Study shows qualitative impact contribution of moving image media TV, YouTube and Facebook

Spending on moving image advertising has risen continuously in recent years, with more and more moving image formats coming onto the market in parallel. One important aspect has so far remained largely unresolved: What is the impact of moving image advertising on different media and what role do placement, contact frequency and the combination of communication measures play? Studies that answer these questions comprehensively and in detail have so far failed because of the technical and methodological complexity.The Mediaplus Group, SevenOne Media and Google Deutschland are now publishing a study that enables a comprehensive qualitative comparison of effects at the advertising medium level: the "Media Equivalence Study: Video. For this, the market research institute conducting the study, Facit Research, developed a technically highly complex, experimental study design and tested the advertising impact of the media TV, YouTube and Facebook under identical conditions. The YouTube formats were played out both on the desktop and via the app. In the case of Facebook, the advertising media were placed in the personal newsfeed in the Facebook app.Cosima Giannachi, Managing Director of Mediaplus Suisse, says: "Whether an advertising spot has the same advertising impact on TV, on online video channels and on social media platforms is a question that plays a key role in the development of a media strategy. Since the impact of the media can basically be seen across countries, we can use the results of the study conducted in Germany to further optimize classic reach planning in Switzerland as well. With the help of the results obtained from the study, it is thus possible to supplement the effective reach of campaign contacts with the qualitative aspect of impact and thus achieve even better results."Guido Modenbach, Managing Director Market Intelligence SevenOne Media: "The study gives a very differentiated view of the unique impact spectrum of video advertising and provides valuable facts for integrated 360-degree planning across all platforms. TV not only delivers great reach, but once again proves to be a particularly effective advertising medium. The results make it clear that we are on the right track with our cross-media marketing approaches."

The results

Advertising impact of moving image advertising depending on the medium

The study confirms the power of moving images in all channels, especially for the indicators advertising recall and spontaneous brand awareness. Advertising in traditional moving images (here TV and YouTube) has a stronger impact than in social media such as Facebook. Thus, 18 % of the subjects remembered offhand advertisements for brands they had seen in a TV block, 14 % remembered after seeing a pre-roll ad on YouTube, and 7 % were able to name advertised brands after seeing corresponding moving image ads on Facebook. Within the YouTube formats tested, the bumper showed the highest advertising recall.

Advertising impact of moving image advertising depending on contact frequency and media combination

Test persons remember brands twice as strongly if they have had contact with an advertising medium of the same medium twice. This applies to TV, YouTube and Facebook.The strongest spontaneous advertising recall is achieved by combinations of different TV advertising formats with values of over 40 %.Furthermore, it is shown that the advertising mix of TV and YouTube has a stronger effect than two contacts with a campaign on YouTube alone. In addition, the mix of both media is almost as effective as two TV contacts in the advertising block. TV and YouTube can reinforce each other.A combination of TV or YouTube with Facebook moving image advertising, on the other hand, achieves a weaker effect than two TV or two YouTube pre-roll contacts.

The study

For the study, around 3,700 test subjects aged 14 and over were invited to test studios in four German cities between March and June 2018. Here, they each engaged with two moving image media on different devices. The prerequisite was that the subjects use TV and the video platform YouTube as well as the social media platform Facebook at least occasionally. This corresponds to around 40 % of the German population aged 14 and over. After media usage, the subjects were asked about the three advertised brands from different industries.The study design applied is unique worldwide, as the subjects were able to surf freely on the desktop as well as within the app environment of YouTube and Facebook, respectively, within their own news feed. In addition, it was possible to control which selected advertising media were played at which point.The focus of the advertising impact analysis was the test of different advertising forms of three moving image campaigns of different brands and industries for TV, YouTube (browser and app) and the mobile newsfeed of Facebook (app). The target spots were played into the respective environments via "Ad-Injected Content".Watch here the image film for the study.