Recent research indicates online advertising has better recall and likeability than traditional television ads.

In a study of over 14,000 surveys, the results indicate that online commercials have better general recall, brand recall, message recall and likeability than traditional television advertising. The survey results were reported in the MediaDaily News in an article written by Wayne Friedman.

Online video ads had a 65% general recall compared to 46% general recall for television.  Brand recall online was 50% to TV’s 28%; message online recall comes in at 39% to TV’s 21%; and online likeability was 26% to TV’s 14%. The study was conducted by Dave Kaplan senior vice president pf product leadership at Nielsen IAG and Beth Uyenco, director of global research at Microsoft.

There were three primary reasons online video advertising was more effective:

• Internet video viewers are more engaged and attentive.  This is partly due to it newness as a media.
• The inability to skip ads.  About one-third of U.S. viewers of traditional television has the ability to skip ads.  That ability does not currently exist with online videos.
• Reduced advertising clutter.  Online videos have about 4 minutes of advertising per hour compared to 15 minutes for traditional TV.   However the frequency of online ads is increasing.  Advertising’s sweet spot is six to seven minutes per hour.

The study indicates online video advertising is superior to traditional TV advertising but based on the reasons for the online’s superiority, it may be short-lived. The newness of the medium will wear off and advertising clutter online will certainly increase as the demand for goes up.

But for now, there appears to be distinct advantages for online video advertising. This is important information for healthcare marketers.  Opportunities to purchase online video ads should be seriously considered.  Although currently there may be few opportunities in local markets, we should remain on the watch for possibilities.