miss.

Dr. Radha Subramanyam shares stories from across her career as a media researcher, initially in TV, then in new media, and finally back in TV again.  The episode is packed with great career advice in how to best integrate research into creative; bring data analytics and traditional consumer insights together; and how to best triangulate truth.  Radha's story is also a great celebration of the benefits of blending academic and industry arenas, highlighting how her academic roots shape her industry practice today.

Join us as we explore the career of Howard Shimmel across his years at Nielsen, MTV Networks, Simmons Research, AOL/Time Warner, Nielsen (again) and Turner Broadcasting.  Howard shares stories about how he tackled subscription pricing research for AOL/Time Warner, children's research at Nickelodeon and new ad format research for Turner.  It's an episode packed with life lessons.

Rick Mandler shares stories from across his career, exploring the launch of digital at ABC, the 'enhanced TV' era of 'two-screen' TV (where viewers used their thin Internet services to interact from their laptops while watching TV), the ABC Media Player, Disney Lab studies, and his new initiatives at Comcast including Freewheel's new Viewer Experience Lab.

Come and listen as Dr. Horst Stipp shares adventures from his 40 years at NBC and over the past 11 years at the ARF.  The episode includes great stories from the pilot testing for Seinfield, numerous social effects studies (including on television violence and copycat suicide risks), Olympics research, NeuroStandards and, of course, the ARF's current 'attention validation' initiative.  There's an adventure at every turn!  It's another episode you won't want to miss.

Gian is, without a doubt, the most decorated of our Legends of Media Research to date, having been awarded just about every marketing research and entrepreneur award under the sun! And his impact on our industry has been massive - particularly with the introduction of purchase scanning data in the 1980s, while he served as CEO of IRI, and internet usage data in the late 1990's where he was CEO/co-founder of Comscore. Hear the background stories to how both sets of measures came to market - and so much more.  It's an episode you won't want to miss.

Barry is perhaps the best story-teller in our industry.  His presentations weave a narrative that take you on an emotional journey as you discover insights along the way.  Come discover the secrets of Barry's craft - and discovery key strategies for delivering bad news.  It's an episode packed with insights that will help elevate your own presentation skills - so it's an episode you won't want to miss.

Join Nathalie's journey leading teams from Dow Jones (Wall Street Journal) to ESPN to CBS Interactive to the ANA and now in her new role as Chief Research & Analytics Officer at Yahoo.  Nathalie shares amazing insights around the challenges of cross-platform measurement, viewability, integrating data science and consumer insights and so much more.  An episode you won't want to miss!

Unique among our Legends, Andrea's career has crossed back and forth between leading sales teams and research teams across a career that has seen her leadership across ESPN, Vevo, Comcast Spotlight (now Effectv) and now Warner Bros Discovery.  Andrea shares many of the secrets she has discovered in her truly adventurous career.

Lisa is one of the pioneers of multi-platform measurement (with a patent to boot) and has built a reputation as a true industry collaborator.  In this episode she share insights about all things multi-platform and takes us on a journey exploring her career across CBS, ABC and now NBC.

A fascinating interview with Paul Donato who led research at Nielsen for over 17 years and, before that, was one of the co-founders of Kantar Media.  Currently, Paul serves as Chief Research Officer at the Advertising Research Foundation.   Come discover all about media currencies and why the evolution of common currencies is so challenging... and the strengths and limitations of big data (ACR vs. Set Top Box) vs panel data.  

Robert Atencio is a true legend, having served as a research leader at many of our industry's top brands including P&G, Coca-Cola, Frito-Lay/Pepsico, Walmart and Pfizer.  Robert is also the recipient of an ARF Great Mind award and EIGHT ARF David Ogilvy Awards for ad effectiveness.

Scott was the magazine industry's leading researcher, having led research at both Time Warner and Condé Naste.  In this episode he shares stories from the golden age of magazines - with important lessons for the future (particularly around the importance of 'context' which magazines did best).  He also discusses the ARF and its future direction.  Another episode you won't want to miss! 

Colleen is a remarkable Legend who survived and thrived as MTV Networks evolved into Viacom, then Viacom-CBS and now Paramount.  Colleen shares fascinating insights about bridging data science and consumer insights, Paramount Plus's global expansion and so much more.

Few leaders in our industry have the breadth of Bryon Schafer who has led research at organizations across the TV value chain: in advertising, broadcasting, distribution, platforms and even investment.  Bryon shares fascinating insights about new ad models, the future and the new TV landscape.

A fascinating discussion about ad innovation, the rise of digital, the recent research team integrations at Disney (in the midst of the pandemic, streaming wars, Disney restructure, Nielsen saga and so much more) and the future of television.

To launch our second season, MediaScience SVP Phillip Lomax interviews Legends of Media Research series host, Dr. Duane Varan to introduce the audience to their host.  The episode explores research revealing insights for neuromarketing, innovation, program context effects, attention, leadership and so much more.  A special episode that will help you better contextualize Dr. Varan's interviews with Legends while also sharing exciting and inspiring insights.

Fasten your seat belts for this episode as the Director of the Ehrenberg Bass Institute, Professor Byron Sharp, challenges industry conventions around ad targeting, addressability, ad frequency, media flights and so much more!  Byron will get you questioning everything you thought you knew.  An episode you won't soon forget (even if you want to).

This episode should be mandatory listening for every CMO, aspiring CMO or for all who interact with CMO's.  Learn from Bruce's remarkable tenure of over a decade in the CMO role at Mars and discover how he came to apply scientific approaches to the marketing functions - and how these became part of everyday culture at Mars.  The approach took Mars from seeing about 40% of its ads working effectively (measured through best-in-class single source data) to well over 70% being effective following the new approaches - delivering benefits on many fronts.  An episode you won't want to miss!

Interview with Betsy Frank who led research at MTV and Time Inc at times when both were facing major industry disruption.  Betsy's career is characterized by her constantly stepping into lead roles in new industries (from advertising to network - then from TV to print), always navigating the tension between centralized and decentralized approaches to the research function, and always characterized by major industry disruption (at MTV with the dawn of digital and at Time Inc with the rise of mobile and tablets).  An interview you won't want to miss.

Interview with former President of NBC Research, Alan Wurtzel.  Alan discusses his years at both ABC and NBC including his landmark Olympics research, TAMI cross-platform measurement initiative, NBC lab, and broadcast standards and practices.  Alan is another member of the billion dollar club, researchers who added at least a billion dollars in value to their company.  Listeners will also be fascinated to hear how he came to lead long-form news and how he was once considered the successor to Bog Iger.  An interview you won't want to miss... with a true media research legend!

Interview with media research legend, Artie Bulgrin, who was head of research at ESPN for over two decades.  Includes great stories about how research contributed to the creation of ESPN original content in 2001, Artie's role in driving the Disney Media & Advertising Lab (subsequently becoming MediaScience), Project Blue Print (a cross-platform measurement solution years ahead of its time) and great insights on research leadership.  A GREAT start to the new podcast series...