Abstract:

Measuring advertising effectiveness to an increasing extent has become a part of evaluating the integrated communications mix. Apart from mass advertising, activities such as promotion, outdoor sponsoring, direct marketing and above all new media have become much more important. The lines that used to separate advertising from disciplines such as design and fashion, have also become more blurred. For some people, however, the tensions between research and marketing communication have not completely disappeared. Questions still linger about whether today’s researchers can succeed in convincing advertising specialists that they make a valuable contribution, and whether advertising research actually delivers what it should. As for the communications industry, how far does it continue to hide behind stereotyped positions, for instance that research is an obstacle to creativity, or that it is impossible to measure the real effects of commercial communications? In this issue of Research World we focus on the way in which advertisers and researchers work together. We speak with the ’persuaders’ to find out if they are satisfied with the services that researchers deliver. We look at the research contribution to ask: in which direction is the relationship heading - will it remain difficult or is that now changing?