Internet advertising is quickly overtaking television, says a new survey from a UK online marketing solutions group, as half of the respondents admitted that they prefer to avoid television advertisements.
The study from TradeDoubler says, that online advertising has gained mass-market penetration and confirms that 84% of internet users have responded to an online advertisement.
As well as television advertisement avoidance, it was revealed that commercial breaks were described as ‘intrusive’ and an ‘interruption’ to favourite programmes by 25% of people surveyed, with a further 25% saying they would rather switch channels than have to sit through them.
Although internet advertisements seem to be growing in popularity, they still got there fair share of complaints, with 70% of survey respondents branding these as ‘intrusive’, however this did not deter people from clicking on them says TradeDoubler.
The appeal of internet advertisements over television is that the user has the choice of clicking on advertisements that are of specific interest and can then go on to make an immediate purchase.
As 50% of the UK’s adult population is now online, the internet offers an unrivalled channel to communicate sales messages to target audience, says TradeDoubler, and while many find online advertisements intrusive, intrusive means effective.
However, it seems not everyone turns there back on the television as soon as the commercial break starts, as more than a third of people interestingly admitted to watching television advertisements for entertainment value rather than purchasing decision purposes.
Chief marketing officer, Will Cooper said: “If half of your target audience switch off or flicks between channels to avoid your message, and a further 38% watches only for entertainment value, you are left with a tiny sample of 12% who may actually be interested in purchasing your product. Suddenly, television advertising becomes a massively expensive medium to reach a minute potential pool of purchasers.”
He added: “In contrast, the internet offers a more cost-effective model for advertisers that reaches a highly targeted audience and can show immediate success rates. Last month in the UK alone, TradeDoubler drove £17.8 million of sales for its clients in response to online advertisements.”
In July the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) revealed that UK online advertising in 2003 beat all records as spending reached more than £350 million, pushing its market share of total advertising revenue to 2.5% (see UK Online Ad Spend Beats All Records).
In a separate report, PWC said that although the internet is currently the smallest of the six advertising mediums it tracks, it will remain the fastest growing and worldwide is expected to reach $18.9 billion by 2008 (see Entertainment And Media Set To Hit $1.700 Billion).
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