Advanced TV Advertising Grabs Attention

Rovi Corporation released the findings from its Smart TV advanced advertising study, which the company conducted in the United Kingdom with Decipher Research.

For more information visit: www.rovicorp.com


Unedited press release follows:

New Rovi Survey Reveals High Consumer Engagement with Brands Advertising on Connected TVs in the UK

• Connected TV Owners Receptive to Interactive Advertising; Perceived as Contextual and Engaging

• 68% of Users Exposed to Areas of Smart TV Platforms with Ad Placements Noticed the Advertisements; 1 in 3 of Those Clicked Through

• 86% Uplift in Brand Association for Ad Viewers

• 79% of Ad Viewers Claimed to Have Subsequently Participated in Additional Product or Brand Related Activities

Santa Clara, Calif., April 26, 2012 – Rovi Corporation (NASDAQ: ROVI) today released the findings from its Smart TV advanced advertising study, conducted in the United Kingdom with Decipher Research*. The study evaluated connected TV audience segments, platform familiarity and usage, as well as advertising effectiveness and engagement. The study, which included online surveys of connected TV users and in-home interviews, tracked eight Smart TV advertising campaigns for leading entertainment and conventional brands.

The study categorized three main types of family households, which yielded varying patterns of connected-TV purchase motivations and use cases. Understanding the varying types of family dynamics should help inform campaigns and enable brands to increase key audience engagement.  The three dominant family make-ups included:

•       Technology-driven Couples: Couples with connected TV’s were found to be extremely brand driven and use their connected TV as an integrated part of their busy lives.

•       Entertainment-engaged Young Families: Connected TV’s for this audience provided a way to synthesize quality family time. The key driver was entertainment choice and ease of use.

•       Staggered-usage Mixed Families (defined with families with children over 13): Individuality was high within this group as each family member had his/her own connected TV usage preferences; however, there remained ‘touch points’ in early weekday evenings to watch TV together. Further, the connected TV became a platform to make the Internet accessible to older generations within a supportive family network.

Key Quantitative Highlights of the Survey:

• Awareness:  68% of users exposed to areas of smart TV platforms with ad placements noticed the advertisements; 1 in 3 of those clicked through

• Reach:  Connected TV advertisements on select platforms delivered a claimed 6% incremental reach in addition to traditional media channels

• Brand Favorability: Exposed versus non-exposed brands on the Smart TV platform produced favorability rates twice as high

• Brand Association: 86% uplift in association with key brand statements for brands exposed on the Smart TV platform versus non-exposed control samples

• Purchase Intent: 47% of connected TV viewers exposed to Smart TV ads claim they will investigate the product in the future; intent to purchase was 2.5 times higher compared to a non-exposed control sample

• Engagement:  2 in 5 connected TV viewers exposed to Smart TV ads claimed to have watched the video featured on the brand’s micro-site, with 79% of ad viewers claiming to have subsequently participated in additional product or brand-related activities

Key Qualitative Findings of the Survey: Smart TV Advertising Consumption

•    Approach: The current approach to Smart TV advertising, which includes a display ad that launches a TV-friendly microsite,  was found to be engaging across the family architecture

•    Appeal: Smart TV ads were seen as non-intrusive because they were ‘contextually relevant’ to the platform. Providing content in the form of trailers, clips, etc. was seen as valuable content in its own right

•    Content: Content apps were found to be the most popular, generating a great appetite for consumers to engage in additional content from the advertiser’s micro-site

“We are on a constant mission to further understand the in-home family dynamic as it relates to changing entertainment consumption habits, and to better acquaint ourselves with consumers’ preferences and engagement levels with interactive advertising,” said Jeff Siegel, senior vice president of worldwide advertising at Rovi Corporation. “As our survey findings help reinforce, advanced TV advertising provides new opportunities for brands to efficiently and effectively reach consumers in the living room.”

Rovi Advertising Network enables advertisers to make a consolidated media buy across multiple interactive TV platforms including set-top boxes (STBs), TVs and Blu-ray® Disc players, media players, and game consoles. Targeting advertisers, agencies and brand marketers, the Rovi Ad Networks provides scalable and measurable interactive TV advertising options that are designed to reach an engaged consumer audience actively seeking live, recorded, on demand, cable or network programming.

*Findings based on a panel-based survey of UK residents and owners of a select manufacturer’s TV or Blu-Ray Disc Player connected to the Internet and with a Rovi-served advertising inventory

About Decipher Research
A marketing research services provider, Decipher specializes in online survey programming, data collection, data processing/reporting and custom technology development. Utilizing Web-based applications, Decipher integrates state of the art technology with traditional research techniques. Decipher’s survey tools and data reporting suite provide users with the ability to automate post field production, significantly increasing the accuracy and quality of research reporting.

About Rovi Corporation
Rovi Corporation is focused on revolutionizing the digital entertainment landscape by delivering solutions that enable consumers to intuitively connect to new entertainment from many sources and locations. The company also provides extensive entertainment discovery solutions for television, movies, music and photos to its customers in the consumer electronics, cable and satellite, entertainment and online distribution markets. These solutions, complemented by industry leading entertainment data, create the connections between people and technology, and enable them to discover and manage entertainment in an enjoyable form.

Rovi holds over 5,100 issued or pending patents worldwide and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with numerous offices across the United States and around the world including Japan, China, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom. More information about Rovi can be found at http://www.rovicorp.com/.