Consumers Fed Up with Irrelevant Ads
Personalization/Targeted Ads
April 11, 2013 -- According to an attitudinal survey by Harris Interactive, conducted on behalf of consumer predictive intelligence solutions provider InsightsOne, 87% of Americans are "now putting their foot down on the number of irrelevant ads they are willing to see before they ignore a company completely."
Almost a quarter (23%) say they will do so after seeing just one spam email or online ad, and 43% say they will ignore a company completely after seeing as many as two.
MOST ANNOYING ADS
Overall, more Americans get most annoyed by irrelevant pop-up ads (70%); Ads for products and services not needed was named most annoying by 58% of respondents.
TOP ANNOYING PLACES ADS ARE SEEN: TV AND EMAIL SPAM
The American consumer finds annoying ads to be pervasive, with 91% of respondents reporting seeing them.
While direct mail (referred to in the study as "postal junk") tends to get much attention when talking about ad annoyance, the survey found that Americans are most annoyed with television ads (60%), followed by email spam/sidebar ads (55%) and website ads (52%). Direct mail and social media ads actually tied for least annoying at 37%.
|
Media With Most Annoying Ads |
|
|
Media |
% of Respondents |
|
Television |
60% |
|
Email /sidebar ads |
55% |
|
Websites |
52% |
|
Social media |
37% |
|
Postal mail |
37% |
|
Source: InsightsOne, April 2013 |
|
ONLINE SPAM AND ACTIONS TAKEN
- Eighty-eight percent of respondents say they have even been “flooded” with online ad spam, and 91% of those say they take action when it occurs. Actions taken:
- For email, 60% will unsubscribe from future messages; 45% will simply ignore future communications.
- For web spam (e.g., pop-ups, sidebar) 36% will leave a website because of too many irrelevant ads, 26% feel that the company doing the advertising doesn’t respect their time.
- More extreme actions respondents report taking in reaction to online spam: Stop using the product advertised (14%); Boycott the company doing the advertising (13%); Tell their friends (9%).
- Men were statistically more likely than women to take certain actions (e.g., Stop using the product (17% men vs. 11% women); Boycott the company doing the advertising (16% men vs. 10% women)).
About: This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of InsightsOne from February 27-March 1, 2013 among 2,111 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.
Source: InsightsOne, InsightsOne Study: Americans Are Fed Up With Bad Ads, April 11, 2013.
