What Americans Think Is A Fair 'Hourly Rate' For Advertising

The bad news is that Madison Avenue values people at a rate that is considerably below minimum wage. The good news is that most people are okay with that.

To find out what consumers think the fair value exchange is for paying attention to advertising, Research Intelligencer surveyed two samples …


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4 comments about "What Americans Think Is A Fair 'Hourly Rate' For Advertising".
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  1. Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston, April 2, 2018 at 11:01 a.m.

    Watching ads is not work, any more than swatting mosquitos is work.

  2. Joe Mandese from MediaPost Inc., April 2, 2018 at 11:07 a.m.

    @Douglas Ferguson: You've obviously never participated in a focus group... No one said it was "work." The analysis simply asks what people assess what the fair value of the exchange is. The value being exchanged isn't labor, it's people's time, attention, consideration, data, etc.

  3. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, April 2, 2018 at 11:51 a.m.

    Even if we discount 50% of Nielsen's commercial minute "audience" as not being in the room and/or paying no attention, the typical national TV advertiser pays something like three cents to get a consumer to watch a 30-second TV commercial. Just thought I'd toss that in to create a frame of referrrence for those reading this article. As for the percentage of respondents who think advertising is a fair price to pay for consuming ad-supported media, the 77% positive response is about the same as has been noted in many other studies--mostly about TV---over the years.

  4. M S from DTS, April 3, 2018 at 1:41 p.m.

    But what is a fair hourly rate for watching ads when the content is NOT free? Such as ads on a paid OTT service like Hulu, ads on cinema screens, etc. 

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