Ad ratings when a marketer runs two commercial messages in one television program episode

Abstract

Advertisers sometimes run two messages in one television program episode. We examine the ad-ratings consequences in passively recorded data. Previous findings suggest that repetition can reduce ad affect and attention duration. Viewers might therefore tend to zap the second message for one brand. If second messages are targeted for zapping, marketers might run only one message per episode. We observe channel changing near the start and end of ad breaks, but no targeted second-message zapping emerged. Marketers might therefore continue to buy two ad units in particularly interesting shows. Interestingly, networks separated the two messages for one brand into early and late program segments. In some shows, this separation may influence the relative ratings of the two messages. For example, the first ad had higher ratings in some shows that followed a much more popular program on the same network. However, the second ad had higher ratings in some game and reality shows with strong audience build-up in late running time. But in each of these situations, the pooled rating for the two ads did not differ from the program’s average ad rating. In sum, our data suggest that marketers don’t provoke targeted ad zapping by running two messages in a program episode.