A five year study into Sky’s AdSmart platform has revealed ad engagement is boosted by a third and channel switching cut by half.
The report comes as the targeted advertising platform is deployed on Virgin Media’s cable network, bringing the number of individuals AdSmart can reach to 30 million, representing some 40% of TV households.
Sky Media, which is behind the study, partners with BVA BDRC, Differentology and Affectiva to measure the impact of addressable TV campaigns using AdSmart.
300,000 Sky subscribers were interviewed for the study that ran on more than 130 campaign effectiveness projects.
A key element is engagement; facial recognition analysis revealed that when addressable ads are on TV, viewers’ attentiveness to the screen can be as much as a third higher (35%) and on average 21% more engaged.
It also reduces channel switching; an analysis of 52,000 ad breaks showed a reduction of 48% when addressable ads were shown in the first three positions of a break.
There are also benefits in spontaneous ad recall, which increases by 10%, when compared to standard linear advertising.
Jamie West, Director of Strategy & Capability Planning at Sky Media, said, “We’ve seen from day-one the amazing impact AdSmart has had for advertisers and it’s great to share our learnings of the AdSmart journey so far. TV is well-known for its impressive brand building abilities. Now with clear evidence of the effective performance of highly targeted campaigns across TV, its full potential is being discovered and unleashed by broadcasters, viewers and brands.
The UK’s addressable TV market has grown substantially since AdSmart was first launched in 2014. Subsequently, Sky Media has launched launched more than 17,000 addressable TV campaigns for 1,800 brands.
It has been used by advertisers including Barclays, Sodastream, and locally Gasway.