In today’s modern world, efficiency and convenience is our main goal and desire.
Many consumers now have PVRs, and with its new fast-forward, rewind technology, they don’t have to watch the ads in between TV shows. But a new study conducted by the Journal of Consumer Research actually tells us that we’re actually still consuming the ads!
In fact, as we fast-forward advertisements, commercials when placed next to another ad for a product that consumers categorized very differently, actually make a bigger impact than if we viewed them! Now that is interesting!
For example, in the study, a Mountain Dew ad ran beside a Honda Pilot ad, and while fast-forwarding, participants claimed that the soft drink had an exciting image to it. Contrarily, when Mountain Dew was placed beside a Hummer commercial and fast-forwarded, they said they were less likely to drink the product.
The results however, were not the same as those who watched them in real-time. The conclusion is simple: people are more likely to choose a product when placed beside a completely different product, but only when it’s a glimpse of the image or when they are distracted.
Why I think this is so interesting is because it emphasizes the importance of product, or even advertising placement. With our world constantly changing, marketing strategies need to be adapted to accommodate those changes. In this specific example, marketers lose viewers of their commercials because they just fast-forward it, but they are still able to penetrate their product and image into the consumers’ minds through placing their ads beside an ad that is totally irrelevant.
And this method even allows consumers to save time and satisfy their desire to be efficient, even with watching TV!