Study: News gives better brand recall

Advertising placed in print and digital national and metro news gives better brand recall and purchase propensity, according to a cross-media ad effectiveness study by the Benchmark Series commissioned by ThinkNewsBrand.

The study was overseen by MediaScience CEO, Dr Duane Varan, and included more than 5350 participants and ran across 42 print runs and 252 websites, which together created 6037 unique brand exposures. Overall, it found news is a highly effective ad channel because of its ability to encode brand memories.

In particular, the findings showed ads in national and metro newspapers yield 8.5 times greater unprompted recall than the ‘run of the internet’ sites that include non-premium sites such as TechRadar, The Daily Mail, Yahoo, Mamamia and Buzzfeed.

Digital news channels also deliver a strong uptick in brand recall, with unprompted recall 26 per cent for digital national and metro news versus 11 per cent for run of the internet sites. Print and digital news combined generate 3.5 times greater brand lift compared to run of the internet.

Advertising in ‘total news’ channels delivers unprompted recall of 22 per cent compared to just 10 per cent for run of the internet. It also yields superior sales impact with 1.8 times brand lift. Ads in total news deliver stronger brand choice lift and a high propensity to purchase, with brand choice for total news at 14 per cent compared to just 9 per cent for run of the internet.

When it comes to light category consumers, the most important segment for brand growth, news advertising widens the effectiveness gap with unprompted recall 19 per cent compared to 7 per cent for run of the internet.
Lastly, when it comes to brand choice, it is 14 per cent for total news, compared to just 9 per cent for run of the internet. Again, this gap widens for light buyers, with brand lift increasing from 4 per cent for run of the internet to 11 per cent for total news.

“The findings are clear: As an advertising channel, news has the power to increase the propensity to purchase due to the halo created by the engaging, trusted and professionally produced content,” said ThinkNewsBrands GM, Vanessa Lyons.

“This research, combined with the impressive daily reach of news, its vast and growing audience, and clear cross-platform performance, make a compelling case for marketers to reappraise their perceptions of news,” she added.

This Thursday, CMO is hosting an event with Dr Duana Varan, Vanessa Lyons and and two leading CMOs for a live discussion about the research and how they’re approaching news media as part of their wider media approach.

Register for this free virtual event now by clicking here.

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