Consumers: W-O-M, TV Ads Have Broadest Purchase Influence

When it comes to influencing consumers’ purchases, word-of-mouth continues to outperform all paid media, finds Deloitte in recently-released survey results, which show 8 in 10 Americans aged 14+ saying recommendations have a medium (43%) or high (38%) influence on their purchase decisions.

But among paid media, TV still commands the broadest degree of influence, cited by almost two-thirds of respondents.

Those results align with findings from a global Nielsen survey released in late 2013, in which TV topped all media in terms of buying influence, but remained behind word-of-mouth.

Though the results are based on self-reported behavior, TV’s continuing position at the top is interesting given consistent press about declining ratings the rise in time-shifting behavior (leading to ad avoidance) and multi-tasking (which could divert attention from ads).

Meanwhile, beyond TV ads, other paid media which influence a significant share of Deloitte’s survey respondents include in-theater advertising (pre-movie; 50%) and magazine ads (46%). Newspaper (41%) and radio (37%) ads were each ahead of emails (37%) and social media ads (31%), while celebrity endorsements were cited by only one-quarter of respondents as influencing their purchases.

Mobile ads – whether delivered in-app or via SMS – were towards the bottom of the list, in line with the Nielsen survey results referenced above.

Even so, new studies are touting the effectiveness of mobile video advertising, with research from Google and Ipsos MediaCT finding that smartphone video viewers are more likely than TV viewers to take a variety of actions as a result of seeing branded content or ads on those devices.

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