Banks should embrace the notion that school is cool, a new survey suggests.
College students were at least 10% more likely to describe a bank advertised on education sites as "cool, classy, honest and modern" than when advertised on entertainment sites, a study by Psychster Inc. found.
"Companies think that being put up on [an entertainment] website will make their brand appear more cool," said David Evans, the president of Psychster. "That may be true for some brands, but the opposite is true for a bank."
The study, conducted in September, showed 662 college students between the ages of 17 and 24 real images of a "major bank," a computer company and a soft drink company on different websites, Evans said. He would not name the companies. Participants viewed images of the companies on education websites that sell student resources like study guides and book summaries, and on entertainment websites that included humorous content and videos.
The bank ads on the education sites were 18% more likely to generate a click than the advertisements on the entertainment sites. The soft drink and computer companies were described slightly more positively when their ads were placed on the entertainment websites.
"People have a very keen radar for advertising efforts that are stretching too far," Evans warned. "When viewers saw the bank paired with edgy and humorous videos, the bank's honesty fell in their eyes."
These results defied conventional wisdom, Evans said. Ad buyers reported spending an average of 47% of their budgets on entertainment sites and an average of 8% on education sites, Psychster had found in a previous study.
The survey results, released in February, emphasize that a company needs to think about relevance when launching an ad campaign, Evans said. Companies have long known that a product should relate to the content of the site where the advertisement is being placed. For example, an ad for a soup brand works better than one for a car on a cooking website.
The study suggests that companies need to think about other forms of relevance as well. Evans noted that where the ad is being placed should match the "seriousness of the value proposition" and that "the ad should also match the objective of the site itself."
Entertainment websites generally put viewers in a passive mood as they simply want to soak up the content of the site. But visitors to education websites that sell student resources are in a purchasing mood and are looking to buy new products, Evans said. Bank advertisements have a similar purpose — they are attempting to get viewers to click through to acquire a new service.
"The major takeaway for banks is that campaigns based on trust and value work better on sites also devoted to these same objectives," Evans said. "And college students buy things when they are on a site that is motivating them to be in a buying frame of mind."
