Via Lauren Johnson in AdWeek, people around the world are now watching as much video online as they are through traditional sources such as television, according to a new survey from Millward Brown. The large study surveyed more than 13,000 multiscreen viewers (people who use both a TV and a computer for media) in 42 countries on what they think about digital advertising.
The study found that the average viewer watches 204 minute of video a day, split equally between television and online video on average. Forty-five of those minutes are on a smart phone, desktop garners 37, and tablets account for 20.
The interesting thing about the study is that while Millennials and younger groups are obviously ones to use digital media more often than traditional media sources like television, Generation Xers are also making the move to online video. The ranks of "cord-cutters" (people ending cable subscriptions to get their media online) and the new "cord-nevers" (people who never got cable in the first place) are growing almost fully across the board.
The favorable response to digital ads was lower than for television ads, 19% approval to 27%. This is probably due to users being more accustomed to ads on television versus online. (People hated video ads on mobile, with 49% registering strong disapproval.)
About half of respondents said they tolerated ads that provided them some kind of reward, like extra points in a video game. Also garnering more support were skippable ads. Hated were unavoidable ads, and ads that took over your whole screen.
There was also a seeming contradiction in how those surveyed felt about targeted ads. 41% liked ads that were tailored to their interests in general, while only 25% said they approved of "retargeted" ads, that is, ads for items that the user had already seen, like when a promo for a couch you were browsing for follows you from webpage to webpage. Consumers seem to want variety in their ads that still suit their interests, but they don't want to be hectored or followed around.
63% said they wanted to be able to control what ads they saw, a resultwhich makes sense as we move from a passive entertainment source (television) to a more active one where consumers can choose basically whatever they want to consume (online video). Advertisers need to be ready to customize their offerings, and be flexible enough to respond dynamically to what consumers actually want.