• by Masha Geller , April 11, 2002

A few months ago I reported that the Online Publishers Association (OPA) was getting ready to conduct two separate studies on the media consumption habits of U.S. consumers. The results of the first study were released in January and today, as promised, the second installment is in.

The complete results are available at the OPA website, but here are some salient points:

The media mix study was undertaken with Millward Brown IntelliQuest in February 2002. The study tested recall and memorability of online and television advertising - each alone and in combination - following a single exposure to the ad creative.

The study concluded that there is a positive, synergistic effect when TV and online advertising are used in combination. In a test of day-after ad recall, those who had been exposed to both the TV and the online ads were significantly more likely to remember the TV ad than those who were exposed only to the TV ad (32% vs. 23%).

Advertising for the U.S. Air Force was used for the test. The online ads appeared as a sponsorship on the ESPN.com website, and the TV advertising ran during an episode of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire."

The study also found that day-after awareness of online Air Force advertising was significantly higher among those who had been exposed to the online ads (38%) compared to the control group (21%). Further, day-after recall of the specific online creative was more than double that of the control group (65% vs. 30%), and even higher (78%) for those who had also seen the ad on TV.

"This research shows how powerful the 'brick and click' combination of online and TV can be for marketers," said Michael Zimbalist, executive director of the Online Publishers Association. "TV advertisers who aren't currently including online in their media plans are missing an opportunity to boost the overall effectiveness of their campaigns."