The study, carried out in association with Millward Brown IntelliQuest and comScore, was based on a survey of almost 5,000 visitors to twenty popular US websites. It found that 82% of those with high affinity for a site believed that it carried advertisements for high quality products and services while only 36% of low affinity users held this view. By the same token, 69% of visitors with high site affinity believed that more respected brands advertised on the site as against 25% of low affinity visitors.
Advertisers can also be encouraged by the fact that 75% of high affinity users believed that ads interfered less with their experience on the site. However, only 31% of low affinity users felt the same way.
“While there has always been widespread belief that a consumer’s loyalty toward a media vehicle makes an impact on the effectiveness of advertising within that vehicle, we haven’t had the proof until now,” said Michael Zimbalist, executive director of the Online Publishers Association.
“The OPA Affinity Index not only provides advertisers with useful insight into media selection, but it also gives online publishers areas on which to focus in order to increase their percentage of loyal users,” he concluded.
