Do Your Clients’ Digital Ads Irritate Their Target Audiences?

BY Kathy Crosett
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In a global study, Kantar Media analysts took the pulse of 5,000 consumers exposed to digital advertising. They wanted to know who likes advertising and why. They also wanted to know who is trying to avoid advertising. Here’s what they discovered.

At least 71% of consumers feel that, in the last year, advertisers are doing a good job of connecting through digital advertising. The numbers could be improved if marketers allowed creative folks to have a say earlier in the ad development process. Specifically, your clients must remember that online is not a ‘screen’ form of offline messaging.

Before we get to the online numbers, remember that consumers are still in touch with traditional media formats in a big way:

  • TV 96%
  • Radio 88%
  • Newspaper print 79%
  • Magazine print 82%

They also enjoy ads more in these environments. For example, 33% like ads on traditional TV while only 25% like the TV ads online. Printed magazine ads score with 32% of readers. Only 26% of online magazine readers say the same about the ads they encounter.

What’s the issue with online ads? As we all probably know, online TV ads are repeated constantly. That practice irks 72% of viewers. Another issue with online marketing is that 56% of folks see ads for products they’ve purchased.

The following percentages of consumers strongly agree with these statements about online advertising:

  • Ads specifically targeted to me make me more interested in the brand 43%
  • Seeing ads is fine as it pays for quality online content 44%
  • I want more control over the types of ads being shown to me 63%

Kantar Media analysts developed a metric they call the ad positive score. Overall, the score stands at 58.4, which is about where it was last year. By age group, analysts noted some big discrepancies. Here’s how the ad positive scores break out by age:

  • Ages 18–34 61
  • Ages 35–44 62
  • Ages 45–64 55
  • Ages 65+ 48

Clearly, younger consumers are more positive about online ads, but at least 23% engage in some form of ad blocker. And 22% of consumers between the ages of 45 and 64 do the same. Consumers who generally dislike advertising, or who believe advertising is getting worse, are most likely to use blockers.

Remind your clients that they need to target the right audiences with their online ads. They also need to put their best creative effort into using the strengths of the digital format to engage and entertain consumers. Doing so will win them more sales and more customer acceptance of their advertising efforts. To get a clear picture of how well your clients are doing with their digital advertising, check out the Digital Audit tool available at AdMall by SalesFuel.


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