The Ripple Effect

By now, you’ve probably heard of our biometric study on The Halo Effect, which measured how ads are perceived when they are seen adjacent to high-quality and low-quality content environments. But how does this data compare to other factors, like relevance and brand loyalty? 

[REFRESH: The Halo Effect Study]

To get a sense of what consumers are saying about content and environment quality, we conducted The Ripple Effect study. This follow-up study was designed to measure how consumer perception of a brand changes when its advertisements appear in different quality environments. Here’s what we learned: 

Content Quality and Ad Relevance are closely related

While the quality of a digital ad’s environment remains the factor that consumers find most important, ad relevance remains a critical concern for marketers to focus on. The biggest opportunity for brands to focus on lies at the intersection of these two factors. By not only messaging consumers with relevant ads but also ensuring the ads are placed in a high quality content environment, brands in the U.S. can maximize their impact.

Quality drives engagement, but less so in the United States

Consumers in the U.S. are 39% more likely to engage with an ad in a high quality environment than a low quality one. However, Americans aren’t exactly a shining example for engagement: among consumers viewing ads on high quality environments, the U.S. was 6th most likely to engage, after Canada, France, the UK, Singapore, and Indonesia. 

There is a disconnect between consumers and marketers

Only 37% of U.S. brands and marketers feel that they are responsible for brand safety. By contrast, 63% of U.S. consumers hold a brand accountable for the content that appears next to its ads. From a global perspective, this disparity gets even wider in countries like Indonesia and France, more than 70% of consumers find brands are responsible for adjacent content.

A bad ad placement has serious consequences

The majority of U.S. consumers (81%) find it annoying when a brand appears next to low quality content. Of those consumers, 52% feel less favorably toward a brand that does this. The most concerning though, is the discovery that 62% will stop using the brand altogether if its ads appear adjacent to low quality content.

Understanding the environment where your ads will appear is the first step to stopping the Ripple Effect in its tracks. By centering your brand safety strategy around the consumer, and controlling for what is suitable to them, you can avoid a bad ad placement that will send ripples through your brand engagement, favorability, and loyalty. 

Download the full Ripple Effect Study now to learn more.