Respondents watch a video and turn their ‘dial’ in order to react positively or negatively. Turn the dial left to indicate they don’t like what they are seeing, and right to indicate that they do. By examining their responses throughout the media, you can better understand what messaging is working, what scenes are working etc.
Dial Tests have been used to evaluate, improve, and fine-tune everything from legal arguments to commercials for at least two decades. In politics, dial-testing has been used since the early 90s to find words and phrases that resonate with voters.
It’s important that respondents are instructed and reminded to continue rating throughout the test. Often it can be the case that people are so engrossed in the medium being shown that they forget!
Some lines (groupings) may move quicker than others or seem to move more rapidly up and down than other lines. This is typically due to low sample size of the group during the test, as you introduce more people you should see some common themes emerge.
Variety is the spice of life and wherever possible you should try and use a mix of different question types to keep any survey engaging!
