Jeff (Ephraim) Bander from Eye Square explained that measuring shopper behavior and decisions in context (in the online ecommerce environment in which the shopping actually takes place) is more meaningful than only surveying consumers about their online shopping behavior. Collecting in context data about the online actions of the shopper provides detailed path-to-purchase metrics, such as attention, interest and purchase behavior. Participants are not aware of what is being tested in the live environment. Additional explicit data is collected via survey.
NBCU’s Mike Levin and Emily Kwok tested brand safety in premium video content from a viewer perspective in their research using NBCU’s proprietary AI tech for automating brand safety and suitability decision making. The study’s three objectives asked whether increasingly violent episodes influence viewers’ experiences, if they then assign blame to marketers for knowingly advertising in explicit or violent content, and if there are specific instances where adjacency affects viewer sentiment towards an ad.
Audrey Steele (FOX) introduced this presentation by highlighting the objectivity of the years-long study focused on the relative value of different platforms and impression quality, with the brands involved amassing close to $3 trillion in sales. While many in the industry are focusing on maximum reach, this study looked at sales as the most important measure of impressions, quality and value between media platforms.
Heather Coghill (WBD) and Daniel Bulgrin (MediaScience) shared methodologies and results from two in-lab studies that sought to understand how impactful category priming can be without brand mention and if viewers associate brands with adjacent unsuitable content.
Their presentation focused on two types of contextual effects within program context—“excitation transfer” and “brand priming”.
Emily Kwok – Senior Director, Ad Experience Measurement, NBCU
NBCU’s Mike Levin and Emily Kwok tested brand safety in premium video content from a viewer perspective in their research using NBCU’s proprietary AI tech for automating brand safety and suitability decision making. The study’s three objectives asked whether increasingly violent episodes influence viewers’ experiences, if they then assign blame to marketers for knowingly advertising in explicit or violent content, and if there are specific instances where adjacency affects viewer sentiment towards an ad.
Measuring unconscious response to nine episodes across two seasons tagged with three levels of risk, facial coding and eye gaze technology, complemented by traditional surveys, captured the impact on a nationally representative sample of 1,800 respondents.
Finding that violent episodes maintained stable levels of attention, the study also determined that traces of negative emotion were scarcer in the more violent episodes.
Key Takeaways
From the mildest episodes to the most violent, viewer attention remained stable. Attention to high risk episodes measured in at 51.5%, with attention to low-risk episodes at 51.4%.
Viewers don’t attribute blame to advertisers. “There’s more reward than risk,” according to Emily. Viewers tend to enjoy brands that are sponsoring the content they love, controversial or not—8 in 10 agree that they don’t distrust brands that advertise in graphic TV shows.
Several rare cases where gratuitous violence immediately preceding an ad break did carry negative sentiment into the first seconds of the ad.
Lloyd Darbonne – Senior Director Research, Insights, & Strategy, FOX Corp.
Bill Harvey – Executive Chairman, Bill Harvey Consulting, Inc.
Audrey Steele – EVP Sales Research & Strategy, FOX Corp.
Audrey Steele (FOX) introduced this presentation by highlighting the objectivity of the years-long study focused on the relative value of different platforms and impression quality, with the brands involved amassing close to $3 trillion in sales. While many in the industry are focusing on maximum reach, this study looked at sales as the most important measure of impressions, quality and value between media platforms.
Bill Harvey (BHC) detailed the study’s methodology of implementing a standard multiple regression analysis with ROI optimization using SMI’s real ad spend numbers and Circana’s and S&P Global’s sales spend across the top ten brands in each of QSR, CPG and Auto verticals over nine years of data.
Lloyd Darbonne (FOX) covered how the thousands of iterations of their ROI optimizer selected the media mix that predicted the highest share for each company studied. Concentrating on entertainment (inclusive of TV sports & news, TV cable entertainment, TV Big 4 entertainment and premium digital video TV), the optimizer then measured the optimal allocation for maximum ROI in each vertical. Results across verticals documented higher ROIs with significant reallocations and rebalancing of ad spends in TV and premium contexts.
Key Takeaways
Brands that increased their spend in non-premium digital lost sales and market share, much of it due to misallocation of advertising spend. There are opportunities for 20-40% ROI increases by reallocating non-premium digital dollars to TV.
TV has 2.6x the sales effect of non-premium digital. There is a 14.6% incremental sales lift added by advertising, on top of the baseline 85% sales without advertising. TV generated 69% of the added 14% across the combined three verticals, with non-premium digital at 27%. In all three verticals studied, broadcast entertainment still has a good amount of headroom—increasing share of ad spend will increase sales effects.
Buyer focus on CPM and rush to oversaturated lower-priced media and non-premium digital inventory has served to suppress the sales effects of overall campaigns.
Focusing on ROAS instead of reach, and using standard multiple regression analysis gives advertisers an advantage over slower-moving competitors.
Heather Coghill – VP, Audience, Warner Bros. Discovery
Daniel Bulgrin – Director, Research Operations & Insights, MediaScience
Heather Coghill (WBD) and Daniel Bulgrin (MediaScience) shared methodologies and results from two in-lab studies that sought to understand how impactful category priming can be without brand mention and if viewers associate brands with adjacent unsuitable content.
Their presentation focused on two types of contextual effects within program context—“excitation transfer” and “brand priming”.
To see if these effects carried over to ad content through excitement or brand recognition in the content, the research team utilized distraction-free viewing stations that enabled neurometrics and facial coding followed by post-exposure surveys. Impact on brand perception was measured with lifts in brand attitude, attention and memory.
Results showed brand priming did change how viewers experienced the ad by lifting brand recognition, with stronger effects in heavier ad loads. The research also concluded that although brands are not harmed by adjacency to perceived unsuitable content, context effects still need to be considered.
Key Takeaways
Even moderate category primes can push through effects, despite modest impact, in both linear and CTV. Category priming in streaming with limited ads impacted middle and lower funnel metrics, with 31% of viewers noticing a connection between the ad and the program.
Although viewers agreed that low intensity “unsuitable” content was most acceptable for advertisers, there were no adverse effects as intensity levels increased—all levels were deemed suitable for advertisers, with no significant differences in brand recall or purchase intent.
More research is required to understand what is unsuitable for brands. The current guidelines are based on what is thought to be unsuitable—not social science.
The boldest and brightest minds joined us November 14 - 17 for Attribution & Analytics Accelerator 2022—the only event focused exclusively on attribution, marketing mix models, in-market testing and the science of marketing performance measurement. Experts led discussions to answer some of the industry’s most pressing questions and shared new innovations that can bring growth to your organization.
On November 9, 2022, industry leaders joined us to share highlights from EffWorks Global 2022 — a week-long celebration of the best new thinking and evidence-based decision-making research for marketing effectiveness. Topics of discussion included: marketing in the post-Covid economy, effective advertising in unprecedented times, the value of Share of Voice/Share of Attention/Share of Search in terms of effectiveness and commercial decision making, and more.
