MUMBAI: * Almost 30 per cent of viewers change channels during commercial breaks.
* Mumbaikars are more receptive to television advertising than Bangalore viewers, much more of whom find nearly all TV ads annoying.
* In Mumbai and Lucknow TV’s role as a “information provider” is far less than other cities.
* TV’s importance is least when it comes to understanding brand characteristics.

These are just some of the key findings of the 2003 Round 1 3D report released by Media Consumer Insights (MCI), the research division of WPP Marketing Communications India. The survey covered 28 categories and over 260 brands and the relationships consumers have with these brands.

Since these results are released twice a year, 3D offers a continuous tracking of brand health, shifts, in consumer preferences, among other insights, says WPP India's director of marketing and corporate affairs, Sai Nagesh. With over 8,000 respondents, 3D is the largest proprietary survey in India, says Nagesh, adding that the fieldwork was done by research agency IMRB.

Content viewers choose to watch was one of the questions tackled in the survey. And not surprisingly, viewers in India's commercial capital Mumbai (11 per cent) were far more inclined to watch business shows than those from Chennai (3 per cent).

There is more to the Mumbaikar than money though, with 12 per cent watching documentaries compared to just 1 per cent in Chennai.

Travel shows are big with Kolkatans with 18 per cent watching as opposed to just 8 per cent among viewers in Hyderabad. It would appear that Chennaiites like to gab what with over 30 per cent watching talk shows as against just 10 per cent in the capital Delhi.

There is some bad news for TV advertisers as far as Mumbai is concerned. It has the largest percentage of viewers (34 per cent) that reach for the remote and switch channels during the commercial break. A seven-city comparison shows that Kolkatans seem the most laid back with only 22 per cent reaching for the remote while the average is just under 30 per cent.

Among those who find all TV advertising annoying, Bangalore leads the "no-ad brigade" with over 14 per cent, twice that of Mumbai at just over 7 per cent.

Dependence on TV as an information source is the highest in Kolkata and Hyderabad at around 40 per cent and lowest in Lucknow and Mumbai at below 25 per cent.

Kolkata, conversely, has the lowest percentage of couch potatoes with just 1.5 hours spent in front of the TV on weekdays. Bangalore citizens spend the most time in front of the TV at over 2.7 hours followed closely by Chennai (2.6 hours).

IMPACT INDEX: TV’s importance is least when it comes to understanding brand characteristics and highest for finding out about the launch of new products. The second most important value of a TV ad campaign is to get a positive image for the brand. Decisions on which brand to buy come third.

The respondents for the 3D survey, aged between 15-55 years, were drawn mostly from SEC ABC but D/E were also covered in some markets and for some categories, says Nagesh. Towns in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh having populations over 100,000 were in the survey, as too the cities of Delhi, Kolkota, Kochi, Ludhiana and Ahmedabad.

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