Publisher branding boosts ad effectiveness

The study, which compared the conscious and subconscious reactions of 4,364 people who were served ads on websites either with or without publisher branding, found that advertising on sites with publisher branding increased brand consideration by 60% compared to those without.

Furthermore, brand consideration increased for regular readers of sites with publisher branding – it was 152% higher amongst this group than those who saw the same ads on a site without publisher branding.

Brand warmth was 33% higher for regular readers compared with those seeing the ad on a non-branded site, while brand empathy saw a 20% increase and brand proximity (how close people felt to the brand) was 19% higher for regular readers. This included people who are very open to reading that publisher but wouldn't necessarily consider themselves regular readers.

The research also found that there was no significant impact of surrounding editorial content on advertising effectiveness. Researchers looked at two editorial dimensions: mood or sentiment (positive/negative) and match or thematic congruence (relevant/not relevant), finding that, for example, a food advert next to an article about obesity did not affect any brand metrics.

Steve Doyle, chief commercial officer at InSkinMedia, said: “The relationship a publisher has with a visitor can have a catalytic effect in terms of boosting the effectiveness of the ads it carries, which shows that if online publishers pay more consideration to the reader experience, particularly in regards to advertising, the ads will be more effective, so they can charge a higher premium while carrying less advertising – a virtuous circle.”

Doyle added that the research suggests brand safety is “considerably more complex than the industry might like to admit. More research in this area is required to help marketers devise meaningful and effective brand safety policies, as the area is still a relative unknown.”

Research agency Conquest carried out the online test with multiple brands, display formats and publishers from July – August 2017. Respondents were surveyed using explicit and implicit measurement methodologies to uncover both conscious and subconscious associations people held of the brands tested.