Digital celebrity-backed ads seen as less intrusive

Research by Retale has found that only 37% of millennials are not currently using some sort of ad-blocker. However, according to a report from Defy Media, 63% of millennials "agree that digital celebs need ads on their channel to earn a living," and of those, 58% admitted to not minding watching them, putting short ads by a digital celebrity's brand sponsor at the top the list of "ads that are always or sometimes ok."

According to recent research by Retale into ad blocking, Millennials are “more inclined to tune out display and banner ads while on a PC, they’re proactive in blocking them. Only 37% aren’t using some sort of ad blocker today”.

But, hang on. There seems to be an exception to the trend. According to Defy Media‘s ‘Annual Acumen Report’, nearly two-thirds (63%) of Millennials “agree that digital celebs need ads on their channel to earn a living” and more than half (58%) don’t mind watching them.

Ads by a digital celeb’s brand sponsor topped the list of “ads that are always or sometimes ok” with a 5 second intro by a brand sponsor accepted by 89% and a digital celeb announcing their brand sponsor by 87%. In terms of pre-roll the shorter the better (15 secs 80%, 30 secs 67%, 1 minute 53%).

Other key findings from the research include:

– free and social media resources, combined, are used more and longer than television;

– The top reason given for watching videos online is to kill time/boredom (77%) followed by keeping up with celebs, sports and shoes (63%), stress relief (61%) and keeping up with current videos/events (60%);

– digital sources Millennials can’t live without are YouTube (67%), Netflix (61%) and social media (net) (48%).

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