Recently Comscore was commissioned to do a report on behalf of online publishers to show that online display really does work. "Forget about the click through" was the angle, "what matters is that these ads drive awareness."
A piece of research out by Harris Interactive casts some doubt on that. A survey of American consumers found that when it came to ad formats found to be the most 'helpful' in influencing purchasing decisions, TV came top on 37%.
TV was followed by newspaper advertising on 17% while search engine advertising scored a respectable 14%. However at the bottom of the table, only 3% considered radio ads the most helpful, dropping down to 1% for Internet banner ads.
When it came to ad formats they claimed to 'ignore', only 6% of consumers ignored newspaper advertising (there is life in the old dog yet), 9% ignored radio ads, 13% TV and 17% search engine advertising. Internet ads? 46% claimed to have banner blindness.
For a more detailed response that I posted around the Comscore study, see a post I wrote on my home blog.
The Harris poll is interesting but a more valid test would be measured awareness before and after online banner ad exposure versus similar measures before and after offline campaigns...
Yes - Comscore did exactly that with their survey. They claimed to show that brand search results went up around the same time an online ad campaign broke even though the click throughs were puny.
One of my points with the Comscore stats is that as far as I can see they haven't definitely shown that the online ads were responsible.
I mean, it stands to reason that online would have been one element of an integrated campaign and so that search uplift could just as well be due to exposure to TV etc.
This seems like a very odd question and quite flawed. There's plenty of independent research around that proves online display advertising is effective at branding and awareness.
The biggest issue for me is the formats included, particularly the lack of other online formats and the inclusion of "search engine ads" in this question. Search engine ads are never (or at least very rarely) considered to be standalone awareness ads like the other formats, they're more a gateway to websites that help with a purchase decision. I'd seriously question how many people have made a purchase decision based on a 70 character text advert.
To include search engine ads, to me, would make it necessary to include or breakout the websites they led to like brand, comparison and review websites. Not to mention breaking out paid and natural search results. But as a comparison of "advertising" only, of course they haven't been included.
Lo and behold: www.brandrepublic.com/.../Online-recommendations-trusted-forms-advertising
Dirk Singer
Blogging for:
Member since: 29 Apr 2009
Last login: 05 Nov 2009
Total Posts: 21
