Someday, perhaps a new study will be commissioned that shows that fans of low-rated television shows that wind up getting canceled are more influenced to purchase things based on TV advertising. That study will be followed up by another study that shows people who watch TV over the Internet are more influenced by advertising. I imagine those studies will be very popular around here. This one? No so much.
The report, called "How Media Works: Advertising and the Purchase Funnel," was conducted by Yankelovich for the TVB to determine the role TV plays as part of a multiplatform environment for advertising.
At a time when economic conditions make it more important than ever to maximize their advertising expenditures to get consumers to purchase their goods, the study examines the role of television advertising in driving consumer actions throughout the purchase decision process; how television interacts with other media platforms and how purchase decisions are made as a result of interactions with media.
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The findings challenge the popular assumptions that traditional media-particularly television-affects mainly the top of the funnel, or awareness, and that interactive media is effective at the funnel's bottom, with purchase being the last click.
Yankelovich found that TV was the most impactful medium as far as awareness, consideration, preference and purchase are concerned. The Internet was second in each case.
The internet sucks when it comes to advertizing simply because of the nature of it. Pop-ups are annoying, and header ads are either jpegs or other simple ads. They’re not eyecatching. And on a good number of websites, the ads are either all the same, or they’re the equivalent of junkmail. With all of the awareness about virsus and such online, people are scared to click on the ads. Me too, depending on the website.
TV ads, on the other hand, have a lot more freedom in their content and be really attention grabbing. All of us can remember certain TV commercials that were really memorable, but I can’t recall one single web ad. And plus, there’s no harm in watching a TV ad, where clicking could lead you god only knows where.
The only overt advantage of web ads is that potential for instant sales. You can’t get that on TV.
Another point – if a company can afford to put an ad on TV, I can assume that they’re fairly reputable. On the internet, not so much.
Doug’s points make good sense except I’d suggest clarification about TV ads vs. relative reputability. Doing TV advertising can often be done via spot-market ads, paying for local station insertion as opposed to entire network runs, as was standarsd practice until about 1960 with the major and secondary sponsorship methods. Local or regional ads can be done for costs affordable for many local businesses. The trade-off is the relatively low exposure, but at least it’s a target market approach.
By contrast, many big and well-heeled companies or their investors continue to strain our sensibilities with a silly premise, questionable claims, and/or grossly misleading (mis)information.
Incessant in frequency and mind-mumbing in content, national ads by the mortgage giants, banks, credit card and insurance companies, pharmaceuticals (big pharma), auto service contracts (presented as the full equivalent to extended warranties), tele/videocommunications and cable giants, and a host of other perpetrators create severe slants because their products are generally dealing with very technical underpinnings that are so complex that most all consumers are unfamiliar with what’s really going on under the surface of the ads, and are hard pressed to verify the claims unless they’re exceedingly fluent in both math and business management tactics.
Financial products and pharmaceuticals are perhaps the largest categories of massive and massively misleading ad campaigns, fueled by a continuous stream of an endless and perpetually confused customer base. Size does not equal reputability but it sure can give a big edge to who can run ‘forever ads’ on national TV.
All the data I’ve seen is telling people: Whoah. The Internet is years, even decades, away from challenging TV as an advertising medium. Here’s another reason why: internet ads are easier to get rid of!! Speaking from experience, I’d always rather zap a popup than spend minutes trying to use thwe remote to step around net and basic cable ads. You end up watching TV ads because you can’t avoid it, like death and taxes. Speaking as a non DVR owner. …