Web sites featuring branded content outscored internet industry norms 41 out of 43 times across a wide range of advertising metrics, according to a new research report from the Online Publishers Association (OPA), writes MarketingCharts.

Moreover, "beyond-the-banner" forms of online advertising, such as video, sponsorships and rich media, also outpaced industry norms when placed on branded-content sites.

The report, "Improving Ad Performance Online: The Impact of Advertising on Branded Content Sites," (PDF) uses Dynamic Logic's MarketNorms database to measure online advertising's effectiveness and branding impact, and finds that branded-content sites are effective at improving brand favorability and purchase intent.

For brand favorability, branded-content sites provide a 29 percent improvement over average online advertising performance in MarketNorms. For purchase intent, branded-content sites provide a 20 percent improvement. With both measures, there is an even greater bounce among affluent audiences.

Branded-content sites are 24 percent more effective than overall MarketNorms at impacting purchase intent among those with household incomes of $75,000 or greater.

Branded-content sites also provide advertising advantages for beyond-the-banner formats, according to OPA:

• Video advertising on these sites provides an 82 percent brand awareness boost over MarketNorms' overall online video advertising averages and a 67 percent boost for improving brand favorability.
• Rich media ads on branded-content sites provide a 28 percent brand awareness improvement over MarketNorms.

Additional findings:

• Sponsorships on branded-content sites are 42 percent more effective than the overall MarketNorms average and 36 percent more effective than on portals.
• Those age 18-34 are more responsive to ads on branded-content sites and are 33 percent more likely to form favorable opinions about advertised brands than when viewing ads on portals.
• The overall findings are consistent across advertising categories. For example, consumer packaged goods advertising on branded-content sites gets a 26 percent lift in purchase intent over MarketNorms.

"In nearly every category measured, ad effectiveness scores on branded content sites were numerically higher than on the web in general, on portals or on ad networks," said OPA President Pam Horan. "Branded-content sites have a notably greater impact at the points where consumers are establishing brand preference and making purchase decisions."

About the research: The OPA report provides analysis of ad effectiveness scores for branded-content sites, as represented by OPA members, compared with those for overall MarketNorms, portals and ad networks. MarketNorms data benchmarks online ad campaigns from more than 3,900 people and refers to the average performance of all online campaigns measured by Dynamic Logic in the last three years, including those on branded content sites, portals and ad networks.