Research carried out by Rovi suggests that connected TV ads in the UK are being clicked on by an astonishingly high 27% of users. The study was carried out with Decipher Research and looked at advertising effectiveness and engagement, audience segments and usage. The research included both online surveys of connected TV users and in-home interviews, and eight Smart TV advertising campaigns were tracked for ‘leading entertainment and conventional brands’.
The reports findings also included data on:
Reach – Connected TV advertisements on select platforms delivered a claimed 6% incremental reach in addition to traditional media channels
Brand Favorability: Exposed versus non-exposed brands on the Smart TV platform produced favorability rates twice as high
Brand Association: there was an 86% uplift in association with key brand statements for brands exposed on the Smart TV platform versus non-exposed control samples
Purchase Intent: 47% of connected TV viewers exposed to Smart TV ads claim they will investigate the product in the future; intent to purchase was 2.5 times higher compared to a non-exposed control sample
Engagement: 2 in 5 connected TV viewers exposed to Smart TV ads claimed to have watched the video featured on the brand’s micro-site, with 79% of ad viewers claiming to have subsequently participated in additional product or related activities
What’s the Value of a Click?
Rovi and Decipher’s research quite rightly focused on connected TV as a medium for that should be used primarily for brand campaigns. However, as advertising on TV becomes more interactive, it seems inevitable that some advertisers will place too high a value on the number of clicks they receive.
That’s certainly what has been happening in display advertising where – rightly or wrongly – much of the industry has been using click-through rate to measure campaign success. However, the value of a click has always been a controversial topic and a recent study carried out by Comscore and Pretarget suggests that the doubters might be right. The research found that users who hovered over an ad were in fact more likely to convert than users who clicked.
As connected TV advertising is still in its infancy, it’s not too late for the industry to educate advertisers on how smart TV advertising can deliver real value. Clicks will have a role to play and continue to be used to demonstrate some form of engagement, but it’s vitally important that TV continues to be perceived as the optimal brand channel, not a cut-throat performance medium that can be gamed by click-seekers who disregard the long-term brand benefits that connected TV can offer.
