In-content advertising not only delivers better outcomes for brands than TV spots alone, it is also preferred by viewers, new research from Kantar, the UK’s largest evidence-based insights company, and Mirriad, the leading in-content advertising company powered by proprietary AI-technology, has found.

Kantar created a custom study looking at consumers’ responses to advertising across three categories: people who only saw TV spot activity, people who saw episodes with both a TV spot and a Mirriad in-content ad integration, and thirdly, consumers who were exposed to neither.

The results showed conclusively that adding in-content advertising to TV spot campaigns dramatically improves results across key brand metrics including sales, awareness and favourability.

When consumers viewed both a TV ad and in-content product placement:

• 56% bought featured products after exposure, compared with just 34% for TV spot exposure only
• Advertising awareness rose by 10 percentage points from 68% to 78%
• Favourability and consideration both increased by 5 percentage points to 92% and 91% respectively.

Kantar also asked audiences about their perceptions of in-content ad placements and found that seven times as many people prefer in-content ad placement over traditional TV spots. A significant 79% said they like in-content advertising at a time when wider public engagement with traditional linear advertising is waning.

Tim Jones, Global Head of Research, at Mirriad, said: “In-content placements represent the future of advertising. Driven by AI-technology, brands can reach their audiences at scale directly within the TV and video content experience in ways that traditional product placement options could not offer. Our studies with Kantar prove the enormous value of this new ad segment for brands and their audiences.”

Sparsh Pandya, client director at Kantar, said: “In-content advertising is an exciting new ad format for brands looking for differentiated ways to reach their audience at scale. Not only do people like the experience of branding and product placement within video, the placements also drive higher performance across key metrics including awareness and purchase intent,” said Sparsh Pandya, Client Director, Media, Insights Division at Kantar Research.”