eMarketer Investigates Internet Usage in the Real World
APRIL FOOLS
Online consumer research firm eMarketer announced today the formation of an intensive research subdivision it calls Real Live Clicks (RLC). eMarketer has allocated considerable assets and 600 of its employees for the team, which it hopes will work to elucidate online consumer habits in a manner which no study has done before.
Beginning in late April, RLC specialists will be deployed into offices, schools, and homes around the country to study the habits of Internet users firsthand. While researchers will closely tally which websites users visit, how long they spend there, and which online ads draw their interest, they will also focus on offline behaviors such as how close their face is to the computer screen, how comfortable their chair is, what items they fiddle with, the number of trips they make to the bathroom per hour, and the number of hours they spend playing solitaire/freecell.
“We’ve reached the point where online marketing has become conscious of its two-dimensionality,” David Murrow, spokesperson for eMarketer recently told ADOTAS. “We want to help businesses understand the invisible margins of internet usage—what a typical user’s experience is framed by in the real world.”
So that they could ensure accurate and unimpeded data, the Real Live Clicks team endured a rigorous CIA training program to learn how to become wholly camouflaged within their environment. Office-environment RLC agents (nicknamed “Imposters”) will be gainfully employed, tie-wearing members of selected corporate staffs.
School-environment RLC agents (nicknamed “Narcs”) will appear to be normal, 11- to 18-year-old students. Home-environment RLC agents (nicknamed “Usurpers”) will employ seduction techniques to gain full access to observation of targeted households.

Reader Comments.
What a break through idea. Looking forward to following this research.
- Pingback from dboweb » Blog Archive »
yeah, i do believe it’s a creative idea.
Leave a Comment
Article Sponsor
More Uncategorized
-
Loading ...
Latest News
- Hulu’s Bringing Its “A” Game But… March 19th 2010 ADOTAS – Hulu’s sales team is actively subverting the ad [...] more »
- Yelp! A class-action suit? March 19th 2010 ADOTAS – One of three civil suits against Yelp filed [...] more »
- Viacom Accuses Google; Testing Digital Millennium Copyright Act March 19th 2010 Viacom has accused Google of turning a blind eye to [...] more »
- Google to Leave China April 10th? March 19th 2010 ADOTAS – According to the China Business News, Google Inc [...] more »
- [x+1] Creates The Smartest Tagging System Around March 18th 2010 ADOTAS – Today, if you happen to be at the [...] more »
- IAB’s Video Standards Tackled By ADTECH March 18th 2010 ADOTAS – ADTECH, a part of AOL Advertising and an [...] more »
- Google Search and Mobile and….TV? Oh My! March 18th 2010 ADOTAS – Google wants to dominate your screens…. Not just [...] more »
Features
- Growing Pains March 19th 2010
- For Better or For Worse? March 18th 2010
- Yahoo! Wants to Get More Personal March 17th 2010
- Creative Considerations for the iPad March 16th 2010
- Amazon Leaves Colorado Affiliates Out in the Cold March 12th 2010
Spotlight
AdBidCentral’s CEO, Vivek Veeraraghavan Talks Openly*What was the inspiration to start AdBidCentral? The conditions that inspired AdBidCentral came from a variety of factors in my personal [...] more...
Reader Favorites
Classifieds
- Communications Fellow
- Sr Director, Marketing Services
- Senior Web Analyst
- Account Director
- Director of Analytics
Recent Comments
- Jedd Gould: I think you miss the point. Publications have to charge because the content most are
- Gavin Dunaway: They're similar, but Ning is more a competitor to Facebook and MySpace while StumbleUpon considers
- Steve Feldman: Does StumbleUpon compete with and does essentially what Ning networks does?
- Bulent: I wonder how many of the clients would accept a media plan, that would -as