A new study from DirecTV found that customers are generally receptive to the use of pause ads. DirecTV’s The Pause: Reaching TV Viewers During Can’t-Miss Moments study was conducted in partnership with Magna Media Trials.
Offering advertisers a way to display more ads without further disrupting the viewing experience, pause ads have become quite big business of late. Instead of appearing during a movie or show, these ads are only shown once the user has manually paused playback.
According to the new study, a majority of users are open to the use of pause ads, and seemingly across generations. For example, the study found 75% of Gen Z were receptive to ads while paused, as were 76% of Millennials, 72% of Gen X, and 59% of Boomers.
In terms of the type of pause ads that are the most impactful, the study pointed to food delivery (91%) and special deals (89%) as being the most likely to be noticed by users. 65% of viewers also said they were more likely to notice a pause ad if it revealed something new.
“This latest research shows that pausing is the exact opposite of disengaging. People pause because they are highly engaged in the content they’re watching and either don’t want to miss it, don’t want someone else in the household to miss it, or want to rewind and watch it again to make sure they caught everything,” said Drew Groner, senior vice president, head of sales & marketing, DirecTV Advertising.
While DirecTV has made use of Pause ads for some time now, findings like these are expected to further add to the company’s intention and investment in this particular ad format going forward.
In fact, DirecTV recently confirmed that it has now partnered with TripleLift to launch programmatic pause ads. Unlike traditional pause ads, programmatic pause ads are entirely automated, making use of technology to automatically buy and serve ads.
“And now that pause ads can be bought programmatically, it’s easier than ever for brands to reach viewers during those can’t-miss moments,” Groner added.
DirecTV isn’t the only company that’s making moves to entirely automate the pause ad experience. Fubo, for example, recently announced that it had also started deploying programmatic pause ads on its Connected TV platform.
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