Relevant Advertising With Bucks Off Captures Online Consumers

by Jack Loechner, Mar 27, 2009, 8:15 AM

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According to a new survey by Lightspeed Research and the Internet Advertising Bureau, the online audience wants advertisements that are relevant, useful and incentified with money off, but the results reveal that there are key differences by age group when developing appealing advertising executions. Though the study was completed in the UK, the demographics and response should provide a parallel for US Internet advertising and advertisers.

Most Likely To Pay Attention To Ad Seen Online (Comparing 18-45 And 45-64 Age Groups, % Of Age Group)
	Age Group
Pay Attention	18-45	45-54
If it is relevant to me	48%	52%
If it is useful to me	43	44
If it adds something to my online experience	12	10
If it gives me new and/or exclusive information	20	16
If it is entertaining	26	14
If it gives me money off	40	32
I don't notice online ads	21	24
Source: Lightspeed Research February 2009

 

Most Likely To Pay Attention To An Ad Seen Online (Selected Age Groups, % Of Age Group)
	Age Group
Pay Attention	18-24	25-34	35-44	45-54	55+
If it is relevant to me	48%	53%	54%	52%	49%
If it is useful to me	43	44	44	44	42
If it adds something to my online experience	12	11	10	10	8
If it gives me new and/or exclusive information	20	17	14	16	14
If it is entertaining	26	21	16	14	11
If it gives me money off	40	41	36	32	25
I don't notice online ads	21	19	21	24	30
Source: Lightspeed Research February 2009

The survey found that younger audiences are more interested in special offers, the entertainment factor and exclusive information within advertising, says the report. For 45-54 year olds however, ads need to be more relevant and useful to make an impact. And, while money off particularly appeals to 18-35 year olds, with the economy expected to be slow, people of all ages are more likely to be looking for advertising that offers money off. In each case, and for the other age groups in the survey, consumers want online advertisers to understand their needs and devise their creative executions accordingly. 

Online Advertising Ever Seen, Or Clicked On (Average Of All Respondents, % Of Respondents)
Kind Of Online Ad	Seen And Sometimes Clicked	Seen And Not Clicked	Never Seen This Kind Of Ad
Sponsored links in a search result	48%	46%	6%
Advertising within a page (such as banners)	36	59	5
Email advertising	28	57	15
Pop up advertising	24	70	6
Ads on a web page that have sounds / video that start automatically	22	64	14
Branded applications such as widgets or social networking pages	18	50	32
Advertising in the form of a game or advertising within a game	17	58	25
Free gifts on Facebook	14	41	45
Pop under advertising	13	66	22
Source: Lightspeed Research February 2009

Most respondents believed they had been exposed to the more ‘traditional' forms of online advertising, such as sponsored links, banners and emails and these ads were most likely to have generated click-throughs.

Every age group surveyed chose sponsored links and advertising within a page as the top two ad formats sparking their interest to click through to the advertisers' website.

The research found that newer forms of online advertising, with ads using sound and video, widgets, in-game advertising and free gifts are gaining ground proving.

In particular, says the report, gifts and branded applications online are especially effective with 18-24 year old respondents - 29% had seen and sometimes interacted with an ad from either Facebook or branded content across various other social networking sites, suggesting that these forms of advertising have the potential to become more mainstream.

Email advertising is particularly effective, finds the study, for those aged over 25. 34% of 25-34 year olds said they had seen and sometimes clicked on an ad from an email.

Sorcha Proctor, Research Manager for IAB UK says "The research has found that... consumers... highlighting (that) consumers want relevance, entertainment and value for their money, online... "

For more information on this proprietary study, please visit Lightspeed Research, part of the Kantar Group, here.

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