Study Shows What Ad Types Are More Popular

A new survey by the Harris Interactive research firm aims to find out what types of ads consumers prefer and pay more attention to. As part of its regular AdweekMedia/The Harris Poll survey, the firm questioned 2,512 adults about their advertising medium preferences. The research found that TV advertising was still the most helpful while online banner ads were ignored by the majority of people.

“Over one-third of Americans (37%) say that television ads are most helpful in making their purchase decision while 17% say newspaper ads are most helpful and 14% say the same about Internet search engine ads. Radio ads (3%) and Internet banner ads (1%) are not considered helpful by many people. Over one-quarter of Americans (28%), however, say that none of these types of advertisements are helpful to them in the purchase decision making process,” the report found [PDF].

In the younger demographic, those aged between 18 and 34, fifty percent found TV ads to be the most helpful while for those aged over 55 newspaper ads still had the greatest importance in 31 percent of the cases. Many types of ads go unnoticed by those surveyed, with 46 percent of them ignoring online banner ads, and only 17 percent ignoring search engine ads.

Other types of ads proved to be more popular with only 13 percent of the respondents tending to ignore TV ads, 9 percent radio ads and just 6 percent newspaper ads. Nine percent of the US citizens questioned said they didn't ignore any type of ads. There were differences with age too, as those in the 18 to 34 age group were more likely to ignore search engine ads, 20 percent of them, while those in the 55 or over category tended to ignore TV ads more, also 20 percent.