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Media Release

April 4 2006

Watching TV advertising with eyes wide shut

People may pay little active attention to TV advertising, but it still affects their memory of brands, a University of South Australia study shows.

Researchers Dr Erica Riebe and Peter Hammer from UniSA’s Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science recently coordinated a large scale in-home field experiment into advertising avoidance.

In the study, a new, previously unscreened TV show was presented to people in their own homes. Embedded in the program were different advertisements that also had not been screened before.

Some 431 people in 156 households took part in the study. Institute researchers observed participants watching the program in order to assess their degree of advertising avoidance behaviour. At the end of the screening all participants were assessed on their memory of brands and advertising.

Advertising avoidance takes two forms, according to Dr Riebe. "Active avoidance can include actions such as switching channels or leaving the room, while passive avoidance occurs when viewers don't devote all of their attention to watching the TV but rather read or talk,” Dr Riebe said.

The researchers found that people who were actively watching any particular advertisement were twice as likely on average to recall and recognise that advertisement, when compared with those who were passively watching or avoiding an ad by adopting behaviours such as talking, eating, reading, or playing with pets or children.

Hammer observed a lot of passive advertising avoidance behaviour among study participants…things like muting the TV sound, talking, reading or doing other work. However, in spite of this, the more enjoyable ads seemed to still reach and refresh viewers' memories even when they weren't actively watched.

The findings reinforce new European research that shows that TV viewing, especially advertisement viewing, often involves very low attention processing, according to the Director of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, Professor Byron Sharp.

“Brain wave scans show less brain activity when watching TV than when we are asleep,” he said. “Often it’s people’s relaxation time. People are too tired to pursue other interests so they watch TV. This is a bit of a shock to advertisers.

“Consequently, the need for advertisements to be enjoyable and very well branded is greater than ever," Prof Sharp said.

"Much has been made recently about emotional reactions to advertisements. We think this is a case of marketers overestimating how much people care about advertising. In reality marketers need only a simple emotional reaction to their advertisement, that viewers enjoy it or are intrigued and interested enough that they won't screen it out. Unfortunately many ads fail this hurdle," Prof Sharp said.

“Television is paid for by marketers who spend billions of dollars a year on TV advertising in Australia. TV advertising is a very serious business so marketers need to know people’s viewing behaviour. While ratings for programs are continually assessed, very little research is done on what happens during ad breaks,” Prof Sharp said.

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The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science was created in 2005 when UniSA’s Marketing Science Centre was elevated to institute status following an extensive review by international experts. It includes the Ehrenberg Centre at London South Bank University.

The Institute was named after two famous marketing professors who pioneered the development of scientific laws about marketing and buyer behaviour - Professor Andrew Ehrenberg and Professor Frank Bass. Andrew Ehrenberg is Professor of Marketing and Director of the Ehrenberg Centre and Frank Bass is the Eugene C McDermott University of Texas System Professor of Management.

The Institute undertakes fundamental research that is funded by corporate members across Europe, Australasia and the USA, like General Motors, Procter and Gamble, Coca-Cola, Kraft, Unilever and many others.

To date the Institute has delivered many new discoveries, which corporate members receive in reports and in-house briefing.

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