At the 2009 Joint Statistical Meetings in Washington, DC, August 1st – 6th there was an interesting presentation about the effectiveness of advertising and commercial viewership. (as summarized by Laura Sanders in Science News, August 29,2009). I was unable to find the original article electronically, but here are a few summary points.
Advertising Effectiveness of commercials
For example, during the research period the cooking reality television show Hell’s Kitchen drew 2.96% share as measured by the cable box, but its commercial audience was 2.42% for a drop of 18%. On the other hand, high retention took place for NUMB3RS drawing 1.90% and 1.78% during the commercials.
David Schweidel of the University of Wisconsin – Madison did the research and looked at the drop off rates based on:
- Audience size
- Genre
- Network
- Time of day
Some conclusions:
- People were less likely to avoid a commercial late at night.
- The length of the commercial break
- Whether there were other channels with simultaneous commercials
- Dramas did better than reality TV
This is an interesting initial research based on a regional analysis (a large West Coast metropolitan area.) Losing up to 20% of an audience during the commercial break is a big difference and clearly will have an impact when the commercial ratings system starts to be implemented.
Let me know if you have any other research along these lines. Or if you attended the presentation, and have any other insights, I would love to see it.
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