19 Percent Of TV Ads Now Contain Web Addresses

World Wide Web addresses in television advertising are becoming as common as toll-free phone numbers, a new study from Response Marketing Group showed. But one industry said that marketers need to do more than just show a Web address (URL) to make such placements work in TV ads.

While 24 percent of all TV spots contain a toll-free number, 19 percent contain a Web address — a figure Response Public Relations Specialist Chris Middings called "surprising." What’s more, preliminary results from a similar study Response is currently conducting in the magazine advertising industry is showing similar results.

Internet addresses are shown in commercials most frequently running in sports or national news programming, at 27 percent and 22 percent, respectively.

Overall, 37 percent of commercials feature a toll-free number or an Internet address — or both — Response said. Twenty-five percent, meantime, use both. Of the 25 percent, 12 percent have URL addresses that exactly match the toll-free number.

This study marks the first time Response has measured Web address usage in TV spots, Middings added.

Larry Chase, publisher of "Web Digest For Marketers" and author of "Essential Business Tactics for the Net," said that TV viewers need more than just a Web address to turn off the tube, boot up the computer, dial up their Internet service provider (ISP) and fire up their Web browser to surf to a Web site shown in a TV spot. "Companies need to bait the cyberhook" for consumers with promotions, cash-back giveaways and information — especially for "low impact" or "packaged" goods like soap and gum, Chase said.

Chase also said that down the road, companies’ usage of Web addresses in TV ads might lead to more consumers hooking up to the Net. "It sends the message (for consumers) that `there’s something I can’t get at’ because I’m not on the Net." What’s more, this message may be working consciously or unconsciously, Chase said.

The results also show that companies are beginning to feel the need to be on the Web, Chase said. "Not having a Web address for a business is sort of like not having a fax machine."

The real estate, telecommunications and lodging industries use toll-free numbers in TV advertising the most often, the study found. Game shows are advertisers’ favored type of program, while the top time slot is late afternoon/early evening.

For its "Toll-free Numbers in Television Advertising" study, Re-sponse monitored seven networks for November 3 to December 8, 1997, analyzing nearly 5,000 commercials airing during 170 hours of evening, news, sports and morning programming.

Response Marketing Group’s Web site is at http://www.800response.com.

(Contacts: Chris Middings, Response Marketing Group, 802-860-7830; Larry Chase, Web Digest For Marketers, 212-876-1096)