FreeWheel, Comcast’s ad tech company, released new research that points to ways the TV business can build commercial breaks that provide a better viewer experience and more effectiveness for advertisers.
Research, done with MediaScience, found that keeping breaks — known in the business as ad pods — under two minutes was important.
“Consumers perceived similarly low levels of ad intrusiveness for one- and two-minute pods; however, at three minutes, the number of viewers calling the ads intrusive doubled. As ad breaks got longer, the likelihood for consumers to recall the ad declined. In fact, going from 2- to 3-minute pods cut ad recall by more than half,” according to Designing a Better Ad Pod, a report from the FreeWheel Viewer Experience Lab, which was launched last year.
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“When we launched this initiative at Cannes, we committed to driving it forward through research and innovation in order to understand how consumers feel and react to ads and how we can improve their overall viewing experience,” FreeWheel general manager Mark McKee said.
“With so much choice for consumers on how and where they engage with content, it’s more important than ever that platforms prioritize the viewer,” he added. “This research provides practical considerations for publishers to make the ad experience better and limit subscription churn, while giving brands the best environment to connect with viewers.”
The issue of whether advertisers will pay more for ads in shorter ad pods was not addressed in the study.
The research also found that grouping commercials of consistent lengths within individual pods can improve viewer sentiment and make breaks feel shorter.
“Audiences may benefit from the consistency and predictability consistent ad lengths in a break have, which could allow them to pay more attention to the content and focus less on the duration of the ad,” the report said. “Publishers and advertisers can rely on technologies with holistic ad decisioning to ensure their various creative versions are being distributed in the most effective way. “
The Viewer Experience Lab said it found this finding particularly interesting and will put additional resources into exploring it.
Ad frequency can also be an important factor.
“Creative repetition is referred to as an industry problem, but when viewers saw the same ad twice in a single 30-minute program, ad recognition and brand purchase intent increased by 22%,” the report said. “Further, recognition and purchase intent remained high at three exposures within a 30-minute program.”
"This is ground-breaking research that empowers media planners to best capitalize on their investment,” MediaScience CEO Dr. Duane Varan said. “By applying a research-based approach to a commonsense problem, the findings finally give due regard to key characteristics of the ad pod, while also optimizing the ad environment for viewers. It’s win-win all around."
In the study, 700 viewers participated in at-home or in-lab viewing environments and were shown programming with various ad pod lengths, ad durations and frequency. They were then surveyed in real time to understand their perception of the ad experience and test their recall of ads within the content.
