Staying Power: what makes advertising endure?

• Study of 20,000 consumers uncovers what it takes for advertising to keep working longer
• TV is the most effective at sustaining interest in buying a product; social media the weakest
• A major new study of UK consumers has uncovered what it takes for advertising to keep working long after campaigns have ended. It shows vast differences between media when it comes to making lasting impressions and encouraging people to buy what they’ve seen advertised.

Staying Power: the longevity of advertising, by Thinkbox and Tapestry Research, tracked the post-campaign effects of advertising among 20,000 people aged 18–75 in the UK. It measured memory and purchase intent over eight weeks for campaigns from nine major brands.

Key findings include

• TV advertising is the most effective at sustaining people’s interest in buying a product.
• Social media advertising is the weakest at sustaining purchase intent over time – including for under 35s.
• Under-35s lose intent to purchase advertised brandssignificantly faster than average.
• On-demand TV delivers more enduring effects than other channels for under 35s.
• TV’s shared, in-home experience gives advertising on the medium a lasting advantage – especially when advertising is seen with other people present.

Different media have different staying power

• TV advertising is the strongest at maintaining its impact on purchase intent. On average, across the full eight weeks, purchase intent fell by 14% among those exposed to TV ads – the lowest of all media evaluated in this study.
• Social media’s impact decayed the most, with purchase intent falling on average by 26% across the eight weeks.
• Audio (radio and streaming) declined by an average of 16% across the eight weeks. Physical print fell by 17%. Out-of-home (OOH) dropped by 19%. Online video (mostly YouTube) declined by 24%. And Other Online (search, display, other) fell by 15%.

Under-35s are harder to keep influencing

• Among 18–34s, purchase intent among those exposed to the campaigns via any media fell by29% over eight weeks, compared with a 16% drop among 35–75s.
• The challenge of steep decay in purchase intent with this age group is especially pronounced for online video like YouTube (36% drop over eight weeks amongst 18-34s) and social media (42% decline).
• For under-35s, on-demand TV (24% fall over eight weeks) delivers the most enduring effects, reflecting how this generation grew up with and naturally consumes content on demand.

TV sustains the impact of other media

• Driven by a combination of media planning decisions and budget levels, campaigns using four or more media channels double the likelihood of people definitely considering buying a product compared with single-channel campaigns (42% vs. 21%).
• The study suggests TV should be one of those media. It found that, on average, when TV was included in a campaign it boosted the impact of other media on purchase intent by 26%.
• Across the full 8-week period, when TV was excluded, aggregate purchase intent fell by:

- 28% for out-of-home (OOH)

- 28% for (physical) Print - 23% for Online Video (mostly YouTube)

- 17% for Social Media

- 14% for Audio (radio and streaming)

- 9% for Other Online (search, display)

TV’s shared experience makes a lasting difference

• The study found that TV’s effects are stronger compared with channels like social media because TV viewing is rooted in the living room, typically watched on a big screen and, crucially, often watched with others.
• Purchase intent declines less when advertising is seen with others present. Over 8-weeks, average purchase intent dropped by only 14% after shared viewing versus 27% when watched alone.
• People liked ads 75% more when they watched them with others compared with watching alone.
• Trust in brands is positively impacted when ads are seen on TV with others. Across 8-weeks, trust in a brand improves by 15% when the ads are seen with other people present vs. being exposed to them alone.

Anthony Jones, Head of Research at Thinkbox: “How much we remember and act on advertising depends on where we see it. Not all impressions are equal – some work harder, for much longer.

“The unique qualities of TV – its shared, high-quality, emotionally engaging environment – give it a clear advantage in helping people remember and act on advertising.

“But this study found that TV doesn’t just work hard on its own; it sustains the impact of the media around it. Remembering an ad seen on YouTube or social media is naturally more difficult, they struggle to sustain impact. TV makes that job easier.”

Ian Wright, Joint-MD at Tapestry: “Accurately measuring decay in a key metric like purchase intent is very challenging to do and outside the realms of a conventional tracking approach. By recruiting a huge number of people, and surveying them multiple times over an eight week period we’ve been able to uncover the true ‘staying power’ of different media, as well as different combinations of media. Decay in purchase intent is inevitable post-campaign, but this study equips agencies and advertisers with the insights to help reduce it on their next campaign.”

Methodology

• To measure the initial and longer term impact of an ad campaign on consumers, 19,250 people aged 18-75 were recruited by Tapestry Research to take part in a study lasting 8 weeks.
• 9 brands were included in the study, selected with help from media agencies, MG OMD, PHD Media and OMD.
• The brands were from a diverse range of categories; they all targeted the general population; campaigns analysed in the study finished on/around the end of January 2025 and utilised a range of media channels.
• The survey consisted of a range of brand KPIs to allow the measurement of campaign effects including purchase intent, brand affinity, brand trust, ad recognition, ad liking.
• The study looked at claimed media behaviour for the past 7 days. This was then compared to the advertisers’ media plans in order to build a probabilistic model which estimated the opportunity to see (OTS) for every respondent in the study.
• To understand how memory of ads is impacted depending on how a person was exposed to a campaign, the same group of respondents was surveyed by Tapestry Research four times across 8 weeks.
• The brands involved were: British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Media, Argos, Cupra, Specsavers, giffgaff, Lidl, and Renault.