1. IPSOS ASI
Is This the Newest Odd Couple?
How Emerging Media is Helping its Traditional Media ‘Friends.’
June 2011
While marketers struggle to monetize social media, and tap into the online
conversations to directly benefit their brands, there has been an unexpected
beneficiary of this new media tool – traditional media.
Wendy Swiggett
Ipsos
Senior Vice President

2. IPSOS ASI
When eMarketer came out with their annual forecast for U.S. So what is happening? While there are many possible and
ad spending earlier this year, they headlined it “TV Ad Spend- contributing factors to this outcome, an interesting one to
ing Largely Unaffected by Growth Online, reflecting the
” consider is that one particular form of new media, social
surprise that many in the industry still feel at the resiliency media, may be contributing to the resurgence in traditional
of TV against the onslaught of “new” (online / digital) media. TV viewing.
It wasn’t all that long ago after all that the industry was Remember, TV has always been a “social” media. People
collectively predicting the demise of television advertising. throw parties to watch the Super Bowl or the Oscars. More
Some of this fear was the result of our human tendency to informally they gather in groups to watch sports, or gather
assume the worst about a new technology. As Nick Bilton, around the literal or figurative “water cooler” to discuss
the lead technology writer for the New York Times Bits Blog, buzz-worthy plot developments on their favorite shows. How
observed in his book “I Live In The Future & Here’s How It much more appealing is it, then, to be able to have “real time”
Works, “time and again, new technologies have been seen
” conversations, while whatever show you are watching is
as frightening, intimidating and a sure road to ruin. He ” unfolding, with a custom selected group of friends (not just
cites examples from 1876, in which the new fangled tele- people who happen to work or live near you)? A Nielsen /
phone was seen as a threat to concert- and church-going Yahoo study earlier this year found that 86% of mobile
[because concerts and sermons would be “piped in” through phone owners use the internet on their handset while watch-
the telephone], and the phonograph, it was feared would ing TV, to access social networking sites or to text with
make books and reading obsolete.1 Of course, nearly 140 family and friends, among other activities.
years later, we still go to concerts, and to church, and read Activity on social media sites back this up. According to
books (although how we read books is beginning to change). Twitter’s media relations department, a very large proportion
The new technologies facilitated the enjoyment of, rather of tweets about TV shows come while the show is airing live.
than replaced the social interaction and experiences. But that The 2010 Super Bowl became the most viewed event in
was not the obvious conclusion at the time. history, overtaking – finally! – the 1983 series finale of the
The specific fear within the advertising industry was that DVR show M*A*S*H. It also broke records on Twitter. At more
technology would kill, or at least profoundly transform, the than 4,000 tweets per second during the final moments
advertising industry as we know it. In the 2005 AAF Survey of the game, it had the highest volume of tweets for any
of Industry Leaders on Advertising Trends, nearly one-quarter sports event.
of respondents were predicting the outright death of 30 Ipsos has also conducted research into the impact of live
second TV spots, while more than half foresaw product viewer engagement during shows, with quite interesting
placement and sponsorship overtaking, although not com- results. In 2010 Ipsos and Lumi Mobile partnered to create a
pletely replacing, TV advertising. game-like, social experience for viewers of the Oscars meant
And yet, here we are, more than five years later, and TV to enhance the viewing experience. The research also had
advertising continues to hold its own. According to Nielsen, the potential to help develop mobile as an insight tool, by
total time devoted to watching TV continues to climb. creating a real-time interactive application on the “second
Amongst the two in five U.S. households that now have a screen” that might generate deeper, more accurate research
DVR, Live and Live + 3-Day 2 program and commercial ratings insights from engaged viewers, at the point of experience.4
are even higher. In other words, DVRs allow these households The viewer experience, which featured aspects such as host
to watch more TV (by time-delaying some of their viewing), commentary, prediction and trivia polls and a live chat feature,
and they watch more ads as well.3 proved extremely popular among those who participated.
Ipsos ASI

3. IPSOS ASI
Despite the duration of the show (over 3 hours), over 75% About Ipsos ASI
of the participants were still engaged at the end of the show, Ipsos ASI is the advertising and communications market
85% said they enjoyed the experience very much, and most research company you can consistently count on for the best
encouragingly over 75% said participating in the live social quanti­ative and qualitative results that point the way to
t
activities increased their enjoyment of the show. the most profitable actions. Ipsos ASI is part of the Ipsos
Advertisers are starting to take notice of this phenomenon organization. Founded in Paris, France, in 1975, Ipsos is the
as well, and are beginning to use social media tools to only independent, publicly-listed research company that is
promote their messages during commercials. This year, Audi controlled and managed by research professionals. Ipsos is
became the first Super Bowl advertiser to include a Twitter a leading global research company focusing on six core
hashtag in its commercial, and the number of mentions that specializations: Advertising, Marketing, Media, Opinion and
resulted because of the spot was almost equal to the number Customer Relationship Management research, and Data
that Audi generated when it paid for promoting a hashtag Collection and Delivery. With offices in 66 countries, Ipsos
on Twitter directly. conducts research in more than 100 countries.
The way we view content will continue to evolve, but we will
always want to be entertained and share with others. Social For more information,
media tools can help increase viewership and engagement – please contact:
and without doubt, advertisers will continue to discover Leah McTiernan
the effective ways to use them, and integrate them with their Vice President, Ipsos ASI
broader TV campaign. leah.mctiernan@ipsos.com
1
I Live In The Future & Here’s How It Works: Nick Bilton, Crown Business, 2010
2
Live and Live + 3-Day refer to the Nielsen rating system, an almost universally used metric
for ad and commercial ratings in the United States. These ratings refer to the number and
share of TV households watching a particular program “live” (while it is originally broadcast)
and up to three days later, “on delay,” using a Digital Video Recording device.
3
Nielsen State of the Media, DVR use in the US, December 2010.
4
For more information on the Ipsos/Lumi study, contact Jill Wiltfong, iOTX
Ipsos ASI 11-06-19