Viewers pay more attention to online video ads than to broadcast/cable TV commercials and are then able to recall them better, according to research from video ad network YuMe and IPG Media Lab, “Advertising Attention in the Wild: A Comparison of Online and Televised Video Advertising.” The research measured the reactions of 48 viewers watching one hour of programming. Using facial tracking algorithms and biometric monitoring, a second-by-second monitoring of cognition, excitement, and stress found that despite constant distractions in both mediums, online video commands higher attention and recall from viewers. Online video ads received 18.3% more viewer attention in the study than TV commercials -- a much higher disparity than the 8.5% greater viewer attention garnered by online video content over TV content.
Key findings include:
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Viewer distractions, most commonly in the form of smartphones—which are “a persistent companion to video content”—reduce attention to ads for both TV and online video
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Versus online video, TV has 3x the drop in attention from content to ad
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63 percent of TV impressions were ignored
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Online video content gets 8.5 percent more attention than TV and online video ads have 18.3 percent more fully attentive viewers than TV ads
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Online ads have 1.8x the aided recall and 1.5x the unaided recall of TV ads
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TV viewers are exposed to nearly twice as many video ads as online viewers