Research The Value Of Quality TV – Seminar
At yesterday afternoon’s Marketing Week seminar entitled “The Value of Quality Television” Phil Gullen, managing director of Carat Research, presented the topline findings of some new research into this area.
Two studies were undertaken: the Carat Foretel Attention Study, which measured quality of viewing to over 3,000 programmes; and the Foretel Advertising Recall Study, which was designed to establish the link (if any) between quality of viewing and advertising effectiveness.
The Attention Study was carried out by BMRB last November based on 1,812 adult TGI respondents. Questions related to reasons for watching a programme, enjoyment and attention levels.
On enjoyment of TV, BBC2 and Sky One scored most highly with 67% of programmes enjoyed by the adults who watched them. The most enjoyed individual programme was A Question of Sport (90%) and the least enjoyed Eldorado (25%).
The research shows that on average around 25% of people are paying little or no attention to what is on TV. However, attention levels vary dramatically by daypart, by target audience and within daypart by programme (for example Rumpole has 24% higher attention level than Boon, both shown at 9pm on weekdays). Attention levels are closely linked to reasons for watching and level of enjoyment.
The second study attempted to answer once and for all if quality of viewing has any direct bearing on the effectiveness of TV advertising. Channel 4 has investigated this question over the years; the most recent study from Zenith failed to find a correlation between Appreciation Indices and ad recall.
The Carat study was conducted by Broadcast Research in the Granada TV region in March this year, with a sample of 1,000 adults. The study measured spontaneous recall of ads within 1-2 hours of transmission; the only prompting related to the product field not specific brands.
The results show recall of advertising is related to enjoyment of programmes, reasons for watching and attention levels. People who are paying full or average attention are 70% more likely to recall commercials than people paying little or no attention.
Charlie Varley, managing director of Eurospace, explained how the research would be used in media planning and buying. Data from the Attention Study could be analysed by users of specific brands or lifestyles to select the TV schedule delivering high attention airtime.
Derek Harris, marketing director of Iceland Frozen Foods, welcomed the new research from the client’s point of view. He demonstrated how attention levels for Iceland Shoppers could be measured to ensure the selection of the best channel/daypart/programmes for their advertising.
Tony Ayers, chief executive of Media Audits, gave his view from the advertisers’ standpoint. While applauding the research as a valuable first step, he urged future studies to be conducted on a multi-agency basis, otherwise the plethora of research findings from different sources would confuse the TV market. He felt research of this kind would lead to greater demand for centre breaks and a move to shorter breaks; if a link was proven advertisers would want to be as close to the programme as possible. Personally he questioned if any link existed; he tended to concur with the C4 finding that there was a small but significant effect. More work was required before we get fully usable data.