You Don’t Have to Choose Between Brand Building and The Web

A recently released study (see YouTube summary above) conducted by the Interactive Advertising Bureau in partnership with Carat Insight, compared the ability of different types of media to create brand engagement. The results surprised a lot of people in the marketing industry. The leader was the Web with 40 percent brand engagement. Publicity and television came in second and third with 31 percent and 19 percent respectively.

The study was done in the U.K. utilizing quantitiative and qualitative techniques and a sample base of 1000 participants. This summary from an IAB news release on the study points to an immense opportunity for marketers:

“The average online ad spend for all five brands in the study was just 2.5% of total media budget, which suggests that internet advertising – which delivered 40% of brand engagement across all communications – is around 16 times more effective than the monetary investment would suggest.”

Recently, many companies have become converts to the power of the Web to drive promotional activity and deliver return on marketing investment. However, some marketers have been skeptical of the Web’s ability to create brand engagement that will help create an emotional and rational connection to consumers. This latest IAB/Carat study should help dispel this notion.