What do you do during commercials? 95% not watching

by Karl on January 30, 2008

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Just read this over at JaffeJuice and Joseph extrapolates that the chance basically only 5% of people with the TV on are actually paying attention to advertisements. Wow, I thought it was only half of advertising that was wasted, we just didn’t know which half :-)

41.2% are channel surfing, 33.5% talking to others (in the room or on the phone) and 30.2% mentally tune out.

Anyway, I’m not sure how representative I am but I can’t bare to watch television that is not time shifted in some way, in fact if I happen to channel surf and find something I want to watch i’ll pause it, and go an do something else for a while and come back so I can watch it with the option to fast forward. Interestingly I do find myself on occasions rewinding if I see a movie trailer or something I’m interested in.

Source: BigResearch

{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

Daniel Riveong February 8, 2008 at 2:26 am

That’s an amazing stat, Karl. I’m curious if the research went into people we were online at the same time they were watching TV. I’ve noticed – at least antidotally – that my friends typically watch TV while also browsing online on their laptops, using commercials as an opportunity to quickly check facebook or some triva re: the sitcom they’re watching.

Norwegian clueless February 8, 2008 at 4:18 pm

Thats odd.

Coke ran a TV-campaign in Norway, and after a few weeks 95% of the target group knew of the new product. Either cokes research is wrong, or the above mentioned research is wrong. The liking of the campaign was really bad. 51% disliked it hugely. No one liked it.

Perhaps those 5% who “attends FULLY! and truly committed!” are on a rotating shift.

Or perhaps Norwegian are just more attentive to advertising.

Or perhaps this is a bull research.

Perhaps there is difference in what people think they do, and what they actually do.

There’s a lot of ifs here – or ors. Or perhaps perhaps.

Samer Marzouq February 9, 2008 at 2:57 pm

interesting… commercial break is a good opportunity to things that might distract you from watching TV, like a phone call, or going to the bathroom, or grabbing something to drink, but 95% are wasted! Too much.

Advertisers… Go Online :)

BizGiftGuru February 11, 2008 at 4:45 am

I usually go to bathroom or turn down the sound (as the noise goes up once the commercials are on) …

It however still must be working otherwise there would not be those billions spent on TV ads every year …

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