Millennials and Rich Americans Love Ads
"Television," Creative Commons license. | Credit: Flickr by Santi Villamarín
Those old saws, that digital native Millennials and wealthy Americans distrust marketing, are rusty and can be tossed out the window. Recent research finds ads influence all but 10 percent of Americans to buy.
The findings from Clutch, a ratings and reviews platform for business services, show 81 percent of Millennials are influenced by ads — while only 57 percent of Baby Boomers say the same — with richer Americans 10 percent more likely than poorer U.S. residents to purchase a product or service after seeing an advertisement.
In the research announced last month, Clutch found:
“Americans are exposed to up to 10,000 advertisements every day (link is external), a number that is rapidly growing with the increase of advertising channels and new technology.
“Businesses need to advertise in multiple mediums to reach consumers during their everyday activities, whether it’s watching TV, reading a magazine or browsing on social media.”
Millennials Trust Ads and Are Influenced by Them
Younger consumers haven’t yet developed brand preferences and the nature of the media environment, transparency, allows them to determine if a marketer is lying. So they’re far more influenced by ads in every channel than older generations that, for instance, may have seen ads that told them smoking cigarettes was healthy.
Clutch continues:
“The discrepancy of trust between generations is less pronounced with traditional forms of advertising than with newer advertising mediums; around half of Millennials trust online and social media advertisements (51 percent), while just 27 percent of those 55 and older do.”
Rich Americans Love Ads
Wealthier Americans have more disposable income and spend what they have more freely, being less skeptical because they can accept the occasional loss associated with disliking a product or service.
Clutch continues:
“Nearly all consumers (83 percent) with a household income of more than $100,000 are likely to make a purchase because of an advertisement, 15 percent more than those with a lower household income (68 percent).”
Television Ads Work Best
Consumers are impressed with a brand willing to spend the money required for a television commercial, Clutch finds. Marketers investing in 30-second Super Bowl spots are expected to pay northward of $5 million, Adweek reported.
Clutch says:
“TV is the most influential medium for advertising. About 60 percent of consumers are likely to make a purchase after seeing or hearing a TV advertisement.”
Target Marketing cautions that this may be on a case-by-case basis, as healthcare marketing researchers found patients distrust TV pharmaceutical ads and favor content marketing from their physicians.
Online, Print, Social Media Ads
In another counterintuitive finding, Clutch not only groups print, online and social channels together but says that consumers trust the channels less than they do TV and they trust the channels less.
Americans are exposed to up to 10,000 advertisements every day (link is external), a number that is rapidly growing with the increase of advertising channels and new technology.
“Businesses need to advertise in multiple mediums to reach consumers during their everyday activities, whether it’s watching TV, reading a magazine, or browsing on social media.”
Consumers view TV and print as traditional channels and trust them more than the newbies, Clutch says:
“Consumers trust TV (61 percent) and print (58 percent) advertisements to be the most honest in their messages.
“The least trustworthy advertisements are the newer forms of advertising; just 41 percent of respondents trust online advertisements and 38 percent trust social media advertisements.
“Respondents distrust online and social media advertisements because they are unregulated and easy for companies to create.”
