Television Ads Most Helpful; Internet Banner Ads Most Ignored, According to Harris

July 1, 2009 — One of the main purposes of advertising is to help consumers decide what products and services they should buy or use. With so many different types of advertising being used today the question becomes what types are considered most helpful, that is they help people decide what products or services to actually purchase and which ones are most likely to be ignored or disregarded?

These are some of the results of a new AdweekMedia/The Harris Poll® of 2,521 adults surveyed online by Harris Interactive between June 4 and 8, 2009.

What Ads Are Most Helpful?
Over one-third of Americans (37 percent) say that television ads are most helpful in making their purchase decision while 17 percent say newspaper ads are most helpful and 14 percent say the same about Internet search engine ads. Radio ads (3 percent) and Internet banner ads (1 percent) are not considered helpful by many people. Over one-quarter of Americans (28 percent), however, say that none of these types of advertisements are helpful to them in the purchase decision making process.

Half of people aged 18-34 (50 percent) say television ads are most helpful while three in ten (31 percent) of those aged 55 and older say they find newspaper ads to be most helpful. There is also a slight regional difference. Two in five Southerners (40 percent) say they find television ads most helpful, while only one-third (33 percent) of Midwesterners feel the same.

What Ads do People Ignore?
Almost half of Americans (46 percent) say they tend to ignore Internet banner ads. Much further down the list are Internet search engine ads (17 percent of people ignore), television ads (13 percent), radio ads (9 percent), and newspaper ads (6 percent). One in ten Americans (9 percent) say they do not ignore any of these types of ads.