1. TV AND VOD FRIENDS
with Benefits
1. What is “TV and VOD: Friends With Benefits”?
“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 took place October 2011–November 2012. Nielsen fielded
the study and conducted surveys, analyzing in partnership with Tremor Video the campaign performance
of several clients belonging to Performics, a Publicis Groupe media agency. The IAB UK released the
“TV and VOD: Friends With Benefits” study at an April 16, 2013 event entitled, Stretch that reach! Video
on demand.
The UK research also complements Tremor Video’s US spring 2013 ad campaign. TV with Benefits aims
to show how TV and video ad campaigns work together to build brands through creative storytelling.
2. What did you want to prove/disprove about VOD and TV advertising?
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.
3. Did your results prove the hypothesis?
Yes. 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.
4. What were your specific findings?
Brand Awareness Up
I. TV advertising alone, when targeted to light TV viewers (those watching less than two hours per day),
does not deliver a significant increase in brand awareness. TV and VOD work together to increase
unaided brand awareness among this harder-to-reach group.
II. VOD, on its own, is an effective channel for continuing to raise brand awareness after TV campaigns end.
Based on this finding, we are recommending that marketers maximize their ad budgets and keep brands
top of mind by running TV and VOD ads simultaneously and also by continuing with VOD when TV ads
stop.
Example (Figure 1)
• Prior to a major UK brand’s ad campaign, 33% of survey respondents who watched TV and VOD
content named the brand in an unaided manner, i.e., they named the brand when asked, “When
FAQ

2. thinking about [this brand’s industry], which companies come to mind?”
• As a result of the brand’s two-month TV and VOD campaign, unaided awareness jumped to 38%*
of TV and VOD watchers.
• After the TV campaign ended, VOD advertising continued to run alone for one month. Unaided
brand awareness jumped to 41% among viewers exposed to the VOD ads.
*38% is average of TV only and TV and VOD results for the September-October period.
Message Association Up (Figure 2)
III. TV and VOD work in unison to increase message association better than TV alone. VOD, on its own,
continues to increase message association after TV ads stop. Figure 2 shows how message association
decreases over an 8-week period after TV ads stop. But VOD ads keep message association alive.
Example (Figure 3)
• Prior to a major UK brand’s campaign, 29% of survey participants who watched TV and VOD ads
correctly associated the brand with its messages.
• After the brand’s two-month TV and VOD campaign, message association almost doubled to 48%
of TV and VOD watchers.
• After the TV campaign ended, VOD advertising continued to run alone for one month. Researchers
found a significant difference in message association among those who were exposed to the brand’s
November VOD ads versus those who were not. Of those who were exposed to the VOD ads, 32%
correctly associated the brand with its messages, down from the high of 48% but still higher than the
Figure 1
VOD
Incremental
Reach
Figure 2

3. pre-campaign level of 29%. Among those who were not exposed to the VOD ads, advertising “decay”
set in and only 26% made the brand-message connection.
Cost Effectiveness, Too
It is less expensive to increase unaided brand awareness and message association, per percentage
point, per person, via TV and VOD than via TV alone among light TV viewers.
Example
• Of the people Aviva targeted in its campaign, 48% were light TV viewers who watched less than two
hours of TV per day. As such, TV advertising would likely be unable to reach that portion of the
population with sufficient frequency. However, according to our research, 56% of light TV viewers
watch VOD, and VOD helped offset the frequency TV was lacking. Among the five campaigns we
analyzed during phase 1, as high as 41% of the target audience were exposed to TV and VOD ads.
• For every pound sterling Aviva spent to increase unaided awareness via TV, it cost only 59 pence
to do so with TV and VOD among light TV viewers.
• For every pound sterling Aviva spent to increase message association via TV, it cost only 64 pence
to do so with TV and VOD among light TV viewers.
5. You’ve mentioned there is a relationship between light TV viewership and VOD viewership. Can you
further explain the connection between light and heavy/medium TV viewership and VOD viewership?
Light TV viewers, who watch TV less than two hours per day, may see a brand’s TV ad a maximum of
one time during the TV campaign. A single ad viewing is generally not enough to make a significant
impact on brand awareness or message association. But as many light TV viewers do watch VOD, they
can be reached relatively effectively via that medium.
Heavy/medium TV viewers (those who watch TV more than two hours per day), and especially heavy
TV viewers (those who watch TV more than five hours per day), are exposed to a high frequency of TV
advertising, averaging five plus ads for a single brand over the course a TV campaign. These people
have a high level of unaided awareness and message association from a TV campaign alone. When they
are also exposed to VOD ads, the overwhelming brand lift from TV overshadows VOD’s impact.
6. How do you know when people are watching TV and VOD advertising?
For VOD advertising viewership, we use cookies to determine exposure to the ad. As long as cookie
data exists for more than 50% of the population we can calculate the exposure rate with confidence.
And in the UK, more than 50% of the population maintains their browser cookie data.
To assess TV viewership, we asked a battery of questions such as:
Do you watch commercial TV? If so:
• What time do you watch TV?
• How many hours do you watch per week?
Figure 3
VOD
Incremental
Reach

4. • What channels do you watch?
• What programs do you watch?
Example
If people told us they watched Downton Abbey on iTV/iTV+1 on a Sunday night between 9:00–10:00 p.m.
and we know that Aviva ran a 30-second spot at 9:45 p.m. on ITV during Downton Abbey, we know that
these viewers had an opportunity to see the Aviva ad.
7. What was your methodology?
Tremor Video, the IAB UK, Nielsen, and Performics approved the cross-media research approach.
We consider this a “fusion” study, for the team took TV data from BARB (the UK’s Broadcasters
Audience Research Board) and “fused” it with Nielsen’s digital panel data from their meter, making
sure that TV and digital data had similar proportions of men vs. women, affluent vs. non-affluent,
and the like.
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.
• Each campaign reached between 11 million and 25 million UK consumers in the following categories:
people ages 16-34; and women and men in the lower, middle, and upper-middle classes.
Phase 2
• Measured effectiveness of TV and VOD advertising in raising awareness and message association
for Aviva.
• Fielded the survey to nationally representative sample of 1,375 British consumers in the ABC1 target
audience between August and November 2012.
• Recruited survey respondents that qualify for the ABC1 target audience, equally over seven days per
week, for 14 weeks.
• Measured their TV viewing behavior, VOD cookie exposure, brand awareness, and message
association for Motor Insurance Companies (Aviva and its competitive set).
• Used experimental design: The control sample was not exposed to advertising. The test 1 group was
exposed to TV, test 2 was exposed to TV and VOD, and test 3 was exposed only to VOD.
• Analyzed the data and fused it with the TV data to arrive at conclusions.