Excessive Ads Negatively Impact Consumers' View of a Brand More Than Inappropriate Content, According to GWI and WARC

NEW YORK CITY / AGILITYPR.NEWS / March 12, 2021 / More Consumers Say Excessive Ads are The Reason for Negative Feelings of a Brand Than Ads That Appear Next to Inappropriate Content, According to GWI and WARC 

“Excessive” Resonates With Most Consumers’ Association of Social Media,

TV and Website Ads

There’s no question that the global pandemic changed consumers’ appetite for and patience with brands’ advertisements. Below, GWI, a leading leading audience targeting and consumer research company, examines the types of ads that and ad content that negatively impact US consumers’ view of a brand, feelings about the ads they typically see on social media, TV, on the web, and in emails, and their most recent actions relating to ads they have viewed, and more. The research was conducted in partnership with WARC. 

Top Trends and Ad Attitudes 

1. Excessive ads are more likely to negatively impact consumers’ view of a brand than ads next to inappropriate content and irrelevant ads.  
2. More US survey respondents have skipped an online video in the past (7 days), but many have also watched an entire online video ad during that time. 
3. Smartphones are of extreme importance for US consumers as four in 10 say they check it every few minutes, and that they would use it to research something before going to their computer.
4. Just 10 percent of those surveyed said “memorable” best describes the ads they see on websites. 
5. Most of those surveyed want ads to provide product information, be entertaining and provide discounts/special offers; just 12 percent said they want ads to show companies’ COVID-19 response. 

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More than half (52%) of US survey respondents said too many ads most negatively impact their view of a brand, significantly higher than the 32 percent who said ads next to inappropriate content would most negatively impact their view of a brand. Additionally, 39 percent who said ads that block content they are trying to access and 37 percent who said seeing ads not relevant to them. 

Consumers mostly want ads to provide product information (50%), but they also want them to provide discounts and special offers (40%); nearly four-in 10 (39%) want ads to be entertaining and one-third (33%) want ads to teach them something new. 

“Excessive” comes to mind a lot when consumers think of various ads  

When asked “which word best describes the ads you typically see….” on TV, social media and on websites, the option “excessive” was high on many consumers’ lists. 

Specific to social media, ads in this channel are most likely to be seen as personalized than any other medium - 21 percent of Americans say that social media ads are personalized, compared to just 14 percent for website ads, and only 9 percent for TV ads. Although 32 percent say excessive describes the ads they see on social media, this is in line with the 32 percent who say the same of website ads, and 34% who say the same of email ads. 

The ads that survey respondents see on websites were mostly described as excessive (32%), distracting (31%), intrusive (27%) and informative (26%); just 10 percent said memorable.  

While not the highest-ranked adjective, 31 percent of consumers surveyed said excessive best describes the ads they see on TV; entertaining received the highest on the list for TV ads (35%). Nearly one-third (32%) said informative and 29 percent said funny. 

Emails from companies mostly “excessive” but also viewed as “informative”

More than one-third (34%) of those surveyed said excessive best describes the emails they receive from companies, yet 33 percent also said they are informative; 22 percent said the emails were helpful and 18 percent said personalized. Just seven percent (7%) said the emails they see are diverse. 

Video ads still useful, but many consumers also skipping them

When asked what activities specific to the ads they see in their lives they do, more than half (53%) said they have skipped an online video ad in the past seven days, though another 40 percent said they watched an entire video ad during that same time; three in 10 (30%) deleted cookies from their device, 29 percent said they researched something seen in an ad and one-quarter (25%) said they clicked on an ad on a website. Additionally, 15 percent say they bought something they saw in an ad in the past seven days.