Study: TV, Mags Ads More Effective Than Online Ones

A new study -- by media researcher McPheters Co. and in cooperation with Condé Nast and CBS Vision -- found, perhaps not surprisingly, that when it comes to ad effectiveness, TV and magazine ads trump Internet ads. The findings come at a time of continued high anxiety for print and TV media, with marketers reducing spending and shifting those reduced budgets to the Web. Like other cross-media studies that have come before it, the McPheters research compared ad recall across media (in this case, 30-second TV ads; full-page, four-color magazine ads; and standard-sized Internet banner ads.) Respondents were given a choice of watching TV, reading a magazine or surfing the Internet for 30 minutes, and at the end, filled out surveys asking if they recalled the ads they saw. While the study may not break new ground, it is somewhat unusual in its use of eye-tracking software to determine if respondents saw the Internet ads. Among the major findings: Magazines delivered more than twice as many ad impressions as TV and more than six times those delivered online in the half-hour period; recall of TV ads was almost twice that of magazine ads; and magazine ad recall was almost three times that of Internet banner ads.