Consider a ketone.....we see a value of about 1720 cm-1. Now consider a ketone with a conjugated double bond. Is the energy the same that stretches the C=O bond ? No......a ketone has essentially little contribution from its resonance hybrid..thus we can imagine it as a double bond. The conjugated ketone has SIGNIFICANT resonance contribution, and has LESS double bond character. In other words, the carbonyl group has less of a double bond than that of the non-conjugated molecule. This is reflected in the fact that it will be easier to stretch this bond,,,,,it is not as strong. We would see a value of about 1690 cm-1. Remember.....conjugated molecule have LESS double bond character and will give lower values for both carbonyl and C=C bonds. The alkene bond would be about 1600 cm-1. Hope this helps on a VERY important DAT question.