The effectiveness of consumer choice on pre-roll advertising

By YouTube, brandrepublic.com, Monday, 20 June 2011 08:30AM

Users who opt-in to view YouTube's TrueView skippable ad format are over 75% more engaged than those who view standard pre-roll advertising, according to research released by Google.

TrueView is a skippable pre-roll advertising format which gives viewers the choice to skip the ad after five seconds if they do not like it.

Advertisers only pay for a full view of the ad and any skipped exposures are not charged.

Topline results:

•  On average, people are more engaged when they are offered the chance to skip than when they are forced to watch an ad
• The choice to skip the ad increases user response in the first five seconds

Research Method:

• Research conducted by Ipsos MediaCT
• Aim of this research was to understand if giving consumers a choice to skip or not has a different effect on ad engagement and brand impact vs. a forced exposure pre-roll
• Combination of biometrics, in-depth interviews, eye tracking and online survey were used.

Results

The option to skip increases user response in the first five seconds. This is true whether they choose to view or skip the ad.

AQ biometric scores

 

On average, opted-in users are over 75% more engaged than users who view standard pre-roll

Scores are aggregated across all ads within a single condition and are derived from the emotional intensity during the first five seconds of each target ad in that condition.

Percent of time highly engaged with ad content

Users viewing the whole of a skippable ad (choosing not to skip) were 75% more engaged than those viewing the same ad as a standard pre-roll. 

Walkers

Users viewing the whole of Walker's skippable ad (choosing not to skip) were 273% as engaged than those viewing the same ad as a standard pre-roll.

Ads deliver impact even on users who skip, and this carries through to brand recognition.

Ad recognition

Eighty one percent of users who viewed a full ad (either standard pre-roll or a viewed-through skippable ad), could subsequently recognise the ad, while 59% of users who viewed only the first five seconds of the ad were able to do the same.

Better than forcing viewers to watch your commercial is having them want to watch your advert - whether that is by viral sharing or in this case, not skipping. 

This article was first published on brandrepublic.com