Ad responsiveness in the era of content saturation

20,000 foot view:  The digital entertainment space is more saturated than ever, with content spread and duplicated across dozens of platforms, from social to streaming. Advertising and marketing teams face incredible competition and a tough economic environment in which to elicit spend from users. The prevailing advertising strategy in this oversaturated landscape has been “more is more”, but this can backfire. This report explores how consumers across age groups, income brackets, and entertainment cohorts respond to ads, but just as importantly how they feel about them – finding that, when misplaced or overwhelmed, ads can have the opposite effect and spark negative sentiment towards the backing brand. 

Key insights 

• Advertisers face            same attention saturation challenges as            rest of entertainment, but worse            ads are served, not selected,            a hyper-personalised digital environment 
           of consumers say that seeing repeated ads for a product makes them less likely to buy it, and            say that too many ads for a product make them dislike the brand behind it. The overlaps here are significant, but not exclusive, with            of the ad-averse group being likely to dislike the brand and            the other way around
• Higher earning            are more likely to buy            they see advertised often and            are more engaged with brands            — but they are also            likely to be disinterested in            that are advertised too often            develop negative brand sentiment
• The takeaway            about self-awareness: high-spending audiences may            more based on the advertising,            they also may be more            to feel taken advantage of 
• Audiences of            entertainment services are used to            as a normal part of            experience and thus, while being            more susceptible to ads, are            as sensitive as audiences who            their money discerningly on entertainment,            positively and negatively
• High volume            like binge viewers, are fairly            towards ads overall as they            often multi-tasking their entertainment —            when ads do catch their            it can be interruptive of            experience
• Younger audiences            hyper-personalisation, creator authenticity, and lean-through            with their entertainment, thus advertising            must adapt accordingly 
           are most susceptible to advertising, with            saying repeated ads make them more likely to buy something and only            saying too many ads make them dislike the brand behind them            prefer engagement:            engage with brands on social media, where they feel like they can be part of the conversation
• 20-24-year-olds are            creator / sponsorship focused, having            up with a creator-first, digital,            environment where many creators make            living from tips and sponsorships
• The youngest                       have the least trust in            marketing or ad related –            the point where sponsorships are            likely to deteriorate their trust            creators

Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Bandcamp, iTunes Store, Letterbox, TikTok, Twitter