Discover Microsoft Video Pulse, the New Way to Gather Feedback

Do focus group testing on your next campaign without even leaving your office.

Video Pulse, the video-centric extension of Microsoft's Pulse audience measurement tool, is now in open preview, the company announced. Existing Pulse customers can use it to gain audience reactions on recorded videos.

Microsoft first showed Video Pulse last month at SXSWedu in Austin, Texas, where Pulse was used to collect responses during the event's Policy Forum.

Targeted to marketers and advertisers, Video Pulse lets customers collect feedback on recorded videos, reactions that are tied to a video's time code and can be played back and analyzed at will. Video Pulse works with MP4 videos hosted on YouTube and Vimeo, as well as Azure Media Services and other services.

Microsoft enhanced Video Pulse's producer controls for this release, creating a one-page setup that makes getting started easier.

Marketers can use Microsoft Video Pulse to gain moment-by-moment reactions, says Dritan Nesho, head of Microsoft Pulse. Customers are able to collect results without purchasing expensive hardware-based systems.

"With Video Pulse we're introducing a new format of digital content rating to the marketplace," Nesho says. "Customers will have the ability to upload video content and have it rated quickly and at scale, across digital space and at any time, and in a detailed and complete way around the questions and attributes that matter to them most."

Microsoft Video Pulse could be used to test reactions to ad campaigns, TV shows or movies, and original online content. As this is an election year, Microsoft also notes that it can be used to gain feedback on political campaign videos.

Formerly known as Bing Pulse, the product was rebranded as Microsoft Pulse in December 2015. Along with this news, Microsoft has released the results of a study it says validates Pulse as an engagement and feedback service.

Troy Dreier's article first appeared on OnlineVideo.net