• by Wayne Friedman , October 12, 2022

Using three kinds of biometric measures -- eye-tracking, "cardiac deceleration" and "sweat secretion" -- TV-centric Comcast Advertising says advertising in long-form TV programming on full-screen TV or streaming platforms yields better ad “memories” than with advertising placed on digital media platforms.

When it comes to "attention," the study says, for ads viewed in the TV environment participants watched 71% of the ad -- compared to just 30% of the digital mobile ads.

Looking at the effects of ads "repetition" results, Comcast says recall was 3.4 times better for TV versus digital mobile when it came to all ad brands, compared to 2.3 times for well-known advertising brands.

Creative recall also favored TV over digital.

When participants saw two ads in the TV environment -- versus one ad in the TV environment and one in the digital mobile environment -- TV scored better results when it came to "entertaining," "engaging," "high quality," "informational" and "liked the ad" measures.

Biometric measures here include: "Cardiac deceleration" -- a slowing of the heart rate is an indicator of cognitive function, linked to improve memory; "neurometric intensity", which comes from an emotional response by measuring sweat secretion, and "eye-tracking" technology measuring viewers' eyes tracking an ad on the screen.

The Comcast Advertising-MediaScience study of 188 participants showed viewers 30-second ads in "mobile-digital environment": YouTube (pre-roll ads before short-form videos) and Facebook (in-feed ads), and "TV environment," traditional TV and streaming.

The authors of the study say: "In the high-quality, long-form, full-screen TV environment, where visual attention and engagement are high, brands are more likely to be remembered."