Audience Experiences of Media Context and Embedded Advertising: A Comparison of Eight Media

By Fred Bronner and Peter Neijens

Multichannel

 

"Consumers viewed print media as a source of new and useful information and generally experienced print advertisements as engaging. Print ads were seen as least annoying whereas advertising in broadcast media was seen as most annoying."

Source: International Journal of Market Research, 2006, 48(1), pgs.81-100.

Type of Promotional Material/Activity Tested: Television (programs), magazine (issues), newspaper (issues), free local papers (issues), radio (stations), cinema (visits), Internet (sites), and mail (pieces).

Sample Population: Approximately 1,000 Dutch respondents (aged 13 and above) weighted to population figures (age, sex, social class, computer ownership, education, religion, household size, urban v. rural environment).

Method: CASI (computer-assisted self-interviewing) electronic questionnaire.

Metrics: Measuring media and advertising experiences the consumer has at specific media consumption moments.

Independent variables:
 

• Media vehicles

  Dependent variables:

• The experience a media consumer has at a randomly chosen media consumption moment (e.g., reading newspaper at home, listening to radio in car, watching a soap opera on TV):
  
  
  • Information (something new, useful information)
  • Transformation (enjoyable, relaxing)
  • Negative emotion (disturbed me, made me sad)
  • Passing time (filling an empty moment)
  • Stimulation (fascinated me, made me curious)
  • Social interaction (subject of conversation)
  • Identification (recognized myself in it)
  • Practical use (useful ideas, tips)

 

• The advertising experience within the chosen moment of media consumption (subset of the experiences used : information, transformation, negative emotion, passing time, stimulation, practical use).
   

• Situational characteristics at the chosen moment (e.g., respondent alone/with others, primary/secondary activity, physical location) and mood (e.g., good/bad).
  
   

Results:

   Top Experiences by Media  

Television	Enjoyable and relaxing Subject of conversation
Radio	Enjoyable and relaxing
Newspapers	Source of new and useful information Subject of conversation
Free local papers	Passing time Source of new and useful information
Magazines	Enjoyable and relaxing Passing time Source of new and useful information
Internet	Source of new and useful information Useful ideas, tips
Cinema	Enjoyable and relaxing Subject of conversation
Mail	Subject of conversation Source of new and useful information

  Advertising Experiences by Media  

• Respondents experienced television and radio commercials as primarily irritating.
  
  
• Respondents experienced advertising in newspapers, free local papers, and magazines as primarily informative.
  
  
• Internet ads were seen as informative (though less so than print) and yet irritating (though less so than TV and radio).
   
• Advertising mail viewed as informative but also somewhat of an irritant.
  
  

  Relationship between media experience and advertising experience
 

• Print media (mail, free local papers, magazines, and newspapers) showed the highest average correlation between medium and advertising experiences – e.g., if reading the newspaper is experienced as informative, the ads are found to be useful too.
   

• Radio and the Internet also showed high correlations between medium and advertising experiences, while TV had a high correlation for only one factor (stimulation – e.g., if a television program is viewed as stimulating, the ads are experienced as stimulating too).
  

 
Take Aways:
 

• Consumers view print media as a source of new and useful information and generally experienced print advertisements as engaging. Print ads were seen as least annoying whereas advertising in broadcast media was seen as most annoying. 
  
  
• The “Media Experience Monitor" methodology employed in this study is unique in that it focuses on capturing the experience a consumer has at a certain moment of time with a medium and its embedded advertisement -- as opposed to an attempt to measure general attitudes. Thus, it produces specific, concrete engagement measures that can be used to compare across medium types and has practical significance for media planners.
  

 

Complexity rating: 2 out of 3  (Complex statistical analysis scale: 1= none, 2= moderate, 3 = difficult)

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