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11 Feb, 2014

Goo Study: Most U.S. Consumers Ignore Online Ads

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STOCKHOLM-February 11, 2014-(BUSINESS WIRE)–Goo Technologies, a provider of HTML5 high-end graphics for games and interactive visualizations on the web and the company behind the Goo Create® cloud platform, today announced the results of the first annual Goo Online Advertising Survey of over 2,000 Americans aged 18 and older, conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of Goo Technologies in January 2014.

The survey, which aimed to study the potential impact of gaming technology in the advertising space, as well as reveal consumer behavior around the types of ads we see every day, found that fully 92% of Americans ignore at least one type of ad, including:

  • Online – 82%
  • Television – 37%
  • Radio – 36%
  • Newspaper – 35%

The online ads Americans are most likely to ignore included: online banner ads (73%), followed by social media ads (62%), and search engine ads (59%). The highest wage earners, those with a household income of $100k+ per year, were statistically more likely than those households making less than $50k per year (86% vs. 78%, respectively) to say they ignore online ads.

Forty-two percent said that it is interactive ads which are the most engaging, citing several reasons including that they look more interesting (20%), don’t feel like an ad at all (15%) and look new and high tech (12%).

When asked what improvements would make them pay more attention to online ads, more than half of Americans (58%) – and fully 69% of Millennials (ages 18-34) – suggested the following:

  • Make the ad funny – 40%
  • Make it entertaining – 32%
  • Add stunning graphics – 19%

Ten percent of Americans even said they were more likely to pay attention to an online ad if it featured a sexy man or woman. Millennials are more likely than any other age group (21% vs. 9% of those ages 35+) to say they would pay attention to online ads if they were interactive.

“The results of the study point to a real concern for advertisers, mainly that online ads have become so pervasive that many say they are now ignoring them altogether,” said Marcus Krüger, executive chairman, Goo Technologies. “The opportunity for improvement represented by the data suggests that consumers not only want funny, more interesting ads, but they are also demanding more engagement with impressive graphics and interactivity. We believe the application of innovative gamification methodology and interactive rich web graphics can close this gap. Creative people need access to a powerful yet simple interface to change the way ads are created.”

Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of Goo Technologies from January 17-21, 2014 among 2,047 adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact Trafton Kenney at Trafton.kenney@grayling.com