The average person views more than 3,000 advertisements each day.
Despite college students constantly fumbling with smartphones and laptops, a study recently found that they still consider TV ads the most effective form of advertising.
An annual Barnes & Noble Marketing Report surveyed more than 7,500 college students from campuses throughout the nation. Results showed that college students’ engage most with brands on Facebook.
“Social-media sites can be a great marketing platform,” said Vice Provost for Enrollment Craig Cornell. “For undergraduate admissions, we use Facebook, and we have seen good results.”
The study found that the majority of college students engage with brands via social media at least weekly — and a third do so at least three times a day.
A Post survey found that the majority of OU students enrolled in a strategic-communication research lecture course said that they only sometimes engage with brands via social media and never click Facebook ads.
“I see a lot of ads on Facebook, but I normally just try to ignore them,” said Grace Urano, a post-secondary student at OU.
Facebook, with more than 1 billion users, leads most companies to believe that it would serve as a good marketing tool, but according to the Barnes & Noble survey, students still believe TV ads are most effective.
“I think that TV is at an advantage,” Cornell said. “You are looking at imagery and sound, two different means, and just a picture says a thousand words, and the advantage of the video is just huge.”
The Post survey found that most students are likely to be influenced by television ads over Internet, newspaper and magazine ads.
Besides television ads, more than half of surveyed students said friends and by word-of-mouth have the biggest influence on their purchasing decisions.
“I am more likely to get something if my friend recommends it to me,” said Sara McCartney, a third-year graduate student studying audiology.
*The Post surveyed 82 students in a strategic-communication research lecture course.
bc822010@ohiou.edu
