TV spots shown during Web programs click better with viewers than the same 30-second ads on TV, according to a new study by Millward Brown.
Web spots increased the viewer attention rate by 53%, awareness by 52%, consideration by 27% and favorability by 26%. Prompted recall of brand advertising was four times higher for Web viewers.
What's going on here?
"You're looking at a 30-second ad, not a four-minute pod," said Mike Ripka of Millward Brown. "You'll sit around for 30 seconds, so you're highly engaged with the advertising."
Audiences are less likely to get up during those 30 seconds than during TV ad pods.
So is this the data that finally tells us all to abandon TV ads in favor of the Web?
No. The study focused solely on 30-second spots produced originally for television, excluding shorter, edgier ads that often run on the Web. In other words, there's still a need to produce original creative for Web programming.
When 30-second spots run on the Web, they also play an average of three times per episode, which limits the life of ads.
Television and the Internet complement each other in several ways. eMarketer Senior Analyst David Hallerman says that the trick is to play to their strengths.
"The Internet is a lean-forward medium," says Mr. Hallerman, "with an actively engaged audience ready to click and type and move around quickly, while television is the proverbial lean-back medium, with the typified image of couch potatoes letting sounds and images wash over them."
Those couch potatoes are also the larger audience — something stressed in the Millward Brown study — so combining Internet video targeting with mass reach for certain campaign elements can be more effective than focusing solely on one medium.