In a media fragmented world it is harder to keep anyone’s attention, so advertising needs to be shorter, sharper and punchier and get across in less time. But just as true, such is the oppressive boredom of everyday life that consumer eyeballs are dragged to more or less any screen, anywhere which promises to relieve that boredom.
Imagine a day going through post office counters, gas stations, malls, driving along the highways, walking your dog and everywhere you are bombarded with advertising images, and not just static images, but intricate, clever, punchy video images. How does the brain keep them out? Which images does the brain let in? And how can you be sure that the consumer will watch to the end of the advert?
An experiment with Gas Station TV, which shows TV clips while people fill their cars with Gasoline, has shown that both 10 second advertising and 15 second advertising are better formats for the new fragmented multimedia universe, showing fractional improvements over 30 second adverts when customers were interviewed about their brand recall. The experiments were monitored by Nielsen Media Research.
Monetizing advertising slots like this is going to get easier and easier if shorter, punchier adverts stick in the minds of passing punters. For a start there will be double or treble the inventory.
“Our comparison study shows that the unique media environment at Gas Station TV proves equivalent advertising recall effectiveness with shorter form 10 or 15 second ads versus traditional 30 second ads,” said Paul Lindstrom, vice president of Nielsen Media Research.
The study was conducted over a two week period at 24 US gas stations in top media markets using advertising from Werther’s candy and Kellogg’s Pop Tarts and 90% of survey respondents said they watched or listened to Gas Station TV while refueling their vehicle.