A world-first study

How do viewers really interact with ads across different platforms and devices? Which form of advertising is the most effective at attracting attention and generating sales? As advertisers are battling with these questions, ThinkTV commissioned an independent, large-scale, first-of-its-kind study into how Australians engage with advertising, while comparing TV against other environments such as Facebook and YouTube.

The Australian TV trade association enlisted the help of leading academic Dr. Karen Nelson-Field, a Professor of Media Innovation at The University of Adelaide to lead this research, which was aptly named The Benchmark Series.

Research through advanced AI machine learning

The research utilised AI machine learning technology and eye-tracking software to passively monitor people's eye movements while they were using different platforms. Dr. Nelson-Field’s research registered the behaviour of 2583 Australians and the presence of 18.219 ads in natural viewing conditions. This behavioural data was correlated with the consideration of over 38,745 different brands, included the ones viewers were exposed to in the study’s advertising. The first part of the series looked at the common elements within media platforms which contribute to brand growth and provided the following essential learnings for advertisers and agencies:

• Sales: The more someone pays attention to your ad, the more likely it is to cause an increase in sales. Using short term ad strength to measure the impact an advertisement has on a brand’s sales, the research found that TV was 24.1% stronger than YouTube and 22% stronger than Facebook.
• Active viewing: TV commands more active attention than YouTube and Facebook: TV scored 58 points out of 100, which was 54 points higher than Facebook, and 27 points higher than YouTube.
• Screen Coverage: The primary reason TV gets more attention and builds sales is that it covers 100% of the screen. On this measure, TV provided 10 times more coverage on average than Facebook and three times more coverage than YouTube.
• Brand Prominence: The research also showed that the size, frequency, and speed of introduction of a brand or product within a commercial correlate to attention and sales impact. The ads that produced greater sales impact showed the brand at twice the size of poorly-performing ads and almost twice as often, while at the same time being 25% more likely to display the brand within the first two seconds.

The second part of The Benchmark Series tackles the topic of viewability and compared the aspect of ad viewability across TV, Facebook and YouTube. The concepts of screen coverage, pixels rendered and time-on-screen were assessed against their ability to impact sales and attention. Among other findings, the insights on viewability prove that TV delivers more sales impact and attention than online advertising.

Coverage is the primary driver of attention and sales, accounting for 70% of sales impact variance. 100% Viewability generates twice the impact and a tangible uplift in sales is seen above the Viewability Standard of 50% pixels and 2 seconds.

You want to hear Karen present this study live?

egta is currently trying to coordinate various events across Europe, to optimise Dr. Nelson Field’s venue to the old continent. Current available dates include 25th to 31st January 2018, during which Karen could come and speak in your country. Contact egta before 10th November if you are interested, so that we can put you in touch with her.

Dr. Nelson-Field’s positive findings on sales, attention, screen coverage, brand prominence and viewability will help advertisers and media agencies get the best out of TV by providing clear-cut insights into how TV advertising on the TV set delivers more impactful sales results.