Smartphones and other digital devices have started a new trend of television/video consumption in India by transforming it into a personal media device. Facilitated by on-the-go accessibility and greater control over their viewing experience, digital-savvy audiences in the country are increasingly inclining towards online content platforms over the traditional appointment-based viewing of the cable TV format. With the greater control over the viewing with viewers, advertisers have grown more cautious with the ad spend in the online spend.
While technology has liberated consumers from the shackles of advertisements to a limited extent, advertisers are leaving no stone unturned to ensure ROI on the budget spent on advertisements. Ads have always been an irritant and if given a choice viewers would like to avoid them at best. However if placed rightly with an appropriate duration, it can result in reaching a larger set of online audience. Duration and content of an ad does have its impact on the online viewing behaviour of the viewers.
Chrome’s latest study seeks to analyse how does the ads effect the viewing habits. The study is conducted among a sample size of 989 respondents in 6 metropolitan cities, New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkatta, with 58% of them males and 42% female out of which 86% were below the age 44 years.
The survey was conducted with the working professionals largely settled in metropolitan cities of India. Executed by the skilled interviewers of the Chrome Data, the data is collected through interviewing correspondents using structured questionnaire.
- A large portion of the respondents that is 86% of them responded positively that they are watching online videos, with 36% spending 30-60 minutes and 31% spending one to two hours watching online content in a day.
- Youtube is the most preferred online channel to watch online content (93%) followed by Facebook and Instagram with 62% and 35% respectively.
- While responding on their behavious towards watching Ads in between the Online Videos 56% confirmed watching online videos. On query of switch to other videos when a Skippable Ad appears, 42% of the respondents say they don’t switch over to other videos, if they encounter skippble while watching a video.
- While responding to a query on ‘how many complete Ads will they end up watching, If they encounter 10 skippable ads, 45% said None with another 20% saying just two ads. This unveils the facts that the skippable ads will retain the viewers’ stick towards the particular online video, whereas it doesn’t guarantee him consuming or watching the ad played in-between the video.
- In case of Non-skippable Ad – where there is no skip option even after watching for 5 seconds, 32% of the respondents say they would definitely switch over to other videos if the ads were unskippable. Another 17% also reflected the sentiments of quitting the video’s with unskippable ads very frequently.
- A majority 57% watches none of the ads completely if they encounter 10 unskippable ads in between the video.
- Banner/Overlay Ad with the text, image or traditional banner advertising inside streamed video had a moderate impact on the viewers with 24% opting to close the video immediately and additional 12% responded of closing it very frequently and 34% opting to stay watching the video despite the Banner Overlay ad in it.
- In terms of Duration of the Ad impacting the viewers: 48% say that duration of an advertisement impact viewing behavior. 42% responded that it impacted them some times and only 10% remaining unaffected by it.
- On their liking or tolerance to towards watching an advertisement before indulging in to a Video content,75% say they can watch a maximum of 10 seconds ad before starting a video. 11% were agreeable for 15 sec ads and another 11% were ready to watch a 30 sec ads and just 4% were okay with 60 sec ad.
