McPheters & Company recently put viewers, readers and searchers to the test. Pitting TV, magazines and the Web against each other, the research company tested the effectiveness of ads viewed on these media, with surprising results. Or then again, the results might just confirm what you’ve always believed, but now can be used to pave the way to convincing your clients.
Test subjects spent 30 minutes either watching a sitcom, reading a magazine of choice or surfing the Net as they pleased inside CBS Vision’s state-of-the-art Television City facilities at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. They then filled out surveys about their experiences, and the Internet users also were monitored with eye-tracking software to see which ads they actually set eyes on. All TV ads were limited to 30-second spots; magazines held full-page, four-color inserts; online results focused on standard banner ads.
Respondents were asked whether they recalled seeing four ads which appeared in the medium they consumed; and to make sure they were on-task, they also were asked whether they recalled seeing four ads that had not appeared.
Survey stand-outs:
- Within a half hour, magazines effectively delivered more than twice the number of ad impressions as TV and more than six times those delivered online.
- Though TV doesn’t deliver as many ads per half hour as do magazines, net recall of TV ads was almost twice that of magazine ads; magazines in turn had ad recall almost three times that of Internet banner ads.
- Among Web users, 63% of banner ads were not seen. Respondents’ eyes passed over 37% of the Internet ads and stopped on slightly less than a third.
- Internet video ads appeared much less frequently than banner ads, and their exposure skewed heavily toward young men. When they did appear, they were twice as likely to be seen as banner ads.
McPheters & Company also found that when study results were used in combination with other information on probability of exposure, a full-page, four-color magazine ad was determined to have 83% of the value of a 30-second TV commercial, while a typical Internet banner ad has 16% of the value.
[Source: McPheters & Company. Survey press release. April 1, 2009.]
Friday, Apr 10, 2009
Courtney Huckabay