Study: Online video ads superior to TV ads

Cory Bergman March 27th, 2007

People who watched online video pre-roll ads were less distracted and came away with a higher brand awareness than those who watch traditional TV ads, concluded a study by MillwardBrown. Online viewing led to 82 percent brand awareness and 77 percent brand recall compared to 54 percent awareness and 18 percent recall for TV. The chief reason? Online viewers are more engaged. The study found 46 percent of online users pay attention to the ads compared to 30 percent of TV viewers and 21 percent of DVR watchers. And that’s with a 30-second pre-roll ad, which is widely considered too long. But the study’s authors warn that online publishers should be careful not to run the same pre-rolls over and over again or they’ll dilute the value of online video advertising. Meanwhile, a new Doubleclick study found that 8 percent of users have some sort of interaction with video ads with a click-thru rate ranging from 0.4 to 0.74 percent.