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Talking to indiantelevision.com about how the idea of the
survey originated, De Souza says, "Worldwide there is a lot
of research that has been done by Lowe on ad avoidance and what
was found that since ad avoidance was at its peak among people,
advertising creatives should be outstanding so as to make a mark
amongst the clutter. Taking a cue from there, we at Initiative Media,
decided that its not always possible to make outstanding creatives.
So to get out of the advertising fatigue, the answer lies in the
way you use the medium and therefore it comes in the area of the
media planner and buyer's area. So assuming that the creative is
of a high quality, how can the media planner/buyer make sure that
they can combat advertising fatigue."
This study shows that advertising avoidance is very high (31 per
cent) but it is even higher for television. Avoidance is also high
among people who are exposed a lot to the various medium of communications
- Internet, television, magazines etc. "On DD alone we are
getting 450 spots a week and this is just an average. And the target
group that we are talking about may be bombarded with 1000+ ads
in a week an hence they pass ads unseeingly. They are the target
of everyone because if you see the growing service sector or the
durable market; all target the young upwardly mobile couple and
families. Since they are being bombarded with messages, they are
the ones who are withdrawing," explains De Souza.
Sodhi says, "The primary thing that we covered in the survey
was the advertising avoidance and what caused it. But that was not
enough, we also collected supporting information on what is their
media consumption and attitude to advertising."
Talking about an interesting analysis that the research unearthed
on shopping behaviour, Sodhi says, "We found that there were
three kinds of shopping behaviour. 1) Loyals, who stick to their
brands; 2) Prudents, who are very judicious in their purchases and
3) Opportunists, who are on the look out for offers etc. When we
mapped these three sets of people against their avoidance levels
we found a pattern -- as they move from becoming more and more receptive
to advertising, their shopping behaviour also changes. From being
prudent they gradually get converted to more and more opportunists."
De Souza adds, "This is a good thing and shows that advertising
works."
When asked about how these survey findings were going to be incorporated
in the daily dealings of media professionals, De Souza says, "We've
identified target groups and therefore product categories and services
aimed at those TGs and we need to do much more innovative work for
them in turn. Also, in our ability to demarcate consumers by their
shopping behaviour and therefore by their responsiveness to advertising
is the area where we need to work harder."
Media professionals are realising that advertising is just not
enough but are now more precise about, it in the sense - exactly
to whom is it not enough. Therefore the aim is how to get closer
to content. De Souza says, "My feeling is that, in a very short
while the consumer is going to switch off that kind of content also
which is bombarded with messages. And that is also something that
we intent to look into. When we say that 31 per cent of the work
we do is not working then we owe it to our clients to minimise that
31 per cent. Also, 70 per cent of the money we put on TV is wasted.
So we should be telling our clients that as per our research, the
more interpersonal the media; like - SMS (14 per cent avoidance),
radio (28 per cent avoidance), Internet (43 per cent avoidance),
direct mailers (41 per cent avoidance) etc; the more it tends to
be noticed."
The survey also measured whether programme sponsorships work? It
was found that 76 per cent don't see sponsorships as different and
that 48 per cent don't notice sponsorships at all. Television audience
is receptive to innovations as 60 per cent find pop-up advertising
during programmes innovative. Also 72 per cent pay keen attention
to screen tickers as they provide the latest information.
So what was found was that advertising avoidance is widespread
across media and that different audience segments react differently
to advertising.
Thus was concluded that while ad-avoidance continues,
- Media reach continues to be high,
- Sponsorships have lost their identity,
- Programme promotions are useful,
- Innovation in advertising is appreciated,
- Interactivity is liked.
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