A new study from YuMe and IPG Media Lab [download page] indicates that unaided ad recall is higher among Millennials when watching video ads on smartphones than on any other device, including TV. The impact of smartphone video ads on Millennials is wide-ranging: compared to a control group, Millennials who had watched a video ad on a smartphone were more likely to say the brand is “on its way up” (9%), modern (6.7%), a quality brand (3.7%), a premium brand (2.9%) and one they respect (1.7%). In each case, Millennials (18-24) appeared to be influenced more than Gen Xers.
In fact, Gen X viewers were less likely than their control group counterparts to see the brand as one they respect (-1.1%), a premium brand (-1.6%) and a quality brand (-2%) after watching a smartphone video ad, though they were more inclined to see the brand as modern and on its way up.
Also interesting: while Millennials appeared positively influenced by video ads on smartphones, that result was not replicated when viewing ads on tablets. Millennials did appear to be more likely to view the brand as modern as a result of watching the tablet video ad, but were far less influenced across the other metrics.
While the positive effect of the smartphone video ads is encouraging for advertisers, it looks like they’ll have their work cut out for them in getting through to Millennials, who the research shows are heavy multitaskers. (A study last year found that digital natives switch media platforms every other minute.) As a result, unaided recall was lower for Millennials than Gen Xers across each device.
