Amazing Ad Recall Rates from Podcasts, Online Video Shows

Ads in podcasts are three times as effective as “traditional” online video ads and seven times more so than television ads, according to four campaign studies conducted by Podtrac and TNS.

Compared with industry benchmarks of 21% for streaming video and 10% for television, unaided ad awareness for podcasts was an impressive 68% on average; aided recall was even higher, at 89% on average. Embedded ads in online video shows are also highly effective, the study found.

“The high unaided ad recall figures are no doubt the results of a less cluttered environment,” said Doug Keith, former vice-president of the Media & Entertainment Group at TNS and now president of Future Research Consulting.

“Audiences are paying close attention to show content and the embedded ads within them, which greatly increased ad effectiveness,” he added.

Other major findings:

* On average, fully 69% of audience members have a more favorable view of in-show advertisers.
* The study found a 73% increase in likelihood, on average, that a consumer would use/buy an advertised product after being exposed to an ad.

Those results indicate successful targeting and the strong influence of show hosts over their audience, according to Podtrac.

The studies spanned two years (Feb. ‘06 to Mar. ‘08) and multiple product categories, including television programming, automobile, financial services, and digital imaging.

Less than 4% of all internet and 1% of TV ad spend currently goes to online video ads, according to eMarketer, but the company forecasts a tripling of current ad spend to reach $4.3 billion in 2011, also predicting podcast monthly audience size to be 50 million by 2010.

“The unaided awareness level of 68% is considerably higher in podcasts and online shows than in other offline and online media,” said Mark McCrery, Podtrac’s CEO and cofounder.

“Narrowly targeted audiences, appropriate ad formats, content relevance, and show host involvement are some of the factors which come together to produce highly effective ads in online shows and podcasts.”

Ad formats studied consisted of embedded :15 and :30 host-read audio and video ads, embedded :10 and :15 produced video ads, ad banners on publisher websites, and social networking in the form of publisher blog entries about advertised brands and related topics.