Multichannel campaigns can become complex and challenging, but research released Friday by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) shows that consumers viewing a constant message across a variety of channels can improve purchase intent by 90% and brand perception by 68%.
Anna Bager, SVP and GM for Mobile and Video at IAB, said the study noted the importance of "mixing traditional and digital in order for brands to get the most out of their advertising dollars."
The IAB set out to prove whether desktop or mobile advertising improves brand impact when mixed with traditional advertising, and if so, by how much. Through a controlled group, those not exposed to the ads, and those who were, the research, titled the "Cross–Media Ad Effectiveness Study," set out to analyze which combination of media formats provide the best results.
Conducting the advertising effectiveness studies across two live ad campaigns, the IAB commissioned Research Now, which tracked the digital ads with first-party cookies and offline media through OTS questions in the survey. The IAB Research Council requested the study, sponsored by Drawbridge, Discovery Communications, and YuMe.
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Overall, the research analyzed a combination of traditional and digital ads across Automotive, Consumer Product Goods, Retail, Finance and Media. The auto industry experienced the strongest impact from building campaigns, based on familiarity and favorability through traditional media.
A combination of Mobile In-App, TV, and Print emerged as a very strong driver of increases in lower funnel metrics, particularly for brand consideration, per the
findings.
The research included two studies. The first focused on a new automobile model and included a variety of traditional ads that ran on pizza boxes to Out of Home Formats, TV, Radio, and Print, as well Video and Display on desktop and Mobile in-apps and on the Web.
For the automotive campaign, desktop and mobile advertising had the greatest impact on awareness, familiarity and consideration. The brand experienced a 22% lift in brand familiarity from desktop ads, an 18% lift from mobile Web ads, and a 16% lift from mobile in-app ads.
The campaign also drove a 23% increase in brand consideration and a 4% lift for aided awareness from desktop ads.
Interestingly, adding desktop to the campaign raised aided brand awareness by 92%, desktop and print by 96%, and desktop, mobile Web and TV by 94%. A combination of desktop and print aided in consumers seeking more information about the product.
Adding the combination of any desktop ads with traditional ads improved brand familiarity by 22%, and lift from any mobile Web and traditional ad by 19%. It also aided brand awareness. The campaign experienced a 5% lift from any desktop and ad combination and 26% lift in brand consideration from any desktop ad combination.
Adding television drove up all percentages. When it came to unaided brand awareness, the auto brand experienced a 211% lift from desktop, mobile Web and TV. Brand familiarity rose 19% from desktop and print ads; brand favorability, 28% from desktop and print ads; brand consideration, 50% from desktop and print; and 56% from desktop and print ads, based on those searching for information
The second study examined the advertising impact of a well-known cookie dough brand whose ads ran on desktop, mobile Web and TV. The research was then rounded out with three case studies from Research Now on retail, finance and media, each involving a mix of digital and traditional media.
Overall, the study analyzed ads across automotive, consumer product goods, retail, finance and media. The auto industry experienced the strongest impact from building campaigns based on familiarity and favorability through traditional media. A combination of mobile in-App, TV and print emerged as a very strong driver of increases in lower-funnel metrics, particularly for brand consideration, per the findings.
It turns out that the best media channel combinations for all types of market segments to improve brand lift included desktop and mobile campaigns combined with television advertising, according to the study.
I'm not familiar with the details of this study however, the findings, as reported, strike me as odd . For example, if I convert, say 10% of my TV budget to mobile video ads at comparable CPMs, can I expect that my entire reach----most of it not attained by the mobile component, would see an overall awareness hike of 50% 0r 75% or 90%? OK, so that sounds nuts. So what are they referring to---the incremental reach added by the second media component, which might be a very small number of people? Or are they referring to the duplicated reach---which might be a larger group, but not the whole audience or even close to it in size? In other words, what were the parameters and tradeoffs? Does this study tell me that converting 10% of my TV budget to digital is a cost effective way to increase awareness among those added to my reach, bearing in mind that I'm reducing my TV budget and, mainly, losing frequency against a far larger number of consumers?
Ed, thanks for leaving a comment. There's a link to the study at the bottom of the article. It has a ton of data that I hope you will find useful.
Thanks, Laurie. I waded through the presentation but did not see any reference to ad spending levels and the differing impression weights and reach levels that these generate. Also, I was surprised to see a notation indicating that the findings for various combinations of media were estimated using statistical methods, rather than measured----unless I misread the report, which is entirely possible. However, my basic point remains, namely, that advertisers will want to examine such findings---assuming that they accept the research----in the light of possible media mix allocations, based on pre-set or constant ad budgets. If, hypothetically, you gain 25% in consumer sales motivation against a segment comprising 20% of your target group, but lose 5% in sales motivation against 80% of your target group that is either not reached or reached by a reduced TV schedule, is the substitution worth the effort?
I'm with you om this one Ed.
Studies that don't report the level and only report the percentage change in the level immediately raise my suspicions, and in some cases my ire.
So I ask any readers of this piece the following? Would you rather have a media mix that raised purchase intent by 100% or one that raised it by 50%. Most would opt for the former.
What if I then told you the former lifted purchase intent from 2% to 4% (a 100% lift), while the latter lifted purchase intent from 20% to 30% ( a 50% lift).
Would that alter your decision?