ITV

Tag: efficacy

  • Nielsen to study the efficacy of product placement in the US

    MUMBAI: One advertising method that is growing in the US is that of product placement in both film and television. How effective is it?

    That is the question Nielsen Media Research and Nielsen Entertainment in the US will seek to answer. They will conduct a study which will, for the first time, provide an assessment of the factors impacting product placement effectiveness.

     

     
    At a time when there has been an intense focus on ROI for advertising generally, the spotlight on brand
    integration has spawned several tracking and evaluation services. No one else however, has attempted to provide insight on the contributing factors of behavioural response on empirical findings.

    The study’s initial participants include CBS/UPN, Discovery, Magna Global, Mediacom, OMD, PHD, Sprint, The Weather Channel, and Zenith Optimedia. Nielsen has been tracking the physical characteristics of product placement since the beginning of the 2003-2004 broadcast season. The objective of this extensive study is to look beyond the on-screen appearances
    and determine how the context of a placement’s execution can impact consumer response. The relationship viewers have with a specific programme, as well as their familiarity with the brand and product category featured, as related to the effectiveness of placements, will be analysed in this research.

     
     
    VNU media measurement and information group Senior VP strategy and alliances Dave Harkness says, “Product placement has gained significant attention and investment in recent years. This research study continues with Nielsen’s commitment to provide our clients with quality information to make more effective business and marketing decisions.” Nielsen Entertainment has also been testing the effectiveness of product placement in television, and beginning in 2006 in film as well.

    Nielsen Entertainment president and CEO Andy Wing said, “We expect that the existing services from Nielsen combined with the results of our study to deliver findings that can lead to more actionable information which can be used to make brand integration a more measurable and effective selling tool.”

     
     
    Magna Global director of Audience Analysis Steve Sternberg said, “Numerous advertisers are increasing their commitments in the product integration arena, while there continues to be precious little industry research to guide executives with crucial business decisions. This study is an essential first step towards more advanced and customised research analyses in predicting the relative impact of differing levels and types of product integration. As a charter subscriber, we are excited to be involved from the onset of the research and provide valuable input into this important research.”

  • London Business School study questions efficacy of TV ads

    London Business School study questions efficacy of TV ads

    LONDON: Is advertising on television really a value for money proposition? Not if you go by the findings revealed in a recent study by the London Business School (LBS).

    The LBS study has also put a question mark on viewership ratings, which according to it only measure how many people have their television sets on, rather than the number of people actively watching.

    The study found that people who watched television with family or friends were far more likely to talk to each other during the commercial breaks than to focus on the ads.

    In a radical departure from established norm, which sees the maximum ad spend going onto shows with the highest viewership, the study claims that less-watched shows could in fact be a better option for advertisers. The reasoning behind this is that lone viewers were more likely to be concentrating on the ads.

    “In a breathtaking example of ignorance and strategic naivety, advertisers have spent millions in the mistaken belief that they have purchased an audience for their advertising that never existed,” LBS assistant professor of marketing Mark Ritson was quoted as saying by the Financial Times.

    “They could have spent less money and ensured more exposure by buying spots that delivered a lonely but more attentive viewer,” Ritson was quoted as having said.

    Ritson made his findings based on a sample comprising people ranging from retired couples to a group of immigrant office workers over a single week using miniature cameras and microphones.

    The observations indicated that those viewers derides products and ads and passed negative comments on the products and services. Others spent the commercial break doing housework, reading or channel hopping.

    Several avid viewers watched not more than half the ad commercials. “This is important because most countries use “peoplemeters” to measure advertising audiences. The problem is that the peoplemeter assumes that people in living rooms during commercial breaks are watching the advertising if they are present in the room,” the report says.

    Research agencies confirm that there is no method to verify whether the ads are being watched or not. Separate studies have to be conducted in order to verify the same. The debate on viewership ratings continues!