Advanced Television

VoD advertising works

November 17, 2011

Advertising in VoD programming offers specific advantages for brand marketers to effectively engage consumers, according to the Phase II study of the Advanced Advertising Media Project (AAMP) – a US industry-wide research initiative to measure the impact of advertising within free VoD.

The study, which examined the viewing behaviour of more than 1,000 consumers, revealed that advertising within a VoD environment has a positive impact on the level of engagement of consumers – enabling agencies, cable operators and networks to leverage full, linear TV ad loads, while allowing advertisers to utilise longer-form approaches that can serve as avenues for enhanced creativity.

Conducted with television programming from 11 AAMP member broadcast and cable networks and branded messaging from 10 national advertisers, the AAMP study revealed four basic themes:
– Advertisements within a VoD context statistically have the same impact, no matter what the size of the ad load;
– Because consumers view VoD as television, they accept advertising on VoD as a logical part of the on-demand experience;
– On-demand television has a positive effect on consumers’ sense of control over content and advertising;
– and VoD provides opportunities for increased ad durations that can foster greater storytelling and information sharing by advertisers

“When it comes to advertising, the ‘TV Environment’ absolutely matters,” said Bill Koenigsberg, president, CEO and founder of Horizon Media. “If there is one finding from this study that is particularly relevant to the media industry, it’s this: consumers will watch, recall and respond even to heavy loads of ads within VoD programming.”

Among the most significant findings were clear indications that: The size of the ad load has no impact on viewer engagement with VoD. Aided recall of advertised brands was statistically the same (63 per cent-64 per cent for light loads and 58 per cent and 59 per cent for moderate and heavy loads). In addition, VoD ads delivered an uplift of between three and five percentage points across all loads in both interest in finding out about a particular brand, and purchase intent for an advertised brand.

Advertising with VoD does not impact viewer enjoyment. Between 31 per cent and 38 per cent of participants across all ad loads rated the TV viewing experience as “excellent,” and between 65 per cent and 75 per cent rated the experience as “excellent” or “very good.” This compares favorably to the “excellent” (29 per cent) and “excellent or very good” (66 per cent) for linear television. For all ad loads, enjoyment increased throughout the show. Further, it was clear from post-test, in-depth consumer interviews with randomly selected participants that the presence of ads across a diversity of media platforms has increased acceptance of ads in general.

Consumers are more receptive to longer-form ads on VoD, and that longer-form ads can have a greater impact than traditional 30-second spots. Viewer interest in finding out more about a particular brand featured in a 90-second ad was 64 per cent higher than interest elicited by the same 90-second ad in linear television, and fully double the interest generated by a VoD 30-second advertisement.

Categories: Ads, Advertising, Articles, Consumer Behaviour, Research, VOD