FT says time-based ads are working

Lucia Moses of Digiday writes about how the Financial Times starting charging for ads based on how long they appear on its site and the revenue that the strategy has produced.

Moses writes, “The FT has run 17 campaigns across 13 clients, including BP and Microsoft, which only pay if their ad is in view for five seconds or longer. The FT estimates these campaigns have contributed $2.2 million in revenue it wouldn’t have otherwise gotten.

“An FT analysis summarizing six ad campaigns bought on a cost-per-hour basis scored 58 percent higher in brand consideration than the same ads when seen for less than five seconds. Ad recall and brand awareness rose 79 percent and 71 percent, respectively.

“‘It reinforces our thinking that the longer time you spend with a message, the more impactful it’s going to be,’ said Brendan Spain, U.S. commercial director at the FT. ‘One of the main learnings is, if marketers have something important to say on a digital platform to an engaged audience, focusing on impressions isn’t the best way to deliver that message.'”

Read more here.