Advertising Audience Engagement Digital Innovation
2 mins read

World-first study reveals the strength of video advertising on mobile devices

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Groundbreaking research from respected marketing science academic Professor Karen Nelson-Field has uncovered new insights into how and why video advertising works for brands when viewed on mobile devices.

Professor Nelson-Field explains that because mobile screens tend to be held closer to the viewer’s eyes their peripheral vision adjusts to the screen proximity, which in turn means that passive viewing on mobile is worth more to sales than passive viewing on other devices.

The research originates from a comparison of the attention generated by video ads on different channels, on over 2,500 consumers by ThinkTV, the Australian advertising research company.

The study also found that screen coverage (the percentage of a screen occupied by an ad) was highly correlated to attention and sales. On this measure, TV, at 100% screen coverage, provided almost four times more screen coverage than Facebook and three times more screen coverage than YouTube.

“In the first tranche of the Benchmark Series when we measured YouTube, Facebook and TV on PC, as well as TV on the TV set, we could clearly see why certain platforms drive higher levels of attention and greater levels of advertising impact than others. And in simple terms this is about visibility,” explains Professor Nelson-Field.

She continues, “Now with mobile devices increasing in importance for video viewing, we can see that ALL platforms benefit from the lean-in viewing experience. Of course, as we predicted, those with better inherent ad visibility still benefit more.”

Kim Portrate, Chief Executive of ThinkTV, adds: “This study proves video advertising on mobile screens works on all of these major platforms – as more people lean in to their content choices – but it also shows that not all media is equal on mobile.”

The full report can be read here.