Hot Soup Coming Through: Campbell’s Soup iAds More Effective Than TV Ads

With winter in full swing, many individuals–including this author–are seeking the solace of comfort foods. It only make sense for advertisers to try to appeal to this hankering–or in my case, weakness–of cold weather commuters to try a warm bowl of soup.

Today, Apple released results from a self funded study that claims its new iAds service–which runs ads on the iPod and iPad–is twice as effective as traditional television ad placement.

This assertion is based on comparing Campbell’s Soup iAds to those shown on television. The results yielded a greater recall rate by viewers who watched the iAds over those who watched the television ads. Apple is attempting to use this study to leverage more advertisers in to adopting its iAds service.

Advertisers must be cautious as they decide whether or not to adopt Apple’s service based on this study alone.

While the results are impressive on paper, if we scrutinize them even further–like a good Temple Advertisement Research student should–we could say the results were deemed effective due to numerous factors, including:

• iAds is less saturated with ads than television, leading to better recall.

• Perhaps there was only a propensity to buy the product due to cold weather commuting and having a portable device handy.

Also:

• Title of study is misleading to advertisers: Only Campbell’s ads were twice effective–not Apple’s iAds service as a whole.

• Regardless, mobile advertising can certainly be viable with the right brand behind it.

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