Online Ad Printing Shows High Recall Rates

New research by researcher Nidhi Mathur of HP's Bangalore, India, research lab shows that Web printed ads have very high unaided brand and content recall of 33% and 22% respectively. Of course, HP would like nothing better than to get Web surfers to print Internet ads since they make their money on printers and (mostly) ink. The research was done using Web travel sites where study participants were required to print out their itineraries, etc. Recall of ads accompanying the printouts was then tested.

Most marketers don't have the luxury of having content that requires printing or that users would even want to print. Maps are an exception to this, and marketers may want to keep this in mind when geo-content is relevant to material, or perhaps even create geo-content that can be used as a vehicle to include printed ads.

Another tactic is to use online coupons more, especially in our financially straightened times. Web coupon use has grown 83% in the past three years, and not only do coupons create buyers and good will, but together with printed ads can form a powerful vehicle for brand and message recall on the Web.

Unaided Recall of Printed Web Ads

Source: Nidhi Mathur, HP Labs, Bangalore, India
via NewScientist, July 19-25, 2008; P. 26