How To Reach The "Ad Averse"

As an active member of AAF (American Advertising Federation), I get the pleasure of receiving the daily e-letter AAF SmartBrief. Now usually I just scan the headlines and then move it to the trash, but today something caught my eye. The title of the newsletter, as well as the Breaking Story, was “Who’s not watching your ads?” This top story of the newsletter summarized a study conducted by Microsoft and Starcom, a brand communications group, called “Lifestyles of the Ad Averse.” At the end of the summary AAF reveals the source of the article, Mediaweek. The full article can be viewed by clicking the link.


In this article by Mediaweek’s Mike Shields titled “Study: Ad ‘Avoider’ Demo Tracked, Profiled,” it is revealed that 10-15% of adults aged 17-35 can be categorized as “ad avoiders.” This group generally finds all types of advertising just plain annoying, regardless of the creativity and relevance put into them. It seems that advertisers have little to no chance of winning over these media consumers. According to the study there are two types of ad avoiders: active and passive. Passive avoiders, typically women and parents, prefer activities that don’t provide advertising in the first place. Active avoiders are characterized as young male who are technologically-inclined and strategically choose media that has no ads: satellite radio, iPods and, of course my favorite, DVR! Some possible solutions to reaching this target group, as mentioned in the article, include customizing messages and making marketing tools interactive. But why not product placement? Sure it may be a simple answer and it may not be something new, but it does the trick in reaching those who purposely avoid ads. If it’s subtle enough it’s not likely to be considered intrusive and annoying. And if its relevant to the media that this group is already actively choosing to watch then it still gets the message across.