The Optimum Impression study found that 57 per cent of respondents said they noted an ad, down from 60 per cent three years ago. At 53 per cent, English titles saw the steepest decline in ad recall, while Malay and Chinese newspapers dipped to 58 per cent.
Florence Oong, OMD regional director of communications insight, blamed the decline on rising ad clutter and a reduction in the time that people spent reading a newspaper. Underlining the clutter factor, advertising spend on newspapers rose by 42 per cent between 2000 and last year, according to Nielsen Media Research.
PMEBs showed the lowest and declining ad recall score among all occupational groups - 55 per cent, compared with 61 per cent in 2000.
The survey also found that right-hand pages generate more attention than left hand pages - 58 per cent compared with 54 per cent. Bigger and brighter ads also did well. Centre-spreads or double page ads had the highest score of 72 per cent, followed by full pages (65 per cent), junior pages (60 per cent), half pages (56 per cent) and quarter pages (48 per cent).