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Oy Gestalt: Combinations of Media Better Than Standalone
June 2, 2008

Studies have long found that marketing in more than one medium is far more effective than any single medium on its own. A story in today’s Advertising Age drives this point home even further:

...a study shows that consumers' intent to buy products increases dramatically if they see a brand's ad messages on TV and in other media such as print or online compared with TV alone.

Consumers were more likely to express an intention to buy consumer electronics, apparel, automobiles, beer and toiletries when exposed to a combination of media rather than one medium alone, according to market-research firm Advertiser Perceptions. The company conducted an online survey of more than 25,000 respondents in April that measured 300 TV networks and programs, 120 websites, and 120 magazines and national newspapers.
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Across those product categories, TV, online and magazines produced relatively low purchase intent when used alone. For instance, compared with the average of all measured media audiences, TV viewers were 3% less likely to intend to buy consumer electronics and autos and 2% less likely to intend to buy apparel.

But when combined with other media, TV produced a much different result. Using an example of a media brand with online, TV and magazine properties, Advertiser Perceptions found that TV and online together produced big lifts in buying intentions across those same five product categories. For instance, online and TV viewers were 27% more likely to intend to buy beer than those who viewed TV alone, 22% more likely to intend to buy apparel than TV viewers alone and 21% more likely to intend to buy consumer electronics than TV viewers alone.

The combo of online and magazines also produced lifts in purchase intent across most categories. For instance, online and magazine readers were 24% more likely to intend to purchase autos than online users alone and 20% more likely to intend to buy beer than online users alone.

They also introduce a new term to describe this phenomenon: “gestalt buying.” Oh, and marketers are paying attention to data like these because they are under increased pressure to justify any and all marketing expenses with “intent to buy” numbers. In other words, they need hard a fast numbers to prove that a given amount of spending will yield actual sales.  Oh, if only predicting human behavior were that easy!

Posted by Richard Romano on June 2, 2008 | Comments (0)