CNN last week released the results of its inaugural global research into the power of news and recommendation (POWNAR), which shows that advertisers can benefit from ads attached to news stories shared via social media.
The POWNAR research consisted of a global online survey of 2300 respondents, semiotic analysis, neuro-marketing techniques, news tracking and ad effectiveness. It was conducted between June and August.
“The commerciality of the social media space is fast becoming apparent, and this study means that for the first time, we are able to substantiate the value of shared news from an advertising perspective,” said Didier Mormesse, senior VP of ad sales research, development and audience insight at CNN International.
Through biometrics and eye-tracking techniques, POWNAR sought to measure emotional engagement associated with online news sharing. The results showed a substantially higher engagement with recommended news content and embedded advertising, as opposed to randomly consumed content and advertising.
The overall uplift for brands that advertise around stories recommended in social media is significant. The global online survey showed that people who received news content from a friend or associate via social media were 19 percent more likely to recommend the brand that advertised around that story to others and 27 percent more likely to favor that brand themselves.
The results from POWNAR showed that video preroll advertising had a superior branding effect overall when appearing around news content shared in social media, in comparison to display banner advertising.