Are Good Moods the Key to Increasing Ad Receptivity?

A Study with MAGNA, IPG Media Lab, and Pandora

We all know that the key to success for advertising includes delivering a brand message to the right person, at the right time, and in the right context. But, do you ever wonder if there are other indicators—like moods, need states and situations—that impact people’s ad receptivity and attention? Is someone who is happy more likely to receive an ad than someone who is sad? And does it make a difference whether they are hearing the ad via streaming audio? Or watching it via streaming video?

We partnered with MAGNA and IPG Media Lab to conduct “Ad Receptivity, Deconstructed,” a new media trial that surveyed over 2,000 respondents on how they consumed ads, and when they were most receptive to them. Participants kept an online diary of their digital audio and video consumption over 24 hours to understand ad receptivity (willingness to see an ad before exposure to it) and ad attention (the active behavior of noticing an ad).

Turns out, there are infinite moments to reach people who are willing to be exposed to advertising and pay attention, but people’s receptivity to advertising is very different depending on whether they’re consuming audio or video. Their current state of mind, environment, and time of day also played large roles in ad receptivity. As a marketer, the better you understand the when, the where, the how, and the what to respond to these factors, the more you will impact ad receptivity and win consumers attention.

Audio Listeners Are More Receptive To Ads Throughout The Day

Audio listeners are 35% more receptive to advertising than viewers of streaming video, and audio presented more on-going daily opportunities to connect to people willing to hear ads. On the flip side, video viewers, in general, showed greater sensitivity to when they were more receptive to seeing an ad, with peaks of receptivity happening mostly in the evening hours.

Mood Matters

Ad receptivity is dependent on a person’s mood and emotional state. Listeners are generally 35% more open to ads and specifically receptive when they are in a good mood (excited, relaxed, focused, happy). Mood ranks #2 behind time for being a key indicator in driving audio ad receptivity.

Parents Are More Receptive

The study looked at ad receptivity differences between parents and non-parents and found, in general, people with children under the age of 18 are more receptive to both audio and video ads. When looking at Millennial parents specifically, we found that they are 15% more willing to hear an ad in an audio environment vs. non-parents, suggesting that the audio environment can be an attentive environment to reach busy families.

Content Connection

Whether people are listening to music, podcasts, or audiobook content people, audio is audio. Receptivity to hearing audio ads over-indexed versus total receptivity across all content types. When looking at video ad receptivity, content of different program length drove different ad receptivity outcomes; viewers of mid-length content, such as TV show episodes, reported the most receptivity (Index 111) vs. a long-form movie (Index 82) and even a short-form clip, such as a movie trailer (Index 89).

Need States & Situations Drive Receptivity

Audio thrives across a variety of need states and situations, with audio listeners being more receptive to ads than video viewers. We all know that streaming audio soundtracks listeners daily lives, and as they go about their routines, ad receptivity remains consistent and strong vs. video viewers.

And because audio is more multitasking friendly, ad receptivity is 34% higher for audio than video when people are highly task oriented, like running errands (+33%), pursuing hobbies (+19%) and socializing (+18%).

Marketer Takeaways

When it comes to audio streaming vs. video streaming, audio wins in terms of ad receptivity. And there are capabilities you should be taking advantage of to impact listeners when they’re most ready to hear your ad. Now, back to the who, the where, the how and the what…

Understand Your Audience (The Who) Define your target audience and utilize enhanced targeting solutions to improve audience delivery. For instance, advertisers can target music & mindsets on Pandora, through data-backed Mood Scores on nearly 200 different moods across all of our music genres.

Understand The Moment (The Where) To resonate with your target market, use contextual targeting to better understand the environment they are in when consuming content. Indicators like content type, mood, and need state highly impact receptivity for consumers.

Understand Your Message (The How) Consider tactics such as dynamic ad creative to best tailor your engagements to your unique market.

Understand Ad Delivery & Impression Load (The What) Determine when your target audience is most receptive and explore the most appropriate frequency during those moments

To read more about the study, visit the exclusive article on Campaign US.

Are you taking advantage of audio’s ad receptivity and attention super power? Contact us today to learn more about how Pandora can help your brand drive positive business results.