Once again conventional wisdom has been proved to be wrong. This is an occasion for advertising industry to celebrate, as the conventional wisdom that people do not watch advertisement when watching television has been turned on its head by the Video Consumer Mapping (VCM) study, which was sponsored by the Council for Research Excellence (CRE).
The study also showed that TV advertising and program reaches 85% of the US adult population, of which many viewers typically see 26 ads or promotional breaks in a day. This account for 73 minutes of ad watching everyday.
The VCM study also found that channel changing pattern or moving between rooms during the commercial breaks was similar to the channel flipping and moving between rooms done before or after the commercial break.
The result of the study was as follow:
- 11% changed the channels before the commercial break.
- 14% viewers flipped channels during the break.
- 13% changed channels after the commercial break.
- 19% of viewers changed rooms before promotional break.
- 20% viewers done so during the break.
- 21% did so after the break.
- People multitask while watching television program and this behavior remain unchanged even during the commercial breaks.
- 55% of viewers did not engage themselves in any other activity while consuming media.
- 45% gave in for multitasking. “Meal preparation” and “care for another” are two activity people engaged most while consuming media.
The Video Consumer Mapping (VCM) study is the first of its kind. It involved in-person, computer-assisted observation of the media consumption habit of 376 US adults. Total data analyzed run into three-quarters of a million minutes (752 observed days).
The data clearly suggest that there is not much change in TV viewing pattern during the breaks. It means TV ads are far from over. They are seen, enjoyed, and perhaps acted upon. But does the audience do so due to fatigue, or for the love of ads?
I think fatigue is the reason. What do you think? Write in and let me know your view.