"TV and VOD: Friends With Benefits" is a research study about TV and video-on-demand (VOD) advertising in the UK. Tremor Video and the IAB UK co-funded and commissioned the research on behalf of the IAB UK Video Council. The study findings are based on 1.5 years of research into how UK viewers consume TV and video content plus a statistical analysis of five UK ad campaigns (TV and video) across a wide array of categories: fast-moving consumer goods, retail, beverage, tech, and finance.

Our hypothesis was that VOD serves as a cost-effective and efficient complement to TV advertising, and that TV and VOD campaigns can build brand awareness and message association better than TV alone. We also wanted to prove that VOD advertising extends the life of a campaign's brand message even after the TV advertising ends. We based these assumptions on the rapid adoption of portable devices as a means to get news, entertainment, and other content.

Nielsen fielded the study and conducted surveys, analysing in partnership with Tremor Video the campaign performance of several clients belonging to Performics, a Publicis Groupe media agency. Phase 1 looked at cost efficiency and incremental reach across five TV and VOD ad campaigns in the retail, FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods), telco, and finance sectors. Phase 2 measured effectiveness of TV and VOD advertising in raising awareness and message association for Aviva.

We learned that people's unaided awareness and message association both improve when VOD media buys are added to TV advertising campaigns. But this happens to a higher degree when targeting affluent consumers who are light TV viewers watching less than two hours of TV per day. TV and VOD campaigns targeting this group are also more cost effective than TV-only campaigns. VOD is less effective when reaching moderate-to-heavy watchers of TV.

The results validate the team's hypothesis that VOD ad campaigns are a cost-effective way to increase reach, brand awareness, and message association, especially when targeting affluent consumers and light TV viewers who are increasingly watching VOD content. Please download attachment for full details of methodology and key learnings from this research.