A new survey shows that younger audiences are more interested in special offers, entertainment and exclusive information within online advertising.
According to the results of a survey carried out by Lightspeed Research and the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), for 45-54 year olds, ads need to be more relevant and useful to make an impact, while money off particularly appeals to 18-35 year olds.
However, with the economy expected to be slow, people of all ages are more likely to be looking for advertising that offers money off.
In each case, and for the other age groups in the survey, consumers want online advertisers to understand their needs and devise their creative executions accordingly, said the IAB.
Most respondents believed they had been exposed to the more ‘traditional’ forms of online advertising, such as sponsored links, banners and emails and these ads were most likely to have generated click-throughs.
Every age group surveyed chose sponsored links in a search result and advertising within a page as the top two ad formats for sparking their interest to click through to the advertisers’ website.
The research found that newer forms of online advertising are gaining ground, with ads using sound and video, widgets, in-game advertising and free gifts on Facebook proving to be effective approaches. In particular Facebook gifts and branded applications online are especially effective with 18-24 year old respondents – 29% had seen and sometimes interacted with an ad from either Facebook or branded content across various other social networking sites.
Email advertising is particularly effective for those aged over 25, said the IAB, with 34% of 25-34 year olds saying they had seen and sometimes clicked on an ad from an email.
Sorcha Proctor, research manager for IAB UK, said: “The research has found that even though not all consumers click on ads, they are now fully acquainted with most forms of advertising online, with the majority having been exposed to most internet ad formats.
“It also highlights exactly what consumers what online: relevance, entertainment and value for money, and its important for brands to bear this in mind when planning their digital campaigns.”
Recent figures from the Advertising Association (AA) showed that UK online adspend was up 17.3% last year, outperforming other media but down on the 39.5% increase the year before (see UK adspend fell 3.9% in 2008).
In a separate report, the AA forecast that online advertising is set to grow at an average of 9% a quarter to Q2 2010 (see Ofcom Plans New Public Service Channel To Rival BBC).
