TV ad effectiveness: More than eyeballs Murray Love
MEASURING television audiences has always been about counting the number of eyeballs present in the room while an ad airs, but how effective is this?
With greater consumer choice it is becoming increasingly critical to go further than examining how many eyeballs are watching, and start looking at how many of those eyeballs are actively involved in viewing a program and its ads.
From a media buying perspective, reach, frequency, cost per target audience ratings point (TARP), and so on, are effective measures, providing the equation 1 TARP = 1 TARP is true. However, this is debatable when variables such as environment, clutter and involvement are considered.
For one viewer, the content may simply pass across their eyeballs. For another, it may become the subject of much social interaction. Some will be motivated to make immediate purchases.
Counting impressions provides an account of those who have been exposed, but it does not give an indication of the likely range of consumer actions and responses to that content.
In addition, with the emergence of interactive and multimedia technologies intensifying in the future, media such as interactive TV, personal video recorders, games and online services disrupt the marketing strategies and mechanisms for media evaluation of the mass approach.
With much focus placed on the medium and program an advertiser wishes to be involved with, it is becoming more important to focus on how the ad is communicated and how it is interacted with. Reach and frequency measures the basic first step of the process for evaluating media—the exposure stage.
The key to ensuring effective delivery of a message rests in the final four phases which encompass attentiveness, communication, persuasion and response.
Linking the performance of media advertising to brand awareness, purchase intent and all the way through the process to product movement is rapidly becoming a capability that must be embraced as we move forward
This column was based on papers presented at this year’s ESOMAR conference. A) Stacey Lynn Koerner et al—USA. B) Brian Rock & Robert Chard—Australia. C) Bernhard Engel—Germany. D) David J. LeRoy & Stacey Lynn Koerner—USA. E) Ian Garland—USA. F) Heikki J. Kasari—Finland. G) Craig Gugel & Cheryl Idell—USA. UK Market Discussions: H) Barb & Julian Dobinson (SKY), David Harrison.
Murray Love is group manager—research and strategy for pay TV sales arm Multi Channel Network.
