If you have not seen the results of last night’s research polls (CBS, CNN, et al) taken among people who saw the State of the Union speech, President Obama’s popularity rose significantly from his post-inauguration benchmarks. And those gains were measured among both Democrats and Republicans. I think the prez is making in-roads on the bipartisan scene.

One thing that really got my attention during his speech was the electronic audience reaction meter at the bottom of the screen.  Apparently a group of Virginia residents, half of whom were Obama voters and the other half McCain voters, were reacting to his speech in real time.  The polling firm conducting this focus group used a dial test used to capture feedback on key topics, allowing participants to turn their handheld dial up during parts of the speech they liked and down for moments they did not. Their responses were showcased in a line chart, with Republican respondents’ reactions being captured in a red line and the Democrats’ sentiments in a green line. 

I think this could be a great application for measuring the effectiveness of infomercials, TV spots or product sales videos.  This is definitely something I’m interested in learning more about, so please feel free to respond to this post or contact me if you have experience with this methodology. 

This video has more information on the dial testing and the results from the focus group: