Do Consumers Actually Hate Ads? It’s Not What You Think

 

Them ads: they’re getting too predictable and annoying. You open an app or click on a video and they appear right at the beginning just when we are eager to use an app or watch a video on the Internet.

Like many people, you, too, despise ads. I myself, despite having studied how to make effective ads, despise ads myself. Additionally, ads are also not exempt from being target of our coping mechanisms: people have long learned to subconsciously ignore ads – “banner blindness” is not a myth, people.

Do consumers actually hate ads? If so, what is the future of advertising?

I asked the same question before the start of my masters. The answer, as I found out, greatly depends on your advertising and marketing goals. Consumers don’t always hate ads. And hate for ads is not always bad for advertisers!

Now. I will reveal to you three important situations that set ads apart from each other:

1.      Advertising goals. Do you want to inform about new deals or introduce a new product line? Do you intend to increase loyalty or looking to expand to new markets? Different advertising goals need different strategies. If your goal is any of these I mentioned, then you don’t need consumers to like your ad. Empirical evidences show regardless of people’s attitude towards an ad they will favor the brand they saw previously in an ad, anyway, even without accurate recollection of the brand.

  

2.      Media. Different types of products and advertising goals need different types of media to establish a sense of appropriateness, or what we call ´congruence’. Videos often are useful in situations where consumers are expected to have short attention spans and if you simply want your brand seen, which explains why you often see them where you see them now (hint: videos).

3.      Attention. Consumers are not always too uninterested or busy to see ads. When a consumer is looking to buy a product, he/she will actively look for information or even welcome ads that inform about a target brand/product. In other words, consumers do elaborate on ads when their involvement towards the brand or product is high.

If you wish to have more advertising and marketing advice, do drop me a mail, check out my LinkedIn profile, or simply follow me on Twitter. See you in my next posts!