ITV Shortens Commercial Breaks To Improve Ad Recall
ITV is planning to shorten the length of its commercial breaks after research discovered that advertising recall improves significantly when the number of commercials is reduced.
The biggest ever study of responses to television advertising casts certain doubts over its effectiveness by revealing that viewers go out of their way to avoid commercials by switching to other channels during the breaks.
The research, which was carried out by BMRB and media buying agency Carat, suggests that broadcasters can overcome the problem by producing ‘quality’ commercials and reducing their number in shorter breaks.
A report in today’s Times suggests that ITV is planning to replace some of its adverts with promotional trails for forthcoming programmes, which are seen as helpful by the majority of viewers, who favour shorter peaktime breaks.
The move follows last week’s announcement by UK TV that it intends to reduce the length of its break junctions by two and a half minutes to a maximum of five minutes, in an attempt to prevent viewers from switching over (see UKTV To Launch Channels And Reduce Commercial Breaks).
The research from BMRB and Carat found that viewers are programmed to ‘tune out’ as soon as a programme is ending and know when to return when the next programme begins. The aim is to avoid being ‘dictated or sold to’ by advertisers.
The study, which is due to be presented at a broadcasting conference tomorrow, claims: “The viewer doesn’t really trust the channel and the advertisers. This is the moment when the advertisers and the channels can get their foot in the door and so the viewer takes the pre-emptive action.”
It is understood that respondents were contacted 30-minutes after different advertisement breaks and asked how many commercials they recalled. When the number of ads was cut from nine to seven, viewer recall increased from 55% to 75%.
Last year research from the London Business School caused wide-spread concern among television advertising sales chiefs by claiming that viewers rarely watch adverts during commercial breaks (see TV Viewers Rarely Watch Adverts During Commercial Breaks).
However, this was contradicted by a study from Channel 4, which claimed that television viewers are as attentive to commercial breaks as they were five years ago, despite a marked increase in the number channels on offer (see Viewers Continue To Tune In To Television Advertising).
ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com
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