New Report on Audience Attentiveness to Advertising in 25 TV Programming Genres

www.jackmyers.com. As advertisers look ever more closely at their network television budgets and schedules in the face of new commercial ratings information and concern about strike-related impact on their ad delivery and impact, new research on audience attentiveness to advertising from several providers is playing a growing role in agencies' considerations.

A new Myers Emotional Connections™ Research Study focuses on how attentive audiences say they are likely to be to advertising messages in 66 media categories, including 23 television programming genres, 13 place-based and out-of-home media, 11 Internet website content genres, eight magazine categories, four radio program categories, five Spanish-language media types, and two newspaper categories (dailies and weeklies).

The table below outlines the comparable attentiveness to advertising of viewers 18 to 49 in the 25 TV genres. Live professional sports, not surprisingly, captures the highest ad attentiveness levels among males 18 to 49. Among women of the same age group, primetime drama series rank highest, with 33% saying they are likely to pay attention to advertising in dramatic series (rating it 5/6/7 on a 7 point scale). Situation comedies, which are also impacted by the strike, are strong performers in holding audience attention through commercial breaks. The 8,000 survey respondents were aged 15 to 64, have a minimum 60 channels in the home, and watch TV at least one hour daily on average.

One of the early outcomes of the writers' strike is an increase in primetime reality series. The good news for networks and advertisers is the high ad attentiveness to these programs, which rank second among women 18 to 49 and seventh among men. However, the percentages (30%/31%) are virtually identical, as males are more likely to pay attention to TV advertising overall. The second ranked category among men 18 to 49 is live college sports with sports news and non-live sports ranking fifth in ad attentiveness.

Local TV station newscasts achieve high attentiveness ratings, ranking third among men 18 to 49 and fourth among women 18 to 49. Home, food and lifestyle programs, such as those aired on HGTV and Food Network, rank third among 18 to 49 women. Daytime talk shows (Oprah, Ellen, Rachael) rank seventh among women 18 to 49 with 21% of the audience reporting they are likely to pay attention to ads. "Dramadies" and prime time soap operas rank eighth.

Among the male 18 to 49 group, cable network news and theatrical movies are strong performers for ad attentiveness. For a free copy of the full methodology and information on the Myers Emotional Connections™ Research Report on Audience Attentiveness to Advertising, visit Jack Myers.com.

Myers 2007 Emotional Connections™
25 Television Programming Genres Research on Audience Attentiveness to Advertising
Based on a Study of 8,000 Americans Aged 15 to 64
% of Respondents who Use Each Medium saying They are Likely to Pay Attention to Advertising Messages (5/6/7 on 7 pt. scale). Parentheses note number of media options measured within each category

Source: Myers Emotional Connections Research on Audience Attentiveness to Advertising, conducted online June 2007 by OTX. 8,000 respondents 15 to 64 in multichannel homes with 60+ TV channels and viewing TV at least one hour per day.