Deloitte: Traditional TV advertising still most effective

Social and mobile advertising spend has skyrocketed over the last few years but is it really as effective as more traditional advertising platforms?

New research from Deloitte has shown that TV advertising is still the most effective with half of UK consumers (52%) citing TV ads as having the most impact.

The annual survey into UK consumers’ attitudes towards TV found one in 10 respondents searched for a product having seen an advert or sponsorship on TV, with this figure rising to 24% for 16-24 year olds.

Additionally, the research showed that TV programmes and advertisements were the third most common reason for a spur of the moment purchase (14%) compared to finding it in-store (23%) or a friend/family member recommending it (15%). In contrast, Twitter persuaded only 1% to buy, and seeing an advert in an app on a tablet or smartphone persuaded just 2%, the figures showed.

Paul Lee, director of technology, media and telecommunications research at Deloitte said: “TV’s impact on purchasing is known, but there is no equivalent mechanism that traces its impact on purchasing online, although our research suggests this. Demonstrating the link between viewing and online activity could increase the value of TV advertising as it would provide evidence of TV’s ability to persuade consumers to buy goods on the spur of the moment.”

However, whilst TV took the crown for the fifth year in a row, the number of respondents that ranked TV in their top three most impactful ad formats has fallen steadily over the past five years from a high of 64% in 2009, the research showed.

The survey of over 2,500 respondents also showed that newspaper advertising has fallen from 30% in 2009 to 14% in 2013, whilst radio advertising fallen from 18% in 2009 to 8% over the same period.

In terms of digital advertising, consumers said the most impactful type of digital ads over the past three years was opt-in emails whilst video and banner ads on websites fared less well, ranking among the top two for only 2% of respondents.

Lee also said of the future of TV advertising: “The ceiling for the number of TV adverts that can be shown may have been reached. The number of adverts seen per person each day rose steadily between 2007 (40) and 2011 (47), but has since changed little since. This may reflect the number of adverts UK viewers are willing to tolerate.”

Deloitte’s findings support recent figures from Adobe that showed the majority of consumers still prefer to view advertising in traditional formats.

The survey showed that 70% of UK consumers believe TV ads are still more important than online ads, with the majority of those surveyed claiming these were ‘annoying’ (62%).