NEW YORK – A new study indicates consumers prefer opt-in mobile advertising over traditional digital ads like pre-roll and display by a nearly 2-1 margin (54 percent versus 29 percent). A separate but related study found opt-in mobile advertising delivers a significant lift in brand awareness and purchase intent.

The first study, performed by Nielsen Media Labs on behalf of mainstream mobile video advertising platform Jun Group, found 74 percent of consumers exposed to “value exchange” or “rewarded video” advertising reported enjoying the overall ad experience. “Value exchange” ads — used by Google, Pandora, Twitter, Fox, Kik and Spotify, among others — offer content or perks if consumers agree to interact in some way with the ad (often via a one- or two-question survey). “Rewarded video” requires consumers to watch a short video message (most commonly 15 seconds or less) before they’re allowed access to the content they seek.

The shift in consumer behavior has two major implications for advertisers and networks:

• Consumers reject advertising messages less often if the messages include an interactive component (value exchange) or a significant reward (rewarded video).
• The very act of engaging with an ad constitutes opting in, and opt-in units are inoculated from ad blockers.

“This study highlights a fundamental change in the advertising industry,” said Jun Chief Executive Officer Mitchell Reichgut. “Value exchange is improving mobile advertising by focusing on the customer.

“Advertising has traditionally been interruptive, and that doesn’t work well on smartphones,” he added. “This is quickly changing. Mobile gives audiences more control than ever, and the industry needs to adjust quickly.”

Juicy Jay, founder and chief executive officer for adult industry advertising network JuicyAds, cautioned that concepts in the mainstream don’t always work the same way in adult.

“I can see [rewarded video and value exchange] being more popular [than traditional banner ads] if people understand that they’re getting something for free, but to access it they need to do an action,” he said. “I think they understand the tradeoff there. But when the content is presumably free but there are ‘annoying’ banner ads next to it, they don’t understand the content is free because of those banner ads.

“The trade-off and value to the surfer isn’t immediately evident to them [in traditional advertising models],” he added, “even though, in reality, banner ads are less intrusive.”

In the second study, Nielsen Brand Effect found value exchange ads outperformed Nielsen Brand Effect mobile advertising benchmarks for both brand awareness and purchase intent. Value exchange ad units delivered a 34.4-percent lift in awareness — more than 3.5 times the benchmark for traditional mobile ads. They also drove a 26.4-percent increase in purchase intent, surpassing the benchmark by nearly five times.

Again, Jay noted, there’s no direct correlation between adult and mainstream virtual properties.

“What the adult industry is facing is the model that is the basis of traditional TV,” he said. “The content — movies, TV shows — are all free and supplemented with ads. The networks buy the content to be able to sell the advertising. Without advertising, the system breaks, which is why things like Netflix and the like are a huge risk to that industry — the same as tube sites in adult.”

On one point, Jay found a great deal of agreement between adult and the mainstream: Whenever possible, consumers will avoid ads altogether.

“I think people prefer no advertising, period,” he said, “unless those ads are relevant to them. Ads that are not relevant to them they find annoying, no matter what it is. I can say that when playing ‘Words with Friends,’ for example, having ads between every turn is ridiculously annoying, yet I don’t want to pay the $10 or whatever it is to upgrade to no ads.”

In the final analysis, he noted, “Anytime a user is in control of their choices, they are much happier.”