When it comes to influencing consumers’ purchases, word-of-mouth continues to outperform all paid media, finds Deloitte in recently-released survey results [pdf], which show 8 in 10 Americans aged 14+ saying recommendations have a medium (43%) or high (38%) influence on their purchase decisions. But among paid media, TV still commands the broadest degree of influence, cited by almost two-thirds of respondents.
Those results align with findings from a global Nielsen survey released in late 2013, in which TV topped all media in terms of buying influence, but remained behind word-of-mouth.
Meanwhile, a new MarketingCharts study similarly finds TV ads to influence more Americans than any other paid medium. (The study – which analyzes differences in the results by gender, generation, and household income – is available for purchase here.)
Though the results are based on self-reported behavior, TV’s continuing position at the top is interesting given consistent press about declining ratings (Rentrak has something to say about that), the rise in time-shifting behavior (leading to ad avoidance) and multi-tasking (which could divert attention from ads).
In a recent study [download page], though, Nielsen found that 58% of TV commercials are viewed during playback of time-shifted and video-on-demand content, versus the remaining 42% that are skipped. (It would be interesting to see how that differs for DVRd content as opposed to video-on-demand, but that breakdown was not released.) Additionally, data contained in a MarketingCharts report on TV advertising indicates that media multitaskers are actually more likely to watch TV ads than the average adult. And new study results from Innerscope Research suggest that among 18-34-year-olds, TV ads generate more visual attention than digital pre-rolls and far more engagement than Facebook video ads.
Meanwhile, beyond TV ads, other paid media which influence a significant share of Deloitte’s survey respondents include in-theater advertising (pre-movie; 50%) and magazine ads (46%). Newspaper (41%) and radio (37%) ads were each ahead of emails (37%) and social media ads (31%), while celebrity endorsements were cited by only one-quarter of respondents as influencing their purchases. (More on celebrities’ influence here.)
Mobile ads – whether delivered in-app or via SMS – were towards the bottom of the list, in line with the Nielsen survey results referenced above. Even so, new studies are touting the effectiveness of mobile video advertising, with research from Google and Ipsos MediaCT finding that smartphone video viewers are more likely than TV viewers to take a variety of actions as a result of seeing branded content or ads on those devices.
A separate study from the IAB [pdf] reports that marketers and agencies are far more likely to say they’ll be increasing their spending on digital video (68%) and mobile video (58%) advertising than on broadcast/cable/OTT TV ads (33%). And of those planning to increase their spending on digital video advertising, most will be borrowing those funds from cable and/or broadcast TV.
Still, the biggest barrier to increased spending on digital video advertising (which continues to be dwarfed by TV ad spend)? Its ROI versus other media, with this a larger concern among marketers than agencies.
About the Data: The Deloitte survey was fielded by an independent research firm from 11/3-11/19/14, employing an online methodology among 2,076 US consumers. All data is weighted back to the most recent Census data.
The IAB survey was fielded from 3/26-4/9/15 among 305 respondents (153 agencies; 152 marketers) involved in digital video or TV advertising decision-making and with at least $1M in total annual advertising spending. Respondents came from 5 categories: automotive (57); CPG (68); financial services (61); retail (60); and telecommunications (59).
