We can see advertisements everywhere, from posters on bus stops or entire pages in newspapers and magazines to more subtle ones like product placement in movies or TV shows. We are so used to advertising campaigns, that we might not stop to think that just printing a logo in the product or its distinctive design is a way to advertise it. So basically, every way we turn, there’s advertising, which has led some people to question if it’s as effective as it once was, but since it is still an existing practice, we must assume that it keeps working. Advertisements have evolved and they have to get more resourceful, in recent times, with everything going mobile, advertisements sponsor some apps so they can be downloaded for free. Now, a report from the company Fetch suggests that TV advertisements can influence users to install mobile apps on their devices.
The study analyzed the rate at which people installed apps after a TV spot from their clients was aired, gathering data 5 minutes before the commercial began. They found that app installs increased within a range from 56 to 74 percent when the TV spots aired and that difference had to do with how many times people watched the commercial. The company mentions that people are more prone to installing an app while watching TV because we keep our mobile devices close and might be using them while the TV runs in the background. Some companies have even used these devices as second screens with augmented content and others simply suggest downloading an app for the device you’re holding.
Fetch also noticed that the amount of installed apps increased 650 percent when the TV spots were shown from midnight to 1 am and during primetime hours, around 6 pm and 7 pm, plus, if a certain add was repeatedly shown during that time, people were more likely to download the advertised app. Also, TV ads appeal to more inexperienced users, while paid mobile media channels appeal to more experienced users. The study was made with a tool called FetchMe, which monitored over 1 billion interactions each month in more than 100 countries, so it looks like their sampling was quite extensive. Still, most of the amounts from the report are in percentage form, which might not be very accurate as if they had given some actual numbers and the percentage for the increased amounts plus the report doesn’t provide specific names of any company for confidentiality, so we don’t know if any of them had specific interests for this study.