Bill Niemeyer, Senior Analyst
November 18, 2011
According to testing results released this week by the Advanced Advertising Media Project (AAMP), heavy ad loads (like linear TV levels) in VoD content do not diminish consumer enjoyment of shows, ad engagement, and other advertising effectiveness metrics. Based on my personal experience, that's a counter-intuitive result, but the research and argument appears to be a well-constructed test, not to mention an interesting read. I was set to write a longer piece on this subject but Will Richmond of Video Nuze beat me to the punch with an excellent article this morning that said most of what I was going to say. So I'll just add a little color of my own.
A note: I'm currently writing a TDG report on VoD advertising to be released in December. It covers on-demand video advertising in VoD and online/OTT, including a quantitative look at how improved advertising capabilities can significantly grow free ad-supported VoD viewing.
The Advanced Advertising Media Project (AAMP) is a multi-company initiative co-founded by the American Association of Advertising Agencies and on-demand video ad technology firm BlackArrow. Their members include TV networks and ad/media agencies. Its most general purpose is investigating the effectiveness of advertising in VoD. This week's results were from in-lab testing firm Ipsos - a highly-respected research firm - and measured consumer reactions to varying ad loads in on-demand content.
Will's takeaways and analysis are spot on, especially his point that industry studies conducted in a "controlled lab environment" naturally give rise to questions of efficacy. In the real world of the home, consumers may be less tolerant of interruptions in their shows and more inspired to use ad avoidance technologies, both new (i.e. smartphones and iPads) and old (mute buttons, magazines, bathroom breaks, refrigerator breaks, and even talking with other people in the room). And since the AAMP includes both sellers and buyers of VoD ads as well a wide range of other new digital advertising, there's hopefully less incentive to "put a thumb on the scale."
Fortunately, AAMP's Phase 3's testing will be live, in-market, during 2012, likely using Comcast's wide rollout of VoD ad insertion and measurement as the material of the study. This will be interesting to observe, as these tests have implications for both VoD and online/OTT video.
We'll keep you updated.
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