Advertising Studies
Prismaflex
Prismaflex USA (formerly Prismavision, Inc.) asked Capital Communications Group to conduct a survey on attention value. This was done by setting up a 10’ by 10’ Prisma three-message sign inside the entrance of a large shopping mall in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The copy used for the first face was Buster Douglas (former World Heavyweight Champ). A Coca-Cola advertisement was used for the second face and the third face was a little girl looking out through a window.
Capital Communications interviewed 946 people after passing the sign when it was not turning to see if they noticed it. Of those interviewed, 180 people, or 19%, saw the sign.
Another interview was conducted with 1,168 people after passing the sign when it was turned on (rotating). Of those, 91% noticed the sign and 69% could recall what was on all three faces. Two faces could be remembered by 16% and finally only 6% saw one face.
Based on the survey, it has been calculated that an attention value indicating that 81.7% of the faces were seen and could be related in the interview, compared to 19% for a static sign. The survey showed that the advertising effect of being on one side of a Prismaflex three-message sign is 4.3 times greater than that of a static sign. The amazing results above are similar to those found in surveys provided by the OAAA and various studies conducted in Europe.
One more important point about the survey; the cycle time for this particular sign was 19 seconds (a non-adjustable gearbox from a very large sign was used). This is an unusually long time. People who walked fast could not possibly see all three faces before the sign was out of sight. With a shorter cycle time, the results probably would have been even better.
Advertising In The DVR Age
Both advertisers and ad agencies estimate, on average, that by the end of 2011 time-shifted TV watching will account for 46 percent of total TV watching time (compared to 33 percent at the end of 2008). In other words, advertising executives expect that, over a three year period, time-shifted watching will grow about 50 percent. About 30 percent of TV households currently own one or more DVRs. DVR households watch TV about 33 percent of the TV time in time-shifted mode. This means that, over the entire TV household population, 10 percent of TV watching is time-shifted. About 6 percent of the commercials are fast-forwarded. With total TV advertising in 2008 estimated at $80 billion, the value foregone from fast-forwarding of commercials currently reflects approximately $5 billion.
Similar logic can be used to project impacts by year-end 2011. With 49 percent of households expected to have a DVR in 2011, and 46 percent of TV watching in these households occurring in time-shifted mode, nearly a quarter (23 percent) of TV watching is expected to be time-shifted. Since people are estimated to skip 70 percent of the ads when they watch DVR content, 16 percent of all commercials are expected to be skipped by 2011. With advertising expenditures estimated at $85 billion by year-end 2011, fastforwarded commercials result in an opportunity loss of about $14 billion While fast-forwarded commercials represented "only" 6 percent of all TV commercials at the end of 2008, this percentage is likely to nearly triple by the end of 2011 with 16 percent of all the commercials expected to be fast-forwarded.
Since younger age groups are more avid DVR users, a higher share of commercials are fast-forwarded among younger age groups than the population at large.
