It seems even the best have difficulty in knowing if there advertising is working or not. Measuring ad-recall is an immensely challenging process, especially in more traditional mediums such as print or magazines.
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I do not know which half”. John Wanamaker – The ‘father of modern advertising’.
Effective ad recall measuring allows advertisers to answer many important questions, such as what percentage of readers remembered seeing my advertising, and what they thought of its design and layout. This can then be broken down demographically so that they can find out what type of consumer is reacting in specific ways to their campaigns.
Furthermore, effective ad recall testing should offer valid data on consumer engagement. Ultimately all advertising is a form of call to action marketing, with the overall success of an ad being how a consumer reacts after seeing it. Successful ad recall testing allows advertisers to know how many consumers will make positive steps towards buying their product/service as a consequence of seeing their ad, and detail what these positive steps were.
Here at The Columbus Dispatch we use our reader panel, managed in conjunction with our business partner RAM, to offer specialized ad recall testing. We carry out RAM research for dozens of clients on a weekly basis, helping them better understand their customers and evaluate current campaign performance. If this is something you would like to know more about, please contact your account executive for more information.
Here is a well written blog post by The Irish Times discussing the importance of testing advertising and how they do it.
