Abstract:

Market research bureau Inter/View in Amsterdam has conducted a survey assigned by Weekbladpers, a Dutch publisher of weekly and monthly sports and culture magazines. In this survey an experiment was carried out to test the hypothesis of the contribution of media to recognition as an advertising effect. In a postal survey among SummoScanner respondents photographs of print advertisements and tv commercials of insurance companies were shown to the respondents who were asked to write down how often they had seen the advertisements and commercials. The recognition of advertisements was therefore detennined independent from the specific media titles. The recognition data were linked to the SummoScanner media data. The effectiveness of the media plans of three advertising campaigns was evaluated. A positive relation between campaign pressure and advertising recognition was found indicating the external validity of the indirect measure of recognition. We also found out that people who appreciate tv commercials for entertainment reasons, reach higher levels of commercial recognition. Another conclusion was that respondents who exercise other activities during commercial breaks, showed a poorer advertising recognition. With the results of this survey advertisers and their agencies can optimize media planning without direct measures of advertising recognition.