Did You Know This About TV?

March 3, 2011

80% of TV Viewing is still in Standard Definition.

Although 56% of homes in the U.S. now have a HDTV, only 20% of TV viewing is being done in high definition, according to the Nielsen Company. 

 

Few Ads are in HD.

TV networks may be moving quickly on developing HD programming, but advertisers are far behind. A new study from Extreme Reach, says just 13% of all TV commercials that ran in 2010 were produced in high definition.

 

People do more than watch TV while watching TV.

A study of over 8,000 people from Nielsen and Yahoo recently discovered that 86% of mobile Internet users play around on their devices (smartphones, iPads, etc.) while watching the tube. It seems that Googling random facts, checking their Facebook news feed and checking their Twitter account were atop the list of activities to do while watching TV. A bit of good news for advertisers: 20% confessed to search for more information about a commercial they recently saw.

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Live Action versus Animated

December 29, 2010

Which Works Best?

In an analysis of television ads across all product categories, Nielsen found that in general, live action ads were more effective than animated ads.

For all major categories, live action ads scored 22% higher than animated-only ads in Brand Recall — which is the percentage of TV viewers who can recall the commercial and its adverted brand 24 hour after viewing it.

Live action creatives were more effective than animated ads across all major demographics as well. While live action ads resonated equally among both genders, Brand Recall was 27% stronger for females and 17% stronger among males than for animated ads.

Adults 35 to 49 saw a 24% increase in brand recall for ads that used live action vs. animated. The gap did shrink among viewers aged 13-35, who only showed an 11% change between live action and animated creatives.

When looking at consumer packaged goods specifically, ads in the personal care category appeared to struggle the most when using animation. For certain personal care products, brand recall was twice as high among spots using live action vs. an animated theme.

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TV Advertising Helps 3 Auto Brands Stand Out!

November 11, 2009

Picture for Post #39

 

What do Hyundai/Kia, Subaru and Volkswagen all have in common?

1) They spent considerably more on television advertising for the first 6 months of 2009, as a percentage of their ad budgets, than the auto industry average.  

Brand

% of ad budget spent on TV Advertising
Hyundai/Kia 

78.4%
Subaru 

90.0% 
Volkswagen 

80.7%
Industry Avg. 

62.5%

2) All three auto makers saw their market share increase substantially over the same period a year ago.

Brand  Market Share Increase 
Hyundai/Kia  39.7%
Subaru  52.9%
Volkswagen 28.8%

3) All three posted year-over-year unit sales decreases (every single manufacturer suffered decreases in sales during this period) that were considerably less than the industry average.

Brand  Unit Sales Decreases 
Hyundai/Kia  -9.4% 
Subaru -0.8%
Volkswagen -16.4%
Industry Avg. – 35.1%

4) All three brands allocated a smaller percentage of their ad budgets to Internet advertising than the industry average:

Brand  % of ad budget spent on U.S. Internet Advertising
Hyundai/Kia 3.7%
Subaru 5.4%
Volkswagen 4.0% 
Industry Avg. 7.5%

What do I think?

First of all, I think all three auto makers have done a great job bringing products to market that people actually want to buy. That’s most important to remember.

I also think it’s hard to refute what the data above says about their advertising decisions. There’s no denying, I’ve seen a ton of compelling television commercials for Hyundai, Subaru and Volkswagen this past year … and it would appear I was not the only one. 

I don’t care how the new media crowd spins it, when a brand like Subaru spends 90% of their total ad budget on television and is able to increase market share by 53% — it makes a compelling case for the power of television advertising. Short and simple.

And when you add in the impressive sales performances by Hyundai and Volkswagen, it’s even harder to ignore that television played more than just a casual role in success of all three auto makers.  Wouldn’t you agree?

Source:  TNS Media Intelligence/Automotive News

 

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Out of Home TV Viewing Has Big Impact on Audience Size

November 3, 2009

Picture for Post #37Arbitron continues to make progress in their effort to measure out-of-home television viewing.  Pierre Bouvard, Arbitron’s Executive Vice President, says up to 35% of Americans are watching TV out-of-home, and stations aren’t getting credit for out-of-home viewing using the existing ratings system.

But, thanks to Portable People Meter (PPM) technology, TV networks and stations will soon be getting credit for total viewing, not just at-home viewing.

The PPM was developed by Arbitron to more accurately measure the number of people watching TV. The device is carried like a pager and picks up audio codes hidden within a station’s broadcast.  So, it doesn’t rely on viewers to punch a button or write in a diary to record their viewing habits.  The meter does all the work.

TBS (Turner Broadcasting) was the first client to sign with ARB-TV, and during the MLB Playoffs discovered the value of out-of-home audience measurement. 

According to Arbitron, the out-of-home viewership of the baseball playoffs increased the total audience size by 27% for adults 25-54.

Sports fans in bars are just part of the story.  When the PPM was tested in Houston, Arbitron noted significant out-of-home audiences in every demo daypart, including women 18-49 during daytime hours.  During the test period, a 17% audience increase was reported for W18-49.

ARB-TV reveals the top places for out-of-home viewing are:

1)      Friend’s House

2)      Bars & Restaurants

3)      At Work

The important thing to remember is that out-of-home TV viewership is not currently measured and not reflected in the ratings that stations provide their clients.  From a media planning standpoint, that’s not good.

However, until there’s a new ratings system firmly in place to measure out-of-home viewership, retail advertisers will continue to reach viewers they’re not paying for … and in this economy, that’s not bad.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

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Traditional TV Still Far Ahead of Internet & Mobile Viewing

September 28, 2009

Picture for Post #30The latest Three Screen Report from Nielsen finds there is again another jump in viewing done over the Internet. And to the surprise of some, traditional television viewing also continues to grow. However, the report notes a slight decrease for watching video on mobile devices.

“Although we have seen the computer and mobile phone screens taking on a significant role, their emergence has not been at the cost of TV viewership,” Nielsen’s Jim O’Hara commented.  “The entire media universe is expanding so consumers are choosing to add elements to their media experience, rather than to replace them.”

In the second quarter of 2009, the monthly time spent watching TV in the home by each user reached 141 hours and 3 minutes, up from 139:00 a year ago. 

People who watch video on the Internet averaged 3 hours and 11 minutes compared to 2:02 last year.

However, the monthly time spent watching video on mobile phones was actually lower than a year ago … down from 3 hours and 37 minutes to 3:15.

Is it any surprise that major retailers still turn to traditional TV to reach the masses?  People spend more time with television in just two days than they spend all month long watching video on the Internet and mobile phones combined.

And when it comes to critical mass, TV continues to lead the way in a big way.  While Internet and mobile viewing are showing growth over previous years, numbers that do so are still relatively small, especially for mobile viewing.

Nielsen finds that 284.4 million Americans watched some TV in their homes during the second quarter.  Less than half of them (about 134 million) watched some video on the Internet, while only 15.3 million watched video on mobile phones.

 

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Retailers: TV is More Engaging than Internet and Mobile

August 21, 2009

Picture for Post #11Although it makes common sense, it’s still nice to see a study that confirms what a lot of us already knew:  For retailers especially, television presents a more effective commercial environment than the Internet or mobile devices. 

A new report from the research firm NeuroFocus found that TV earns high marks for emotional engagement, message recall and intent to purchase.  While on the other hand, viewers of small-screen media (Internet and mobile) found the ad experience to be less immersive and not nearly as engaging as TV. 

“Emotional response appears to be tied to the way people use different media platforms,” said Clay Collier, Cable & Telecommunications Association’s VP of Research.

He adds, “TV is particulary good at striking an emotional cord and conveying a sense of novelty. If you want to draw someone in and create an immersive environment, TV is a better fit.”

“On the small screen (mobile devices), certain emotional triggers – facial expressions, for example – are somewhat undermined,” said Clay.

(Somewhat undermined? On a three inch cell phone screen, you’d be lucky enough to discern a face, let alone facial expressions.)

The study also found that TV and Mobile ads were particularly effective at prompting a sale.  Not so for Internet ads, which appear to require repeated exposure before eliciting a consumer response.

On the emotional engagement scale, Internet ads came in last by a wide margin. 

“It stands to reason that people who are less emotionally invested in your ad may be less likely to buy your product,” said Tim Brooks, a former Lifetime Network Research Director.

I told you this was common sense … 

 

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