Interesting Ad Related Tidbits...

Hey there, here's a couple bits of info from the Globe and Mail's Persuasion section that ran in today's paper.

1) It should come as no surprise that this week's financial meltdown will affect the advertising world. Here are observations from the U.S. magazine Media Life: The ad economy will be grim well into 2009. Some forecasters think the slump could extend into 2011. Experts are predicting a short-lived bump in spending as merged companies inform consumers about their new holdings. But over the longer term, spending will decline. Local media outlets will suffer more than national ones as the remaining big companies promote their products and services in single campaigns all across the country.

2) Ads that appear on top of website content are becoming more acceptable, according to a study by the New York research firm Dynamic Logic. The number of Web surfers who feel that content-covering ads are never appropriate has dropped to 21 per cent from 32 per cent five years ago. A majority of respondents also said that the "appropriate" number of over-content ads is two per hour, a figure that has remain unchanged since 2003. Two-thirds of respondents also felt that Web ads have increased on the pages they frequent, though researchers say this is likely because surfers have broadened the number and types of sites they visit.

3) Ever wondered what those free samples at Costco and Loblaws accomplish, other than providing a nice cumulative snack?
A new study from Arbitron shows that samples work. More than one-third of customers who tried a sample during a shopping trip ended up buying the product on that visit, according to the phone survey of 1,857 people in the United States.
In addition, 24 per cent of those surveyed said they bought a product they sampled instead of the item they initially set out to purchase.