More than half of the Swiss hate video advertising with sound
The Swiss love their smartphones, and they love watching videos on them. But 53.2 percent hate it when an ad clip starts playing unexpectedly on a website and blares at full volume. This is the finding of a recent study by Teads.
Among 16- to 24-year-olds, as many as 65 percent feel strongly disturbed. Respondents feel similarly disturbed when it comes to video ads in general, where users cannot find a close button. 51.4 percent react to this in frustration.
In fact, many of the users are affected themselves. For example, 57 percent said that a video on their own smartphone had already started making a surprising noise. 54 percent then tried to turn off the sound immediately. If that didn't work in the shortest possible time, 44 percent left the site as quickly as possible. A fifth of those affected even found the perceived noise nuisance to their environment embarrassing and said they had panicked.
In principle, 52 percent already mute video advertising on news sites. On YouTube and Facebook, it's 61 percent and 47 percent, respectively.
Users are not annoyed by video content or video ads, but by often uncontrolled noise. "But that doesn't have to be the case," says Alex Savic, Managing Director Switzerland at Teads. "Online video advertising can work very well without sound. Spots have to arouse the interest of users in a very short time, especially online. Without the right approach, even forced sound doesn't help. On the contrary, it tends to be annoying. The creative implementation must take into account the usage situation on the PC or smartphone. This determines whether users decide to watch the video and, if they are interested, perhaps even actively turn on the sound."
The study was conducted by Censuswide on behalf of Teads. In June 2018, 500 Swiss adults between the ages of 16 and 64 were surveyed via an online panel.
