Misplaced Fear of Ad Avoidance
David Brennan, research and strategy director at Thinkbox, argues that the digital age has not signalled the death knell for television advertising, but rather allowed audiences to view more…
Ad avoidance has always been a worry for our industry. We have assumed that if consumers can avoid advertising, they will. This assumption may betray a lack of confidence in our ability to entertain and engage consumers with our creative efforts and may be a factor behind the industry losing some of its love for ‘push’ media. However, as far as TV is concerned, we are now beginning to learn how misplaced those fears are.
Ad avoidance has never been easier. Many TV viewers now have the most intuitive and easy-to-use technology for avoiding ads; it’s called the Digital Television Recorder (DTR) and around one in seven households now have either Sky+ or one of the alternatives. The impending arrival of the DTR a couple of years ago cast a shadow over the TV advertising landscape like Nosferatu leaning over a sleeping maiden’s bed. There was a collective howl of anguish from an industry convinced that the primary benefit for the consumer would be the ability to avoid ads. Media’s favoured black garb became funereal.
So, it is with no little surprise and relief that things have not turned out so badly. There is now an arsenal of authoritative data – from BARB, Sky and even the London Business School – showing that, rather than avoiding ads, most DTR homes have ended up watching more ads in real time. This is partly because they start watching more television – television they choose to watch. On top of that, the vast bulk of their viewing (about 85%) is still live and, almost half the time, they don’t fast forward ads when they watch time-shifted programmes.
In our recent ‘Engagement Study’ we made sure that half our sample was DTR owners so we could uncover how TV was viewed amongst this most ad-avoidance-enabled audience. We didn’t know what we would find. What we saw happening was that they engaged enthusiastically with TV ads in a way I don’t believe any other medium could demonstrate: singing, laughing, clapping, dancing, talking about the products, playing ‘guess the ad’ games and sharing their enjoyment of favourite ads with friends and family.
Further research we’ve done shows that DTR owners are more aware of the ‘advertising contract’. They appreciate the fact that advertising funds their favourite programmes and are more positive about the overall televisual experience, as they know they are in control. Levels of zapping, zipping, scanning and that old chestnut of leaving the room to make a cup of tea were all way below what might have been expected. It is clear that, though DTR owners are in more control than ever before, they rarely exercise their ability to avoid ads; in fact sometimes they use DTR technology to re-watch an ad they love. The potential for ad avoidance is there, but the desire is nowhere near as momentous as feared.
A fraction of TV viewers will always complain bitterly about ads, but even they can be effectively reached by the right creative and relevant products. The emerging truth from our research is that people in general really don’t mind ads. At best, they positively enjoy them and feel their viewing experience would be less diverse without good quality ads acting as ‘punctuation’ between the programming.
Our ‘Generation Whatever’ research, which examined the media consumption of the younger demographic, showed that the future of the TV ad is in good hands. The young are really upbeat about TV advertising and talk about the ads to their friends far more than any other demographic. They have a genuinely positive view of the role TV advertising plays in their lives. When we asked them to name their favourite ads, they overwhelmingly chose TV ads and talked about them with an infectious enthusiasm.
While this is great news for advertisers, we must be vigilant and ensure the ads continue to attract younger viewers and draw them in, especially as they now have so many more places to go. We at Thinkbox believe 2007 was a watershed in terms of great creative (which has been freed from its need to give detailed information, given the response mechanisms offered by online platforms) and we needn’t be apologetic or hesitant about putting that great creative in front of the audience.
It is significant that, at a time when people could go through the day without being exposed to an ad at all, we are watching more TV commercials in real time than ever – up to 40 a day on average (equating to 2.2 billion ads seen every day in the UK alone). This is not bad for an industry which was told – and in places believed – its main form of advertising (though by no means its only form) was under severe threat just 18 months ago.
We can’t be triumphalist or complacent – DTR usage is still finding its feet – but we can raise a glass to the new year in the knowledge that, as long as we make ads enjoyable, relevant and emotionally engaging, the viewers will continue to be there when those great ads appear and will continue to respond accordingly.