Study: Viewers Accept Online Content and Ads

With digital video companies challenging traditional programmers for television ad dollars, a study by media agency Starcom found that consumers accept content created for online streaming.

The study also found that original streaming content not only presents a reach opportunity at a lower cost than TV content online, but can offer increased relevance via targeting and consumer choice that could lead to a more positive reception for commercials.

Mark Pavia, executive VP and digital managing director at Starcom, said that online content companies need to promote their new digital series and make them easier to buy and measure. We need to change the narrative, leverage measurement and elevate digital video beyond an extension of TV. If publishers better promote their shows, provide marketers and buyers a reason to believe and allow the value of the investment to be measured, digital video can break outside of traditional silos, he said.

The Starcom study divided 4,800 viewers into three groups who were shown one of 12 content clips. Each of the three groups was told something different about why the content was produced: for television, streaming online or neither.

While consumers may perceive that content on TV is of higher quality than streaming original content, their viewership behaviors tell a different story. There appeared to be no statistical relationship between quality or likability scores and whether consumers believe content is streaming original for TV.

Starcom said that consumers were actually less likely to recall advertisers when they believe content is from TV. This may be because, like with their more neutral sentiment, consumers expect and thus tune out advertising in TV content.

Original content produced for online streaming is the new frontier of online video, with higher quality content than syndicated online video and lower cost than television content online, said Pavia. We conducted this study to dig deeper into whether the quality of streaming original content is as good as TV, despite the lower price tag, and whether ads placed in it perform just as well. It was important to fully understand this from the consumers perspective, not just the sellers perspective.

LINK:	http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/493641-Study_Viewers_Accept_O...
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