How does co-viewing affect TV advertising?
New abilities to measure co-viewing (e.g., TVision’s Presence measure) have prompted questions about whether co-viewed ads should be valued differently from solo-viewed ads.
Read more
Key Question: How does eyes on screen vary across media?
Advertisers make media decisions based on reach data (e.g., ratings, impressions) and performance data (e.g., clicks). But little is known about how media and devices differ in how long viewers look at ads. Eye-tracking results compare eyes on screen across media on different devices.
Read more
Key Question: Is news a good context for advertising?
Previous research has revealed mixed effects of a news context on advertising effectiveness, such as brand recall. The effects of news may vary depending on the medium and device used. This study compared matched ads for the same brands in traditional and digital news media, using a field experiment to manipulate ad exposure, and measure its effects on various ad-effectiveness measures.
Read more
Key Question: How effective are social media ads combined with TV ads?
Advertisers use social media advertising to extend reach beyond TV advertising, or to increase frequency. Frequency across media can have synergy effects. Sometimes synergy only occurs when two media are seen in a specific sequence (e.g., TV first). This lab study tested whether sequential synergy occurs when social media and TV ads are combined. It also compared the relative effectiveness of social media ads with normal TV ads, seen once or repeated.
Read more
Key Question: Do brands benefit from adding a logo supporting a social cause?
Often, consumers forget which social and environmental causes a brand supports. This study tested the effects of adding a logo to a brand’s TV ad, to signal its support for a social cause. The social cause in this study was funding minority education, which had heightened relevance at the time of George Floyd’s funeral, when this study took place. This in-home study compared the effects, for a minority audience (African-Americans) versus others, of signalling support for the cause by adding a logo.
Read more
Key Question: Do brands need to create new ads during a crisis?
During the COVID-19 crisis, brands could continue to use standard ads, or create new ads tailored to the crisis. Potentially, COVID-19 ads were more effective than standard ads, because they were more relevant to consumers at that time. During the crisis, more people were watching news, to get the latest information about COVID-19. Did COVID-19 ads that were informational, rather than emotional, perform better in this informational news context? This in-home study was conducted in April 2020, at the height of the pandemic in the United States.
Read more
Key Question: How reliable and valid is wireless skin conductance measurement?
Wireless biometric devices open up new possibilities for marketing research. This study tested whether wireless devices measure skin conductance as well as standard tethered devices. In a lab experiment, skin conductance was collected from participants experiencing the same stimuli (pictures, videos, and cognitive tasks) via a new wireless system (Shimmer), and two standard tethered systems (API and PsychLab). The wireless device could detect high-arousal videos and tasks, but not low-arousal ones. The wireless device also had a high (26%) rate of participants with missing data. These results suggest wireless devices can be used, but tethered systems are still the best for measuring low and high arousal.
Read more
Key Question: Can responses to a sitcom’s trailer indicate its future success?
Every year, advertisers buy spots months in advance in new sitcoms that exist only as a 2-minute trailer. It would be good to know if these sitcoms will be high-rating or low-rating, before their first episode airs. This lab study compared smiling responses to trailers, measured in May, with the audience for the first episode, which usually aired in September. It compared these biometrics with a traditional survey measure of intention to watch the new sitcom.
Read more
Key Question: Are PiP ads more effective than normal TV ads?
Viewers have become used to ad breaks interrupting ad-supported video content (e.g., broadcast TV). To combat ad avoidance, however, advertisers are moving ads from these breaks into programs, using product placement and sponsorship. Another way of advertising during programs was investigated in this study, by showing commercials in a picture-in-picture (PiP) window.
Many TV programs already show additional content in a PiP window, during lulls in the content (e.g., during the end credits). This study investigated the potential of showing ads in a PiP window during programs, and comparing the effects PiP ads with non-PIP ads when viewers could avoid the non-PIP ads by fast-forwarding or by looking at their personal smartphone. PiP ads may be less effective than normal TV ads because of their smaller size, and competition from other content on the screen (and in the soundtrack). But PiP ads may be more effective than normal TV ads because they are harder to avoid (by changing the channel, or fast-forwarding, or by looking at content on another screen (e.g., a smartphone)).
Read more
Key Question: What are the effects of overlaying extra branding onto video ads?
Networks could overlay extra branding throughout video ads, a practice called “omnipresent branding”.
Prior research shows that branding early and often, rather than branding duration, is what improves ad- effectiveness measured by brand-association.
Omnipresent branding could be valuable for ads that are skipped before the ad’s first branding scene.
This study compares the effects of static and dynamic (animated) omnipresent branding with normal control ads, seen on a television or on a smartphone.
Read more