Key Findings

§  On average online advertising boosts key branding metrics: brand awareness (+5.4%), ad recall (+45.3%), message association (+21.6%), brand favourability (+5.6%), purchase intent (+4.9%)

§  Study shows similar results for US and European online branding 

§  Online advertising raised purchase intent most for FMCG brands

 

London, 29^th September 2004 – The European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA), the pan-European trade organisation representing interactive media sellers AOL Europe, MSN International, Yahoo! Europe, LYCOS Europe, AdLINK Internet Media, T-Online and Tiscali, today announced the results of the largest ever consolidation of online branding studies in Europe.

 

The study, conducted by Dynamic Logic, a leading marketing effectiveness research company, conclusively demonstrates online marketing works as a means of building brands and increasing purchase intent. It also reveals online advertising has a significant impact on FMCG brands, a sector not traditionally seen as a widespread adopter of online marketing.

 

The EIAA Online Branding Effectiveness Study brings together the results of 200 online campaign reports, including responses from over 160,000 people in Europe, and shows significant increases in all five branding metrics as a result of online advertising – ad recall, brand awareness, brand favourability, message association and purchase intent.

 

This is especially relevant in the light of recent Jupiter Research figures, which predict a 50% increase in online’s share of total ad spend in Europe - rising from 2.6% in 2004 to 3.9% by 2006.

 

The EIAA Study reveals that, on average across Europe, online campaigns were responsible for a 5.4% uplift in brand awareness, a significant lift above the existing high levels of brand awareness (69% amongst the brands analysed). The increase in brand awareness is evident across each of the vertical sectors analysed, with FMCG online campaigns registering a 5.9% increase, automotive 5.7% and electronics 3.4%.

 

In addition to brand awareness, the report also reveals online campaigns raised ad recall by a massive 45% on average across Europe. Message association saw a 21% increase whilst brand favourability rose by 5.7%. Again, FMCG campaigns surpassed other sectors studied with a 9% increase in brand favourability.

 

Significantly, the report demonstrates online marketing raised purchase intent by 5% on average across all the sectors. FMCG campaigns were responsible for the largest increase amongst the sectors studied (5.8%).

 

“This is the most robust body of evidence quantifying the impact of online advertising on branding metrics across Europe,” said Bob Ivins, EIAA Director and Research Director at Yahoo! Europe “This is convincing evidence that online advertising builds brands in Europe and we have reached a tipping point that will change the balance in the media mix”.

 

Andrew Walmsley, Founder of i-level, commented, “This study from the EIAA is compelling evidence of the benefits and value that advertisers can achieve from online campaigns. This is a pretty conclusive demonstration of online’s ability to deliver brand awareness, push specific messages or improve brand favourability.”

 

The results of this study across 200 European campaigns were taken from Dynamic Logic’s MarketNorms[1][*] database. When compared with norms from 1,107 North American campaigns, the EIAA study shows Europe is equally advanced when it comes to online marketing. In each of the brand metrics, the European data closely mirrors North American brand impact results.

 

“Online advertising in Europe increases awareness, but it is particularly exciting to see significant impact on purchase intent and brand favourability, metrics hard to move in any medium,” said Ken Mallon, Vice President of Product Development, Dynamic Logic. “We look forward to working with the EIAA on an ongoing basis to develop research which furthers the understanding of brand impact in Europe.”

 

The research was conducted by Dynamic Logic by aggregating results from 200 AdIndex studies over a two-year period up to and including Q2 2004. The AdIndex methodology utilized a parallel control-exposed design and recruited 164,237 people online within the online media plan of the each of the 200 campaigns.  The sampling methodology in each study ensures that the roughly 400 exposed subjects are statistically similar to the 400 control subject in terms of demographics and other media exposure. 

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Fig 1: Online Marketing Builds Brands in Europe :

The European Interactive Advertising Association (www.eiaa.net) is a unique pan- European trade organisation for sellers of interactive media. The primary objectives of the EIAA are to champion and to improve the understanding of the value of online advertising as a medium, to grow the European interactive advertising market by proving its effectiveness, thus increasing its share of total advertising investment. Its members are currently AdLINK Internet Media AG, AOL Europe, LYCOS Europe, MSN International, Tiscali, T-Online International, Yahoo! Europe. It is chaired by Michael Kleindl, Managing Partner of Valkiria Network.

Dynamic Logic, Inc. is a leading market research company with expertise in marketing effectiveness. Dynamic Logic Europe, based in London, was launched in 2001 and has conducted studies across 150 sites in ten countries. Clients include top advertisers such as BT, British Gas, Unilever, General Motors, Gillette, and agencies such as Carat, Media.com, Media Contacts, Starcom MediaVest, Ogilvy, mOne, and publishers such as Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, Financial Times, BusinessWeek, and News International (Times and Sun).

 

Alison Fennah                                              Nick Wilkins

Executive Director                                        Red Consultancy

EIAA                                                                Tel: 020 7025 6539

Tel: 01536 712710                                      Email: nick.wilkins@redconsultancy.com

Email: afennah@eiaa.net

 

[1][*] MarketNorms is a powerful analytical tool that provides advertisers, agencies and publishers with the industrys most comprehensive database for measuring online advertising and marketing effectiveness