NEW YORK: Kellogg's, the breakfast cereal maker, has found consumers to be more receptive to larger form digital ads when promoting Special K, its slimmers' product.

Amaya Garbayo, Kellogg's associate director/analytics and portfolio solutions, outlined to a recent conference its research into consumers' unaided recall of the various larger display formats available and reported that the results were "quite impressive". (For more, including how a new digital mindset is emerging, read Warc's exclusive report: Kellogg's Special K discovers power of large-form digital ads.)

Not surprisingly, full-screen interactive placements generated the greatest response, but skin/index digital ads were close behind and for simpler large-canvas ads consumers were still 80% more likely to remember the brands being advertised.

Garbayo was also struck by that fact that respondents not only remembered the placement itself but also recalled a "substantial amount" of content from the advertisement.

"And that's very important for us, particularly for Special K Protein, in that we're starting to convey a more complex message," she said.

In addition to basic recall, Kellogg's also sought to discover how "likeable" its digital pieces were. Standard display ads evoked no emotion, but the reaction to a full-screen interactive takeover was twice as popular as the standard unit. Skinwraps and large canvas displays also drove a lift in ad likeability.

Garbayo attributed this to the fact that the larger ad formats were "more entertaining and more educational for the consumer" and were also something that people would talk about.

She concluded that consumers believed the entertainment and educational value was worth the interruption.

Shawn Baron, director/research and insights at digital consultancy Undertone, which carried out the research, conceded that finding larger scale ads that broke through clutter was not "earth-shattering", but argued the study had utility for the commissioning brand.

"Not only did we receive greater brand recall for Special K, but [we also learned] that consumers were more likely to recall key elements of the creative messaging and also the product attributes," he said.

Data sourced from Warc