Strong Creative Helps Negate PVR Ad Avoidance

Previous industry opinion was that PVRs would cause a severe threat to advertisers, with viewers using the devices to skip through adverts. Recent research from Accenture predicts that nearly 10% of all television commercials will be skipped by 2009 due to the fast forwarding technology (see US Advertisers To Lose 10% Of Commercial Impacts By 2009).

However, findings from Starcom’s Engagement Panel show that, although PVRs are affecting television advertising effectiveness, it is not to the extent that was feared; and there are clear strategies for advertisers to minimise the effects.

Starcom found that PVR viewers are still browsing commercial content, but now have the more ability to control their viewing and limit which commercials they see. Starcom asserts that the new television advertising era is all about engagement, and consumers will only give time to adverts that are relevant to them.

Ways in which advertisers can keep audiences interested in their adverts include programme sponsorship and channel strategy. Starcom shows that sponsorship awareness levels in PVR enabled Sky+ households fell by just 4%, compared to Sky Digital homes, with no PVR, which were down by 17%.

The greatest influence on minimising advert awareness decline was found to be channel strategy, with Starcom revealing that brands who used the highest proportions of Channel 4 and multi-channel advertising slots had lower than average drops in advert awareness.

Previous research from Starcom predicted that commercial exposure levels in Sky+ PVR households would be 30% less than in an equivalent Sky Digital household.

Starcom now claims that actual advertising awareness levels are on average just 17% lower in Sky+ than Sky Digital households, showing that television advertising is more resilient than anticipated.

These new findings add to the mixed signals advertisers are being sent about PVR usage, confirming US research from Frank N.Magid Associates claiming that despite advertisers’ fears of TV adverts being skipped with the new technology, 55% of PVR users stop to watch adverts that catch their eye (see PVRs Send Mixed Signals For TV Advertisers).

New research from ESPN agrees with this, claiming that the majority of PVR households in the US are relatively new to the technology, with the devices not yet affecting their television viewing behaviour (see PVRs Not Yet Affecting TV Viewing Behaviour).

Starcom also found that, unlike its previous prediction, there is no significant product recall difference between brands who use a high proportion of “recorded” programming in their campaigns and those who use a high proportion of “live” programming.

Over the next five years PVRs are set to enjoy massive growth, with penetration expected to reach over 11% of television households worldwide, according to a report from Informa Media (see PVRs Causing Increasing Threat To Advertisers).