May 2011 How measurement can change advertising…
The big question is this a creative director’s worst nightmare?
Direct Marketing creatives have long been forced to consider results alongside aesthetics and concept in creating ads. Either people respond or they don’t and it is usually anywhere between 3 days (for email) and 3 weeks (for direct mail) before you find out.
Now this level of measurement is coming to advertising. Whether it is social media reaction, % of watches versus fast forwards on DVRs, or clicks on tablets, our industry will be measured. And it will change the creative we produce because we have been hired as professional marketing consultants to get results, not as professional designers to deliver creative. The more we add science to our craft to match the magic of a great idea, the better we’ll all be.
Does the collective subconscious of 90 people make a better judge than 1 Gerry Moira?
Gerry Moira Chairman & Director of Creativity, Euro RSCG says that this is a great ad:
Award Winning Freelander Ad.
He awarded it best ad of the month in The Anna’s saying “Against a long term car park of ads with shiny metal boxes, this ad employs a confident and differentiated use of illustration…”
But does it sell? We wanted to find out if it was effective in communicating key messages of ‘0% APR Typical*’ and ‘Why get a car when you can get a Land Rover?’
We tested it with 30 appropriate people recruited via in street intercepts to avoid any bias from a self-selecting sample who had opted in to be part of a market research panel. We tracked where their eyes looked and recorded their subconscious emotional reactions using facial coding whilst they looked at an appropriate publication that included the Freelander ad.The heatmap shows what 30 readers looked at:
Eye Tracking Results From 30 Viewers.
