Patience for Web Ads Lasts 15 Seconds, Survey Finds
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Don't make me wait too long.
CREDIT: YouTube |
We can glance past ads on the side of Web pages, and even learn to click away the ones that cover the page. But for the “pre-roll” commercials that come before videos for, say, "CSI" or "The Daily Show," we’re stuck watching.
What’s the breaking point for patience? Most people of the 1,179 people who took part in a poll last week say 15 seconds. Poll Position, a company founded by two CNN veterans, conducted the survey. The subjects are all registered voters: Poll Position is doing a lot of surveys around the elections.
Some results were not too shocking. The younger the participants, the less patience they had — in most cases. Only about half as many 18- to 29-year olds (most millennials) could endure the jump up to 30 seconds. But older millennials and Gen Xers lost it when the ads went up to 45 seconds: Less than 1 percent of them felt it was bearable, while about 4.5 percent of the younger group felt it was OK.
More Blacks and Latinos/Hispanics in the survey were amenable to watching longer ads – of 45 and 60 seconds – than what the surveyors called “whites”
And attitudes toward commercials seem to be a nonpartisan issue. Folks who called themselves Democrat, Republican and Independent all felt about the same way – overwhelmingly favoring 15-second ads.
Poll Position said that this was a scientific study – meaning the numbers represent the county as a whole, plus or minus 3 percent.
