The reception situation explains the advertising impact

Screenforce, the initiative of TV and moving image marketers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, presents the experimental DACH study "Track the Success", the further development of the highly regarded advertising impact study "Not all Reach is Equal" from 2020. Once again, the study compares the impact of identical advertising spots on different media channels -TV, BVOD, YouTube and Facebook. This year, however, the focus is on the reception situation during media consumption.

At its core, "Track the Success" explores the question of how viewers and users receive media content and what implications this reception situation has on the impact of advertising. Three factors were examined for this purpose: Perception, Reaction and Impact. Perception" includes all variables relating to the technical playback of the advertising: how long the advertising was played, with which sound setting and which screen coverage. The second factor is the viewers' visual attention: How long did they look at the screen during the ad?

"Reaction" means emotional response and activation. How well does advertising succeed in emotionalizing the viewer? Are they more relaxed or activated when viewing content and advertising?

"Perception and reaction are decisive for the effect. They describe the reception situation in detail and thus provide indications of the contact quality, which ultimately explains the differences in impact," explains Malte Hildebrandt, Managing Director of Screenforce Germany. "With the Track the Success study, we can validly prove on the basis of high case numbers that TV and BVOD are clearly superior to YouTube, but especially Facebook, in all categories examined."

Memory best with TV advertising

Advertising on TV is particularly effective. It is best remembered spontaneously and is also ahead in aided recall. In comparison, TV achieves the strongest effects in free advertising recall with 52 percent, followed by BVOD (44%). The US platforms YouTube (34%) and Facebook (30%) follow in 3rd and 4th place.

TV is also ahead in terms of aided advertising recall with 60 percent, while BVOD is almost on a par with 57 percent. YouTube (47%) and Facebook (43%) place well behind. These significant differences in impact are all the more remarkable because BVOD and YouTube were each tested half on smart TV and half on smartphone. This does not correspond to the real distribution of usage. BVOD offers are predominantly used on the smart TV, YouTube on the smartphone. This tends to give YouTube an advantage in the context of the study. This is all the more true because only non-skippable ads were tested on YouTube to ensure the fairest possible comparison of the media.

Skippable advertising is much more widespread in reality, however. On Facebook, half were optimized commercials. The ranking of the media in advertising recall is identical for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with slightly varying figures.

Purchase intention difficult to influence

Purchase intention is generally more difficult to influence because it depends on several factors. The differences are therefore smaller, but the pattern remains the same. TV and BVOD are tied with 26 percent each, followed by YouTube (23%) and Facebook (20%).

Emotionalization influences attention

Looking at the overall emotionalization during attention to the ad, BVOD is in first place with 6.1 seconds, followed by TV (5.4 sec) and YouTube (5.3 sec). Facebook (1.7 sec) cannot achieve comparable emotionalization. Positive emotions are so important because people are then more receptive to advertising messages. Consumers who are positively associated with a brand are generally also more willing to buy.

Emotionalization: Differences between content and advertising

The differences between content and advertising are also striking. In TV and BVOD, advertising has a comparably strong emotional impact as content. (TV: content 33%, advertising 31% // BVOD: content 38%, advertising 35%). For YouTube, the discrepancy is somewhat greater, at minus 5 percentage points (content: 35%, advertising 30%). At minus 21 percentage points, the losses to content are highest on Facebook (content: 33%, advertising: 12%).

De- and tense reception

TV as a lean-back medium shows a relaxed state of viewers during advertising, while YouTube as a lean-forward medium shows a somewhat more tense reception of advertising. This indicates a stronger disturbance by the advertising. BVOD sorts itself in between. With Facebook, the fleeting nature of the contact means that the spots are not very activating.

Change between content and advertising is perceived differently

TV shows a balanced activation level during advertising and content. On Facebook, the changes between content and ad are too fast to lead to large breaks in activation. The break is all the more obvious with YouTube: Whereas with TV, advertising is learned and accepted and "runs with it," a change between content and advertising on YouTube generates significant fluctuations.

For the study "Track the Success" Eye Square created 549 so-called "in-home media ethnographies" in the period from January to March 2021. This refers to precise recordings of the media usage behavior of study participants in their familiar surroundings. This procedure offers the great advantage of mapping reception behavior as undisturbed as possible and thus as close to reality as possible. An online survey of the participants, in which classic advertising impact parameters such as advertising recall and purchase intention were determined, rounds off the study design. Eight different advertising media from brands in various industries were analyzed. The study results are available at Screenforce.ch available for download.