Undertone has teamed up with Ipsos ASI for a study that takes a close look at how takeover “high-impact” desktop ads, along with mobile ads, have an effect on brand recall. Four different brand-agency teams were used in the study, each running a campaign across all devices, desktop and mobile, between a panel of 3,600 US adults between the ages of 18 and 64.
First up was a standard display ad, featuring mobile banners and rectangular promos that most companies usually turn to. From there, an ad featuring the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Rising Stars format – think a slideshow ad or a YouTube masthead set-up. Finally, a full-page takeover was shown, which appears when users load new Web pages or refresh them.
While Undertone didn’t disclose pricing for these ads, it did produce the results from which ones were remembered the best. 38 percent of those polled recalled seeing the ad on a desktop device when it came to full-page ads, while 43 percent across all devices remembered the ad.
As for the least effective ad format, that appears to be banners. Only 33 percent of people who saw these ads recall seeing them at a later time, and the same percentage remember seeing them on multiple devices. That indicates they’re effective across the board with the same audience, no matter what is paid extra for utilizing the ads on mobile.
Midsize ads were a little higher, with 35 percent of people on desktop remembering it, and the same percentage for all devices.
“There’s challenges with ad recall on desktop right now—which I think makes intuitive sense, because there are so many things to look at on a desktop versus a mobile device,” said Undertone co-founder Eric Franchi. “Because [mobile] is more of a focused screen and a more intimate experience with consumers, engagement levels are going to be higher.”
As for mobile-only ad viewers, over on tablet devices, 45 percent remembered full-page ads; 35 percent remembered banner ads; and 27 percent recalled midsize promos. However, smartphones saw even smaller numbers, with 23 percent remembering banners; 25 percent recalling midsize ads; and 44 percent favoring the larger takeover ads (probably due to their size).
“Sometimes people get concerned that because of screen size or the consumer engagement, brands aren’t able to deliver complex messaging as effectively on smartphone as PC,” Franchi said. “This states that it’s pretty consistent across the board.”
Meanwhile, eMarketer posted its own ad recall measurements, with the Media Rating Council hosting its own viewable-impression reconciliation testing. It focused more on desktop than mobile, but the numbers it produced, based on those polled, indicate that 54 percent of differences in how viewability is measured were attributable to differing treatments of mobile viewable impressions in vendors’ reporting.
