Thursday, February 4, 2010

Retiring Guy Prefers "None of the Above"

Link to February 4 Wall Street Journal article, "Element of Choice Draws In Online Viewers".

Excerpt: Aiming to wrest more advertising revenue from online video, several companies, led by ad giant Publicis Groupe and including Microsoft, Yahoo, CBS and Hulu, have spent the past year testing online-ad formats to figure out what consumers want.

It turns out they want choice.

Tests found that "ad selector," a format that lets online-video watchers pick one of three companies' ads to watch, outscored other ad formats, including the much-maligned "pre-roll" ads that consumers are often required to see before viewing online video clips.

The new research shows that consumers are likelier to watch and recall an ad that they choose than one that is forced on them. "Having to select an ad makes consumers more engaged," says Beth Uyenco, global research director of Microsoft's advertising and publisher solutions group
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