Thinkbox: viewers pay more attention to ads than they admit
New research from Thinkbox, the marketing body for TV, has revealed that viewers pay more attention to advertising than they think.
Qualitative research suggested that participants in the latest Screen Life study denied remembering many ads, however in a quantitative mobile diary study, which asked participants to log their viewing behaviour at 15 minute intervals, the research showed that the average viewer could recall 1.9 ads.
The study also found that the longer people watched TV, the more likely they were to “explicitly recall” a TV ad from the last 15 minutes.
58% of people who watched for 15-30 minutes could recall one or more ads (8% could recall 5 or more); for those who watched for 2 hours or longer, this increased to 66% who could recall one or more ads (17% could recall 5 or more).
Although viewers in the sample were most likely to recall talking about TV advertising during live viewing (13%), TV on-demand was not far behind with 10% claiming – via their mobile diaries – to have discussed TV ads in the last 15 minutes when they were watching TV on-demand.
This work will continue to help advertisers optimise their campaigns as TV goes on the move”
Interestingly, the habit of multi-screening, in which TV viewers use another device such as a mobile or tablet during ad breaks, does not affect ad recall.
People who multi-screened during TV ad breaks in the research were able to explicitly recall slightly more ads than the average viewer. Multi-screeners could recall two ads from the previous 15 minutes of viewing (compared to the 1.9 average).
“This work will continue to help advertisers optimise their TV campaigns as TV goes on the move,” said Neil Mortensen, research and planning director at Thinkbox. “It has been fascinating to understand how technology is improving the quality and convenience for viewers and how advertising is benefitting from the relationship.”
The research also examined attitudes towards social elements in TV advertising campaigns, in which multi-screening is a crucial element. It found that viewers believe Facebook and Twitter to be the best fit with social TV campaigns – with 31% and 27% respectively believing the platforms to be a good fit with social TV.
It also found that viewers are more or less welcoming of social elements in TV campaigns at different times in the day. 55% believed early evening was a good time for a social TV campaign compared with only 16% for the morning, 27% for the afternoon and 35% for late evening/night.
– During peak-time viewing, 74% of the study’s mobile diary sample claimed to have picked up another device during TV ad breaks. And there was very little difference between age groups, social demographics or gender.
– Multi-screening during the ad breaks was not only confined to live viewing, as might be expected. In fact 79% of the sample claimed to have multi-screened during the ads around on demand content at some point and 72% claimed to have done so during the ads featured around recorded TV content.
– Ad break multi-screening is most likely to occur around comedy shows (82% picked up another device), entertainment (81%), soaps (77%) and documentaries (76%).
– The study found that audio within TV advertising is a powerful way of grabbing people’s attention. Video ethnography found that audio was responsible for more “attention upshifts” (where viewers who had looked away from the TV screen were drawn back to watch) than any other factor.