Google has published the results of new ad-attention research by Nielsen and Ipsos.

Key findings:

• Ad effectiveness hinges on more than just reach.
• Ad attention differs greatly across screens:
  • 55% of TV ad time gets no attention, because of:
    • Multitasking 26%
    • Skipping ad 15%
    • Switching channels 14%
  • But paid YouTube mobile ads are 84% more likely to receive attention than TV ads.
  • 2.4X attention was paid to ads with full sight and sound vs. ads shown with audio off and subtitles.
  • 1.8X attention was paid to video ads on YouTube vs. ads on social-media platforms.
• Nielsen found that ad attention is significantly correlated with ad recall.
• Reach is worthless without attention.

Related:

Google has also published results of its analysis of YouTube ad-attention data showing that users who both see and hear ads experience higher brand awareness, higher ad recall, and higher brand consideration, vs. those who only see or only hear ads.

That analysis is here.

Comment:

Bear in mind that Google owns YouTube, so has an interest in seeing YouTube compared favorably with "social-media platform" (think video-ad competitor Facebook.)

- David