That's like saying Heather Mills dances better with her prosthetic leg than without.
As per Adweek, a Millward-Brown study has concluded that spots shown during programming on the Web resonate far better with viewers than the same 30-second ads on TV, thanks to the Internet's lack of clutter and more attentive (if much smaller) audience.
The conclusion makes total sense, given the lack of clutter (above), but also...interestingly enough...based on the fact consumers are less likely to change the channel online versus TV. On one hand, it's an interesting cultural insight which has an ironic sting...the very same cultural familiarity and acceptance that has allowed the unwelcomed guest of intrusive and irrelevant advertising to stay in our living rooms for this long is now coming back to bite it in the ass (we are equally comfortable with the remote control and our TiVo's)
BUT: at the same time, there is no channel to change really in the online environment either. Well, there are other sites, but with nothing but a 30-second window to toy with, I'll just alt-Tab and check an e-mail or mute the sound, space out and drool...but admittedly get a few seconds of hard sell in.
Implications of the study are that we should NEVER increase online clutter any more than is present (lest we fall into the same downward spiral of TVLand), but at the same time I just cannot condone any pre-roll commercial of any kind as long as it looks, feels, tastes and stinks like the offline equivalent.
While the methodology is apples-to-apples i.e. a TV program with commercials, it still represents a tiny sliver of potential in terms of harnessing either video and/or the online environment.
Harsh or not...Heather Mills ain't winning Dancing with the Stars and if she does, I will go and work for WPP with George Parker as my Executive Assistant.
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