Over the past week I've referenced a number of studies that highlight the benefit of interruptions and jolting consumers out of their comfort zones. Here's another, and it refers to TV ads and the viewing experience.
According to the Journal of Consumer Research, rather than get in the way of consumers' enjoyment of TV programmes, the opposite is true, commercial interruptions actually enhance their viewing pleasure. This is despite consumers doing everything they can to fast forward the ads thanks to boxes such as Sky+ in the UK and Tivo in the States.
The reason is simply our need for everything to be fresh and new. The study shows that there really can be too much of a good thing, and over time something that we perceive as being enjoyable starts to get more boring:
"In spite of most consumers' extensive experience with watching television, we propose that commercial interruptions can actually improve the television-viewing experience. Although consumers do not foresee it, their enjoyment diminishes over time. Commercial interruptions can disrupt this adaptation process and restore the intensity of consumers' enjoyment."
Researchers gave a group of college students an episode of Taxi to watch. For half, the ad breaks were removed. When it was over, the students were given the chance to watch another episode of Taxi or switch to Happy Days. The ones who had been forced to sit through 30 mins of uninterrupted viewing (oh nos, a whole half hour!) were more likely to say Happy Days please.
Students were also shown a series of Bollywood dance videos. Some enjoyed it because it was different, but for those whose enjoyment levels started to drop, a few well placed ads did the trick in perking them up again.
Finally, a second group of human guinea pigs watched the first group watching TV. This second group of test subjects all agreed with the received wisdom that ads would kill the enjoyment of the shows.
According to the researchers: "Given that our participants had a surplus of experience watching television with and without commercials, it is interesting to note that they still failed to predict the influence of advertising disruptions. Why have they not learned?"
Ars Technica, which has a lengthy commentary on the study, says the explanation is that everything is seen in isolation and so there's the automatic assumption of shows = good, ads = bad.
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