Study: DVR Users Tend to Skip Lame Ads
Quelle surprise — you’re more likely to sit through an ad that literally makes your heart beat faster.
A new research study, sponsored by TiVo, found that DVR viewers are more likely to fast-forward through ads with “low emotional engagement than those with high emotional engagement.”
The study of 55 national ads, conducted by TiVo and Innerscope Research in late 2008, found that TV viewers are 25% more likely to skip ads with low emotional engagement.
Innerscope measured the emotional engagement of two groups of 20 viewers as they each viewed 1 hour of live content in real time, including ads. Test subjects were wired with Innerscope’s wireless biometric-monitoring vests that tracks heart rate, breathing, skin sweat and eye motion. (I think I saw this methodology in a 1971 movie starring Malcolm McDowell.)
The “emotional engagement” metrics were then cross-referenced with scores from TiVo’s StopWatch ratings service to compare when, and how many, viewers elected to fast-forward through an ad.
Are we then to conclude that the most engaging spot from this year’s Super Bowl was the moronic GoDaddy teaser featuring Danica Patrick? Perhaps the technology isn’t advanced enough to measure the emotional range of a TV viewer’s response.
Mark commented:
Ads which annoy with hysteria and screams (Billy Mays aka oyx-moron and current Orreos with crowds of screaming women) not only get skipped with DVRs, but cause flight to change channels during live TV. Ads like these ads are emotionally and physically repulsive.
Rob commented:
Shocking!
But seriously, I definitely skip thru poorly made ads; the ads that air continuously and I've already seen; and ads for products/services that I have no interest in. But, there have been many well done and entertaining ads that I've stopped and backed up to watch.
