this could be challenging

Buyers blast claims that viewers don't watch ads
Lara Sinclair
19mar07

THE media buying community has reacted angrily to claims that advertisers could be reaching only a tiny fraction of the television audience that ratings surveys indicate are watching a program.

US-based researcher Jeffrey Cole told a pay-TV conference last week that in a recent survey he had conducted, only 5 per cent of people said they sat and watched advertisements during commercial breaks.

"We did a non-scientific study last year and asked a very simple question," said Dr Cole, who is best-known in Australia for his continuing global study into the long-term effect of the internet on people's lives.

"When the commercial comes on, what percentage of the audience sits in their seat and does what the advertiser pays for?" he said. "We found 5 per cent sits in their seats."

Dr Cole, director of the Centre for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California, told an internet summit in Sydney last year that TV advertising would be obsolete in five to 10 years.

Last week he said even if five times as many people who said they sat and watched commercials actually did so, 75 per cent of the audience may not have.

"TV advertising has been in danger for 30 years (since) the rise of the remote control," he said.

Peter Pynta, head of the Nine Network's research arm Nine Insights, said the 5 per cent claim was "outrageous and potentially very misleading". "We know a lot of people stay and watch during the ad breaks," he said.

Media buyer Steve Allen said Dr Cole's remarks were "mischievous claptrap" and could be applied to print ads that went unread and internet banners that went unnoticed.

"He's not saying what proportion saw the ads," Mr Allen said. "He might want to cast the stone but ripples will become waves."

Rob Leach, who heads the interactive advertising division of Foxtel's advertising arm Multi Channel Network, told the conference Dr Cole's observations about the life of the 30-second commercial were "grossly exaggerated".

"If you were in a position where you couldn't evolve your TV model, that would be true," Mr Leach said, pointing to long-form advertising content and digital television commercials that invited people to interact with them using their remote control.

However, Dr Cole's comments revived memories of a 45-minute power blackout in April 2005, that saw the Seven Network's Blue Heelers program go off-air; despite that, ratings figures still showed more than 638,000 viewers remained tuned in to a blank screen.

Ratings provider OzTAM defended the accuracy of its ratings technology at the time. Last week, chief executive Kate Inglis-Clark said annual internal telephone spot-checks indicated that people meters - a device to help log viewing habits - were more than 90 per cent accurate.

According to John Grono, of GAP Research, OzTAM data indicates viewing during television breaks falls by a much smaller proportion.

Mr Grono said he had compared OzTAM's minute-by-minute people-meter data for programs with the same data for ad breaks. Viewing fell by an average of 5 to 10 per cent during commercial breaks, he said.

"Yes, people do leave the room when the ads are on, but they leave the room when the programs are on too," he said. "The average figure (of advertising audiences falling) is about 5 per cent. It's a little bit higher in the middle of commercial breaks."

Mr Grono said media buyers factored the drop into their buying and planning schedules.

Dr Cole said the rise of broadband internet and digital video recorders that allowed people to download programs to watch at their leisure, or pause and rewind live television and skip advertising, was increasing overall television viewing.

He said advertisers and free-to-air networks would have to develop new revenue models.

John Petropoulos, managing director of media agency MindShare, said while the effectiveness of the 30-second commercial had fallen over time, digital interactive TV commercials were increasingly about active engagement with audiences.

"I might actually change the way I pay for advertising," he said. "I might pay for a 30-second spot or I might pay for business results."