Direct Response Advertising (i.e. Ads with telephone numbers) on television is growing. It is in the interests of all to try to ensure the medium is used with maximum efficiency. This study merges two sets of data, the audience to DRTV commercials and telephone response data which can then be cross-analysed against various criteria to see what will produce the best response rate. The factors examined are several but include such items as the best time of day to advertise, the best length of the commercial, whether to have a voice-over of the telephone number and so on. The results described below should enhance the general understanding of DRTV and enable those especially newer to the medium to obtain more from their T.V. expenditure.
Channel Four is a U.K. national television channel, set up in 1982 and today accounts for around 10% of all viewing. It is financed from the sale of commercial airtime but it is not a private enterprise. It is, effectively, a public service organisation that as well as being a general broadcaster is given certain requirements within U.K. broadcasting. Those requirements are : a) to ensure that Channel Four programmes contain a suitable proportion of material calculated to appeal to tastes and interests not generally catered for by Channel 3 (ITV) b) that innovation and experiment in the form and content of those programmes are encouraged and:- c) generally that Channel Four is given a distinctive character of its own. Four has thus to plough its way between the interests of public service broadcasting and the interest of commercial survival. It is within this context that one can see the importance of audience reaction data to us.
In the Autumn of 1984, TVS and JWT commissioned AGE to conduct a study on a single panel which measured purchasing and television viewing over 12 weeks. This was to a certain extent a continuation of earlier work commissioned by JWT in 1966. The objective was to attempt to understand a little more about the short-term effects of advertising on sales; to attempt to identify Effective Frequency; and to test the logistics of having joint, detailed viewing and purchasing data on one panel. The results of the study illustrate, amongst other things, the role of TV advertising in attracting new buyers to a brand and the logistics of conducting this kind of research.
The paper describes an attempt to measure retail sales beyond the usual measurement of branded packaged groceries. It explains why the attempt should be made, especially by an independent television contractor; it examines the method used to obtain the results and explains some of the results achieved. In looking at the results the paper also tries to highlight some of the activities that have taken place as a consequence of the results and how the technique could be developed in the future.