Mediacom/Thinkbox research uncovers hidden impact of TV on online response

13 October 2009

• Study reveals instant influence of broadcast TV advertising on internet activity
• Findings have implications for how advertisers analyse and value DRTV
• Mediacom/Thinkbox publish ‘New Rules of Response’

A new study into how broadcast TV advertising creates online response has revealed for the first time the instant effect that TV advertising has on driving web response and the high levels of misattribution TV suffers from.  The study highlights the scope for optimising of both DR and Brand Response TV based on the variations in response by day of week, time of day and break ecology.

Its findings underline the direct and complementary relationship TV advertising has with online media and means that advertisers and agencies must reconsider some of the accepted rules of planning and evaluating TV response campaigns if they are to maximise its effectiveness.

The econometric study by Mediacom, commissioned by Thinkbox, shows that, when TV’s correct share of online responses is added to phone responses, TV accounts for approx 30% of all advertising responses.  Of this 30%, over a third (35%) of the total response correctly attributed to TV ads occurs within 10 minutes of seeing the ad - 15% by phone and an even greater proportion, 20%, via the internet. For those advertisers who attribute only phone response to TV they are missing over half of its contribution.  It also shows that even pure brand ads, with no specific direct response ambition or call to action generate an immediate response online.

The study concludes that TV advertising has been significantly undervalued because its ability to generate viewer response online is generally not accounted for.  Also, until now, DRTV optimisation at spot level has been based solely on the patterns of telephone response, which has been declining as a response channel.

With TV advertising’s under-measured ability to generate online response revealed through econometrics, it significantly reduces DRTV’s real cost per response and cost per customer.   Many non-TV media have benefitted from being attributed with all the response they capture, even though much of this has been driven by TV ads. 

David Brennan, Research and Strategy Director, Thinkbox: “We knew anecdotally that TV advertising has a massive impact on internet traffic, sending people to brand websites, either directly or via search, retailer or comparison sites, but we had never actually quantified it. A large chunk of response has been credited to the wrong parent.”

“This research has proven two things: the degree to which we had undervalued TV and also how we can plan TV response campaigns better in light of this. I hope planners will welcome the new rules that have emerged from this research and use them to make campaigns even more effective.”

Jeremy Griffiths, Chief Business Science Officer, Mediacom: "This piece of research is essential reading for those interested in driving a response from their advertising.  For these first seven clients we now have a complete response picture against which we can optimise their future TV campaigns.   We have already changed our investment strategy for several of these clients.”

“MediaCom is committed to getting the best return for our clients' investment; if television can be made to work even harder it will undoubtedly benefit with a greater share of spend."


The study analysed over 175,000 TV spots and the activity they caused on different advertisers’ websites in 10 minute intervals over a period of three months for seven leading brands across six different markets.

Viewer response to TV advertising takes many different forms, including: visiting a brand’s website directly, searching for a specific brand or something featured in the advert (e.g. ‘meerkats’ for comparethemarket.com), visiting a retail website to look for a product, phoning or texting a number featured in a TV ad.

The new rules of response
The research findings challenge some accepted advertising wisdom about planning and evaluating TV ad campaigns in order to stimulate viewer response. Mediacom and Thinkbox have created a set of new rules that take account of the new research insights.

These offer best practice guidance on all areas of planning a TV response campaign, including which days of the week work best, which dayparts are most responsive, the different strengths of centre and end breaks, and the use and timing of copy.

They are available in full from Thinkbox’s website (www.thinkbox.tv). Key findings include:

• Weekends, especially Sundays, should be used more for driving web response. Contrary to how phone response falls off over the weekend, web response is even higher
• Web response over Sundays is flat over the day, offering a great opportunity for a web call to action across the whole day
• ‘Low interest’ categories should be advertised earlier on in the evening, whereas ‘high interest’ categories are more responsive later on
• Centre Breaks are better for driving visits to the homepage
• End Breaks are better for driving further interactions with a site
• It is worth investing in the premium break positions; the increased response outweighs the cost premium
• Use the shortest length that will get your message across effectively – although in ads where brand is a key part of the campaign, longer can be better
• Brand Response copy generates six times the response of pure brand ads
• Even pure brand ads should carry a discreet call to action and you should expect response to them.