Online display advertising on bbc.com proven to change behaviour

Online display advertising appearing internationally on bbc.com delivers more positive impacts on brand perception¹ and bigger shifts in behaviour² than the same ads appearing on competitor websites, a new BBC Advertising study proves.

The BBC Advertising study compared reactions towards a Toyota ad running on bbc.com with reactions to the same ad appearing on three other international news sites: cnn.com, nytimes.com and huffingtonpost.com. BBC Advertising then worked with comScore to track the actual behaviour of users exposed to online display advertising on bbc.com – and compared this to the behaviour of those exposed to ads on other news sites or on social networks.

The results prove that the more positive reaction to the bbc.com environment is reflected in a more positive perception of the online display ads that appear on the site – and also that deeper engagement with bbc.com increases the effectiveness of online display advertising in driving purchase behaviour.

Online display advertising: bbc.com environment boosts perceptions¹

• bbc.com users rate the website more positively than users of other websites rate those websites
• The bbc.com advantage covers a wide range of key measures including ‘trustworthy’, ‘engaging’ and ‘would be proud to use’
• Toyota advertising was rated more positively when appearing on bbc.com than when it appeared on competitor sites. This included key measures such as ‘high quality’, ‘makes me feel safe’ and ‘good future investment’

Online display ads: tracking purchase behaviour²

• Users spend 32% longer on bbc.com pages than on those of other news/information sites and social networks
• Compared to other news sites, users exposed to ads on bbc.com were 46% more likely to visit an advertiser’s website, and conducted 40% more searches for the advertiser’s brand
• Compared to social networks, users exposed to ads on bbc.com were 49% more likely to visit an advertiser’s website, and conducted 45% more searches for the advertiser’s brand
• These improvements in driving users towards advertiser purchase were particularly marked for the Toyota advertising featured in the earlier perception tests

¹  bbc.com Engagement Study Part 1, September 2011, Toluna
²  bbc.com Engagement Study Part 2, May 2011, comScore