Is online video advertising as effective as TV ads when it comes to brand awareness?

Absolutely, says a report unveiled Thursday by the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada and Nielsen IAG.

The study, which measured viewer recall after ads were seen both online and on TV, reports that online pre-, mid- and post-roll video ads performed better than TV ads, across every brand metric and for every vertical, including apparel, beer/liquor, beverages and snack foods.

For example, 39% of survey respondents that viewed online video ads recalled the brand message, against 21% for TV ads. The strongest brand recall came with the verticals for auto, food and beverage and personal care.

Twenty-six per cent of those exposed to online video ads said the ads were likeable, versus 14% for the TV ads.

That’s good news for marketers that repurpose existing TV commercials by streaming them online.

But that doesn’t mean TV should be dropped from media strategies completely – the report found that a campaign that combined online video ads and TV ads produced better viewer recall for all verticals.

The study also found that, when it came to repurposed TV ads versus original online ads, the former were as effective as the latter.

In this respect, repurposed TV ads worked best for the finance, insurance and real estate verticals, and original online ads worked best for travel.

The results of the survey were garnered from the completion of 14,333 surveys over a year and a half from November 2007 to May 2009.

From Playback Daily