Research Says News Is Under-Used by Advertisers

The Cognition Council of the Advertising Research Foundation ARF held a special webinar for ARF Members only on November 9 2020 with two panels on how context impacts advertising effectiveness I have previously reported on the second panel The first panel covered news as an advertising environment In that panel Robin Garfield Executive Vice President of Research and Scheduling at CNN reported that in the past 20 years cable news viewing has more than quadrupled 45x In the past five years alone it increased 50 on television and 11 on digitalWhat drove viewers to increase their appetite for news to such a degree quotThere is a lot going on in the world important issues with real consequencesquot Garfield explained quotFurthermore news consumers are information seekers They want to be educated and that makes them feel empowered They are comforted by having essential information needed to run their lives and make decisions Knowledge is power and fun They say that they pay very close attention to the content Additionally because news consumers are more in touch with their values the news environment has a magnifying effect on the advertisingquotGarfield presented this fascinating picture below quotdissecting the values of the left and right that have become invaluable in explaining consumer mindsets around todayamp8217s news journalismquotThe finding about attention to the news is certainly true Years ago I did a 250000sample coincidental study for NBC and a number of agencies which asked immediate commercial recall questions News commercial recall stood out head and shoulders above all other program types It was a big surprise to me at the time but I have since seen it corroborated many timesGarfield presented further corroboration this time in a study by MediaScience Dr Duane Varanamp8217s highly respected company which among other consilient findings reported 40 more eyes on screen time to ads in news vs average programming MediaScience also found that ads in hard news and political news had more Brand Recognition than in entertainment programming and all three contexts were approximately equal in terms of Brand Liking and Brand FavorabilityThis stands in strong contrast to advertiser avoidance of news environments especially hard news and political news When I started working with Fox and Standard Media Index SMI on our 22 trillion in sales ROAS studies I was surprised to see how news accounted for only about 0130 of all adspend by the major CPG automotive and QSR brands The same studies showed that news ROAS was much higher than the TV average in these three verticals This is a case of what industry legend Joel Tucciarone called quotFrozen Perceptionsquot Beliefs that defy all data The Bill Harvey Consulting BHC ROI optimizer showed that the optimal allocation to news would have been double digit in all three verticalsThe research done by Alex Gittleson Senior Director News Insights and Positioning at NBCU echoed the CNN findings completely quotFrom our qualitative Red Lantern research over and over again in our conversations with regular viewers of 39polarizing39 news programming viewers unanimously expressed the same feelings They have no issues or concerns with advertising on these programs And just as important many of these interviewees described the content as 39their show39 and find the content itself anything but controversial or polarizing From our quantitative MediaScience research there was no evidence at all that 39hard news39 creates a negative transfer effect on the brands that advertise within or adjacent to this type or programming results that were validated and reinforced by biometric feedback An interesting result from MediaScience related to purchase intent Viewers of 39hard news39 had statistically significant higher purchase intent vs other programming genres tested These findings have been repeated by ongoing studies we are conducting around political viewersquotMichael Follett founder of Lumen in a study conducted in both the US and UK in August 2020 using eye tracking ad recall and an innovative measure of advertising impact on price elasticity found that in all three measures ads served in hard vs soft news were equally effective and that ads served to viewers who lean politically in the same direction as the context are more effectiveThe ARF in its Event Summary said quotCongruence between the audience39s values and the values conveyed by ads magnifies audience connections with brands that advertise in news programsquotSome advertisers sensing the anger generated by the leftright divisions being amplified by today39s politics have leaned away from advertising in the news Others have adopted what might be a more pragmatic strategy to be present in the spectrum of all news left right and impartialIgnoring advertising effectiveness for a moment let39s also acknowledge that there may be other reasons why an advertiser might choose to advertise in news For example to support journalists and writers in general Most of us know that the internet has caused a huge drop in the ability of news sources to maintain subscription revenues which classically have always been half of the support of journalismBy deconstructing left and right leanings into more universal values which themselves are not negative or divisive Garfield39s schematic provides some ideas for customizing psychological contents of ads placed in specific news environments My own DriverTagTM system provides other universal values that can also be used in advertising to resonate with viewers and contexts without turning off any viewers As the ARF has concluded quotStrengthening the connection between your advertising and the contexts in which it is placed can result in greater advertising receptivity and more effective advertisingquot And the ARF has expanded the meaning of quotcontextquot beyond the content adjacent to an ad to also include the role of consumer sentiment values and cultural trends RMT DriverTagsTM already include consumer sentiment moods emotions feelings human values character and personality traits human situations and content descriptorsThese consistent findings across two continents and several research companies all agree that news is an underused context for advertising We recommend that brands test these environments and read their own results Attention and ad recall as well as other biometric and verbalresponsebased metrics are important and necessary conditions for advertising effectiveness but not sufficient for marketers focused on ROI and longterm branding effects and testing should therefore be focused on the latter more definitive metricsWe have all lately proclaimed ourselves to be datadriven rather than driven by old shibboleths but the SMI factual adspend records show that old prejudices are still standing in the way of greater marketing effectiveness Letamp8217s walk the walkI would be untrue to myself to not add my personal fervent wish that the news while giving their viewers what they want in these troubled times advocate for greater cooperative spirit with others who have differing views in reaching the kinds of compromises and creative solutions inherently called for by the ideal value we call democracyPhoto credit top Bruce Mars UnsplashClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Research Says News Is Under-Used by Advertisers

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