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Burst: Online Ads Make Impression; Internet Primary Source for Purchase Info

Some 57.1 percent of all web users 18 years and older say the internet serves as the primary source of information about products or services they might want to buy, according to a survey by Burst Media of more than 3,700 web users, MarketingVOX reports. That proportion is significantly higher among the affluent: 69.2 percent among those with household income of $75,000 or more. That’s compared with 50.6 percent of those with income less than $35,000.

TV commercials, however, apparently still make the most impression. Nearly half (49.8 percent) of respondents cited television as the most effective media to capture their attention, followed by the internet (22.3 percent), magazines (11.6 percent), newspapers (10.3 percent) and radio (5.9 percent). Stil, half (50.7 percent) of respondents say they have watched an online video advertisement for a product or service online.

Men are significantly more likely than women to have watched on online video ad: 58.4 percent versus 43.4 percent. Men 18-34 are most likely to have viewed an online video advertisement: 61.6 say they have done so. Among those who have viewed an online video ad, 40.4 percent say they paid about the same or more attention to the video ad than to a similar one on TV; that proportion is 46.3 percent for men.

Women were more likely than men to point to TV as making the most impression on them: 53.9 percent versus 45.5 percent. However, 27.1 percent of men, compared with 17.8 percent of women, point to the internet as the most effective media; nearly one-third (31.4 percent) of men 18-34 say the internet is the most effective media for capturing their attention.

Asked their opinion of online advertising campaigns they have seen for familiar brands, more than one-third (39.5 percent) of respondents said those campaigns were “recycling” what was being done in other media; nearly one-quarter (23.0 percent) said the online campaigns were “worse” than what was being done on TV, in newspapers and in magazines.

However, 57.5 percent among those who cited the internet as most effective at capturing their attention said online campaigns were “cutting edge” and better than other media.