By Dave Lindorff

    Conventional wisdom has it that recall of ads appearing on cable is lower than on networks, but two studies, one to be released today, contend cable recall is nearly equal or higher.
    A study being released this morning by the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau found that 12.4 percent of ad-supported cable viewers contacted could recall at least one ad from the most recent advertising pod they had watched. The study was conducted in February during primetime by Nielsen Media Research. 
    This result is only marginally--3.9 percent--lower than the 12.9 percent of broadcast viewers who could recall one recent ad they'd seen.
    A study presented at last summer's Advertising Research Foundation by Initiative Media actually showed cable to be superior to broadcast in ad recall.
   Examining ad recall a day after viewing, the Initiative Media study asked viewers what percentage of ads they had seen the prior day captured "most of their attention" and which had captured their "full attention." Researchers found that 8 percent for the first measure and  6 percent for the second. 
    That compared to only 5 percent devoting most of their attention and 4 percent devoting all their attention to broadcast advertising.
   That works out to cable viewers being 50 percent more attentive to ads than broadcast viewers.
     The cable industry is trumpeting the CAB study at today's Cable Advertising Conference in New York, where the research is being presented by Jonathan Sims, vice president for research at the CAB.
   "This study provides quantifiable proof that, contrary to some generally-held assumptions, ad-supported cable viewers do not automatically zap through the multichannel spectrum to circumvent commercials," says CAB president and chief executive officer Joe Ostrow. "They're as attentive to commercial messages as broadcast audiences."
    The CAB has promised to release the full study and data to interested ad agencies, which will be able to conduct their own analyses.
   The study involved phone interviews of 5,800 television viewers, and results were checked against Nielsen's Monitor Plus commercial logs. Only national advertisements were counted, not local ads, which aren't monitored by Monitor Plus.
   The CAB study also found that the same percentage of cable and broadcast viewers were watching television at the commercial break: 62.2 percent for cable viewers and 63.1 percent for broadcast network viewers.
     But not everyone thinks the CAB research holds up. Erwin Ephron, the respected media researcher, is known for disputing conventional wisdoms, but in the matter of ad recall he's decidedly old-school.
   "I'm surprised by the results," says leading media researcher Erwin Ephron, of Ephron Papazian & Ephron, "and I still think broadcast advertising has better recall. You have to watch out when rabbits carry the lettuce."

              
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