If the TV’s on in the living room and no one is watching, does your ad make a sound?
According to a new Canwest Broadcasting and Solutions Research Group (SRG) report released today on women’s TV viewing habits of specialty channels, there is a disconnect between the measurement of channels watched, the ones to which attention was actually paid and, most importantly for marketers, the channels on which viewers were most receptive to advertising.
The blind study asked 3,000 adults, 18-54, about the top 30 most watched specialty channels overall–10 or which are Canwest channels–ranked by the Average Minute Audience.
According to SRG President Kaan Yigit, while the notion of distracted TV viewing is nothing new, what has changed is the type of distraction. "Over the last three to five years especially, we’ve seen a jump in the types of distractions available to people," he said. "Half the women in Canada are watching TV at some point with a laptop in front of them, 70% are on Facebook, and 65% use some sort of wireless device in the living room at some time. So the overall point is, in addition to traditional multi-tasking situations–which used to be reading the paper, going back and forth to the kitchen–you have these new distractions which makes the question ‘Is all viewing equal?’ all that more important."
Begging the same question are the measurements supplied by a new system instituted late last year. Since the introduction of BBM Canada’s Portable People Meter, which saw overall TV viewership jump thanks to the new system’s use of multiple family members in one home and its ability to travel with viewers out-of-home, broadcasters and advertisers alike have looked at ways to clarify certain numbers.
When TSN ranks first in viewership for females 25-54, does that mean we’re going to see a lot more female-focused commercials during Sports Centre? Probably not.
According to the Canwest study, the real value is in viewer attentiveness, where TSN ranks 22nd for the same female 25-54 demographic.
Topping the Canwest/SRG attentiveness rankings are Mystery TV, Food Network, OLN, Discovery and The Weather Network.
"The good news with the PPM measurement is that it picks up all kinds of viewing you didn’t know was happening, but on the flipside it also picks up a lot of ambient viewing," said Yigit. "There’s just so much more content available on multiple platforms. There are video billboards outside, you go home and the TV’s on and three other people are watching different screens via their computers. So, as advertisers, you can get the exposure, but is that really active viewing?"
The study’s look at ad receptivity gauged response to statementssuch as "This channel has ads about things I actually care about" and "Watching this channel inspires me to buy things."
In response to "I am more likely to purchase products advertised on this channel," the top five stations were Food Network, HGTV, Mystery TV, National Geographic and OLN.
The report also said that women are receptive to advertising on lifestyle channels, news networks and major networks, but 93% said they thought it "inappropriate" for personal care products to be marketed to them on children’s channels, while 73% said the same of sports channels.
