Ad value boosted by newsbrand context

Presenting research carried out by Conquest, Denise Turner (pictured), Newsworks director of insight, said engagement combined with context meant increased advertising value.

“As people are more time-squeezed, it becomes even more vital that brands choose the company that they keep,” she said.

“Our hypothesis was that the effect of advertising in context should be powerful because of the high levels of engagement, reinforced because of the regularity of interaction; high levels of trust, especially in original and not aggregated media; and the personal identification.”

For the study, people were given an online reading task and online questionnaire. Ads were shown in context but with the editorial changing; they were also multi-platform campaigns.

The research compared non-readers, who were unfamiliar with the newsbrands, with regular users/readers.

The results looked at three areas: brand love (identified through implicit questions i.e. how much closer they feel toward the brand); buzz (how much they think the brands are talked about) and consideration (intent to purchase next time in market).

Among the primary sample who were given the reading task and the questionnaire there was a clear context effect for newsbrand readers across all platforms:

For print – brand love increased 11% (among regular newsbrand readers versus non-readers), buzz 13% and consideration 16%; for tablet – brand love increased 14%, buzz 20% and consideration 38%; and for mobile brand love rose 10%, buzz 14% and consideration 31%.

Conquest sampled 8,600 in total; the main online sample was 8,000 adults who carried out the online reading task in mocked up newsbrands (or other online media brands): online, print and tablet editions, followed by the online questionnaire. A supplementary sample ( 600 adults) read the physical paper or tablet before the online questionnaire. Eight campaigns in total were used and there was also 14 filmed qual depths.