Over half the trialists in Virgin Media’s on demand ad trial were receptive to the medium with spontaneous brand awareness growing by almost two thirds.
The three month long trial started last October in 100,000 homes on the cablenet’s network in North London. Ads from brands including Kellogg’s, John Lewis and the Royal Mail were inserted around selected on demand content from Virgin Media TV, Channel 4 and Warner TV through SeaChange International’s Ad Pulse technology.
According to Virgin some 54% of the trialists were positive about advertising when watching on demand content from commercial providers – advertisements in premium channels Sky Movies and Sky Sports have been a feature since the early 1990s – 65% said they preferred to see ads beforehand with 30 second commercials the most popular format. The ad trial also drove a 62% increase in the spontaneous awareness of brands and products among the trialists. Awareness of individual ads increased by 27% and overall campaign recognition also showed a clear increase of 27%.
“There is a clear opportunity for on demand television to deliver relevant ads to an engaged and growing audience,” said Mark Schweitzer, chief commercial officer, Virgin Media. “ By continuing to develop our on demand TV platform, we can offer even more great content and choice to viewers, a compelling opportunity for advertisers and the potential for an additional revenue stream to broadcasters.”
Virgin did not say how many trialists participated in the survey.
