Online Video Ads Best TV Ads In Viewer Attention And Recall

Viewers pay more attention to online video ads than they do to traditional TV commercials - and they also recall them better. That's the primary take-away from a recent study of 48 viewers who watched one hour of programming in Interpublic Group's West Coast IPG Media Lab. Using Affectiva's facial tracking technology and second-by-second biometric modeling of cognition, excitement, and stress levels, researchers determined that, on average, online viewers pay more attention to the screen they are watching than traditional TV viewers do - and the greater attention levels carry over to advertising. Specifically, online video ads received 18.3% more viewer attention in the study than TV commercials did, a much higher disparity than the 8.5% greater viewer attention garnered by online video content over TV content. The study, which was conducted in conjunction with the video ad network YuMe, suggested this largely was attributed to the fact that, when transitioning from program content to ads, the attention of TV viewers dropped off three times faster than that of online viewers. [Full story: MediaPost]