Over a two year period the authors have been involved in the development of a new commercial testing system, that brings together, for the first time, measures of on-air recall and persuasion. The system named AD-VISOR, became officially operational in September 1987, for use in all the major markets of western Europe. The paper illustrates the problems and opportunities of European testing. Practical experience of evaluating commercials across Europe is discussed with the aid of case histories.
Lego System A/S is pre-testing television commercials and print advertising in their major markets on a continuous basis. Lately, a validated standardised persuasion measure - the BUY(c)TEST - has been used in USA, France, Great Britain, Germany, and Denmark. More than 20 tests have been executed. Since also a traditional awareness measure was included in the studies, interesting findings showing differences in the evaluation/recommendation based on awareness and persuasion are presented.
Advertising hasn't a purely informative role. I think we have to accept that in many fields its persuasive role is important - particularly in advertising on social issues. At the same time the real value of advertising lies within the concept of consumer choice and the individual as an active, not a passive, force in society. Advertising has a vital role in communicating on all issues with the public so that they can make meaningful decisions whether at work, in the shop or in politics. Together researchers and advertising should be working on the most efficient ways to help the individual in society play his full part.
This classic paper raises the main problem with below-the-line expenditure: its long-term effects. Most evaluations cover a year at longest. People concerned with the saleability of a brand, with the values added by its marketing effort, with all the factors which add up to long-term profit, may feel a year is not long enough. The activities under-the-line may, as the title graphically puts it, undermine the structure which has been laboriously built up: they may drive consumers to shop by price alone, reducing a branded market to a commodity one, they may damage the ability of the brand to command a premium price and through high margins to invest in product improvement. The debate on this complex issue is not over. But this paper clarifies the issues..
This paper presents a detailed case history of the 1976/77 advertising campaign to persuade people in Britain against drinking and driving. It deals firstly with the background to the campaign and the role of research in its development. The main body of the paper then deals with the evaluation of the campaign covering general considerations, the research methodology, research results and accident statistics, and the impact of the research on the 1977-78 campaign. Following this there is a detailed discussion of a methodological experiment on quota versus random sampling techniques that was incorporated into the research design. A short final section points conclusions to be drawn from this case history in relation both to aspects of the evaluation of campaigns of social persuasion.
The Central Office of Information is a common service agency which prepares publicity for many Government Departments. The paper is concerned with one part of the C.O.I's activity, namely the mounting of advertising campaigns on matters of social persuasion, and specifically the role of research in evaluating the effectiveness of such campaigns, where the aim is a behavioural change on the part of the target audience.
In this study a multidimensional scaling approach is used in order to determine the effects on the marketplace of an advertising campaign for a menthol cigarette. The design of the study has been one of an experimental nature with one control group and two experimental groups. The study should serve a number of purposes. The main purposes were stated as:- 1. To determine, whether the chosen strategy was correct; 2. Given the strategy's correctness, to determine whether the campaign draft had the desired effect on perception and preference of Mint A and brand A; 3. Given the strategy's incorrectness, to determine whether the campaign might be harmful to the perception and preference for brand A.