Millennial viewers, usually thought of as aware and even skeptical of advertising, respond to ads that are relevant, a study conducted by comScore for YouTube found.
The study also said that while young viewers watch more traditional TV than digital video, they express a strong preference for YouTube and binge watch more than older viewers.
Among 18 to 34 year olds, 62% said they take action after viewing an ad, compared to 51% in the 35 and up age group, and 47% of young viewers said they pay more attention when viewing personalized ads, compared to 35% among older viewers.
“Many millennials exhibit a more favorable response to brand that earn their loyalty and are relevant,” comScore said in a blog post.
Millennials said they prefer digital video to traditional TV, and especially like YouTube with 35% saying YouTube was their preferred provider of video content, compared to 19% who said traditional TV.
Heavy video consumption comes from binge watching. In the study 37% of millennials say they binge watch daily, compared to 14% of viewers 35 and older. Those younger viewers said they were twice as likely to binge on YouTube than on traditional TV.
YouTube viewers can’t be dismissed as just kids. comScore identified YouTube’s most passionate fans and said 51% of these “die hards” are employed full time, 43% have kids and 49% are female.
comScore said it findings provide a look into future viewing patterns.
“Millennials tend to adopt a digital-first approach to video discovery and are platform agnostic in how they consume video. This suggests that today’s fragmented viewing environment will only become more so, and that digital will become increasingly significant in the distribution of viewing content,” comScore said.
“Video is also more likely to meet consumers’ desires to immerse themselves deeply in their passions, whether that means consuming a variety of on-demand content within the same genre or topic, or whether that means binge-viewing episode after episode of a favorite series,” comScore said. “This is good news for advertisers because when consumers are deeply engaged with content, it’s a great opportunity for your brand message to resonate. Not to mention digital distribution provides a better ability to target the right audiences.”
The study is based on a survey of 2,940 respondents.
