ARS Suggests Knowledge Nuggets
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October 2008 ARS Suggests . . .
Understanding how to optimize your digital messages. . .
The marketing landscape continues to proliferate as marketers search for new and effective ways to reach consumers. To help navigate these changing waters, ARSgroup first launched our highly successful Impact Campaign test last year. Continuing innovation to meet the shifting market now allows us to launch an adaptation of our Impact testing service for the digital space. So, what do we mean by digital?
iMedia (display ads, rich media ads, broadband video)
Mobile (SMS, Internet, search, video)
Search (including paid search)
E-Commerce
Websites (sponsorships, content integration)
CRM
Interactive forums (social networking, file sharing, blogs)
Digital advertising offers a unique opportunity to build meaningful, long-term consumer relationships. It also offers a distribution channel (via mobile phones and handhelds) which allows brands to:
-Effectively target their message
-Provide a way to deliver rich media content in an experiential way
-Reach consumers when and where they are receptive, "content on the go"
As always, ARSgroup uses meaningful (validated and reliable), consumer metrics, metrics tied directly to in-market performance. Our approach provides marketers with actionable insights into creating effective digital ads.
September 2008 ARS Suggests . . .
Understanding how to align entertainment and ad content for maximum value. . .
The entertainment industry is one of the few sectors which grow during tough economic times. So, how can advertisers take advantage of this growth trend to better promote their brands and thus improve ROI? Correspondingly, how can entertainment companies understand the consumer value of their content and identify the brands to pursue for powerful product integration and branded entertainment opportunities? The key is identifying the equity and preference overlaps between brands, entertainment franchises, and talent.
By understanding the consumer, their media consumption patterns, their entertainment likes/dislikes, and their brand preferences, both entertainment and advertising content creators can amplify their success.
ARSgroup is bringing fact-based, consumer-focused ROI guidance to the branded entertainment, endorsement & sponsorship decision making process. Learn more by requesting our branded entertainment case study. Contact Stephanie Warlick at snwarlick@ars-group.com or visit our website at www.ars-group.com to request a copy.
July 2008 ARS Suggests . . .
Understanding what makes an effective ad. . .
With an economic recession, smart advertising is essential to increase the odds of a return on your marketing investment. But how do you build an effective advertising campaign? ARSgroup looks deeper into elements of effective campaigns in the first video "What Makes a Strong Ad?" of our new YouTube video series on "Ad Effectiveness".
You can view the 4 minute video on the newly redesigned ARSgroup website, www.ars-group.com. To go directly to the video, click here. Be sure to visit our site often to view future videos from ARSgroup.
To visit the ARSgroup YouTube channel, click here.
July 2008 ARS Suggests . . .
Understanding how to advertise effectively during a recession. . .
Due to the recent economic slow-down, advertisers are faced with the dilemma of how to advertise wisely and effectively with shrinking ad budgets. Some companies are scaling back on their advertising dollars, but is this a wise choice? ARSgroup's whitepaper, "Advertising During a Recession", answers this question and provides additional insights on how to best navigate as a marketer in these challenging times.
You can obtain a free copy of this ARS whitepaper as well as other case studies, webinars and other ARSgroup knowledge pieces by visiting the "What We Know" tab on our newly designed website, www.ars-group.com. Or, email Stephanie Warlick at snwarlick@ars-group.com to request a copy.
June 2008 ARS Suggests . . .
Understanding how to achieve ROI from your integrated marketing campaign. . .
The advertising game is changing. Given the emergence of multiple touchpoints, today's consumer sees individual brands everywhere. Therefore, content evaluation by individual contact choice, while helpful in understanding individual financial values, is limited by design. Winning brands in today's marketplace achieve success by using multiple advertising touchpoints, so the consumer sees your brand everywhere with consistency and synergy in the advertising message.
ARSgroup has been leading the industry by providing its customers with overall direction and rich diagnostics based on target consumers' responses to the holistic plan. After evaluating the plan, ARS helps manage the financial risk by identifying the drivers of success and specific areas of opportunity for the individual elements tested, thereby better guiding marketing spend prior to launch.
- To obtain a copy of the latest ARS blinded campaign case study, please contact Stephanie Warlick at snwarlick@ars-group.com.
- To read the most recent article in the media about ARSgroup's campaign product published in the latest issue of Research Business Report, click here.
June 2008 ARS Suggests . . .
Understanding the power of advertising quality. . .
Brands that have the most success during recessionary times are those that maintain or grow their advertising presence among consumers. But how does a brand do this while media budgets are under stress?
- Advertising quality has been shown to be 4 times more important in generating incremental sales than media spend alone. Therefore, by improving advertising quality, a brand can increase its market position with the same (or even fewer) media dollars.
- The ARSgroup diagnostic approach, based on both the emotional and rational drivers of successful advertising, has been shown to significantly improve advertising quality.
- In fact, the average improvement equates to an extra half a share point in market for a typical brand. In a $1 billion category, this equates to $1.25 million over a quarter (a sizable return on the research investment).
During these tough economic times, a smart way to get more impact from your media spend (when less needs to do more) is to use the proven ARS approach to advertising improvement.
May 2008 ARS Suggests . . .
Understanding how to advertise during difficult economic times - maximize the ROI of your media spend!
As we enter what may become the recession of 2008, expenditures on research & development are being cut, new product introductions postponed and advertising spending decreased. Are these prudent moves to keep a company operating profitably?
ARSgroup, with its 40+ years of experience, can provide critical understanding on how to successfully grow business when cutting advertising expenditures. In past weeks, we've delivered quick tips on how your brand can thrive during these difficult times. Please contact srchenoweth@ars-group.com for more detailed information.
Take advantage of emerging touchpoints and synergies:
- While TV is often the strongest single-reach element of a multi-media plan, other touchpoints can be just as effective at motivating consumers and are often less expensive (e.g. print and web).
- Take advantage of synergies between executions by placing media spend behind those combinations yielding the greatest total impact.
- Avoid negative interactions (often the result of unexpected executional issues).
- Both single and multiple message campaigns can be effective:
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- Single message when a straightforward brand-differentiating message which appeals to a broad consumer segment had been identified.
- Multiple messages when brand differentiation cannot be communicated with a single straightforward message.
May 2008 ARS Suggests . . .
Understanding how to advertise during difficult economic times - make every dollar of your media work for you!
As we enter what may become the recession of 2008, expenditures on research & development are being cut, new product introductions postponed and advertising spending decreased.
ARSgroup, with its 40+ years of experience, can provide critical understanding on how to successfully grow business when cutting advertising expenditures. In the passing weeks, we've been delivering quick tips on how your brand can thrive during these difficult times. Please contact srchenoweth@ars-group.com for more detailed information.
Understand the persuasive life of an ad and manage the wear-out of your advertising:
- As money is spent behind an ad, its selling power decreases in a predictable fashion - leading to diminishing sales returns. If you know the starting strength of the ads in your campaign, you can plan to maximize delivery of selling power and ad refreshment without wasting money.
- A very slight difference can result in a "new" ad; therefore, ad poolouts are a very cost effective way to replace ads without producing totally new ads.
- In contrast, ads are frequently replaced prematurely, when there is plenty of power remaining. If you know the starting strength of your ads, you can avoid wasting money on replacing ads too soon.
April 2008 ARS Suggests . . .
Understanding how to advertise during difficult economic times - getting more with less
As we enter what may become the recession of 2008, expenditures on research & development are being cut, new product introductions postponed and advertising spending decreased. Every day a new article is written in the media about the recession, but nothing about what advertisers should do to navigate a business in such turbulent times.
ARSgroup, with its 40+ years of experience, can provide critical understanding on how to successfully grow business when cutting advertising expenditures. In the coming weeks, we will continue to deliver quick tips on how your brand can thrive during these difficult times. Please contact srchenoweth@ars-group.com for more detailed information. Our first tip is:
Aggressively utilize 15-second ads - but make sure they are "good" ones:
- 15-second ads are just over half the price of 30-second ads, but on average three-quarters the strength (so, you might want to use multiple 15-second ads to maintain on-air strength)
- Over 25% of the time, 15-second ads are as strong or stronger than their 30-second counterpart (when you know you have this opportunity, you win)
- Use "cut-down" versions from 30-second ads to reduce production costs in multiple execution plans while simultaneously boosting GRPs - but when cutting down the ads, clearly understand the drivers of success and don't cut them
- Use original 15-second ads to replace 30-second ads in single execution plans (build your 15-second ads "from scratch" with the end in mind that they will be 15-second ads)
- 15-second ads are best used when there are clear-cut benefits/messages and when the goal is to maintain brand awareness and loyalty
March 2008 ARS Suggests . . .
Understanding your consumers' attitudes and behaviors towards personal and planetary health is vital in the development of effective sales messages . . .
Though true in many cases, this is particularly true in the HASS(SM) (Health and Sustainability Segmentation) space due to the differing and often diametrically opposed behaviors and product choices between consumers with a high concern for personal and planetary health and those with a lower level of concern. Five segments have been developed which can be used to group consumers based on his or her attitudes towards personal health and planetary health.
Three of the segments have personal and planetary health concerns relative to the rest of the population. The HASA(SM) (Health and Sustainability Advocate) segment is strongly concerned about both personal and environmental health, and actively works to improve both. The Impressionist segment has higher concerns for health of the environment than for personal health. And the Wholesome segment has higher concern for personal health than for environmental health. (Note: Profiles for all five segments are available.)
In addition to using these segments in ad testing, brand preferences can be broken down within and across HASS. By doing this, retailers and marketers can determine which brands those most concerned about their health and the environment are buying.
Below is a table showing an example from the water purification category.
The Impressionist segment is primarily concerned about the environment and sustainability; and this segment has the lowest preference for bottled water. Both of the other groups have a high concern for health and higher rates of preference for bottled water. Through effective communication of the personal consumer benefits of replacing bottled water with a water purification system, an opportunity for greater performance is presented among the HASA and Wholesome segments.
February 2008 ARS Suggests . . .
Understanding the synergistic effects of multiple touchpoints in a campaign. . .
Dynamic digital signage, mobile devices, public event ads and in-store advertising are just a few examples of the emerging media vehicles available to marketers. A new ARS white paper, entitled Seven Key Insights from Holistic Campaign Testing to be published in the April issue of Quirk's Marketing Research Review magazine, outlines how marketers can evaluate the synergistic impact of applying these alternative contact points within their marketing plans. The white paper is available upon request today.
Below is a sneak peak of the seven insights from ARSgroup's research initiatives:
- All touchpoints can be effective – television is often the strongest single element of a multi-media campaign, but the data show that other touchpoints can be just as strong.
- Strong synergies result from leveraging emotional and rational content across brand encounters – one example is pharmaceutical companies' use of television ads to convey key product information coupled with emotional benefits and print ads to convey further in-depth clinical information.
- Campaigns often move messages from "lower" to "higher" levels of communication – as consumers see multiple ads, a high-level message (corporate branding campaign) can be relayed through several lower-level messages.
- Interactions vary among respondent groups, and these group differences must be taken into account in test design – demographics and media consumption patterns need to be considered; podcast ads need to be evaluated among consumers with iPods and similar devices, for example.
- Negative interactions sometimes occur and usually result from executional issues – the unexpected effect of an executional detail such as wording or graphics may detract from the intended message.
- Single-minded or multiple messages can create effective campaigns – brands that have a straight-forward, differentiating message should focus on it in their campaign; if not, multiple campaign messages are advisable.
- Campaign synergies can impact the bottom line – experience shows that sizable sales gains can be realized by allocating media dollars across multiple ads based on their respective contributions to the campaign.
Free copies of the white paper are available upon request by emailing srchenoweth@ars-group.com or replying to this email.
January 2008 ARS Suggests . . .
Including a personal solution in your Green campaign can avoid the common pitfall of a negative tone . . .
While roughly 1 in 50 traditional TV ads have a negative tone, more than 3 in 4 green TV ads are negatively toned. This is manifested in the following differences:
Compared to traditional TV advertisements, green TV ads generally:
- do not present problem-and-solution combinations, typically leaning more towards a global problem without delivering a personal solution
- do not focus on personal relevance
- do not show user-satisfaction, again focusing on the global problem rather than how their product helps people on a personal level
These are among the elements that contribute to a generally negative or gloomy tone in the majority of green ads. By showing how a product/ service can provide a personal solution, advertisers can have a more successful campaign.
December 2007 ARS Suggests . . .
Incorporating information on company image or reputation in Green advertising has potential negative effects on an ad's sales effectiveness and on the image of the company itself. This seems to be a manifestation of the "greenwashing effect." Consumers are wary of baseless green claims made in advertising. We have observed that for both television and print advertising, effectively conveying a company's image, without substantiation of quantified environmental benefits, has proven to be a difficult undertaking.
November 2007 ARS Suggests . . .
A type of messaging effective in the green space . . .
- Ads with a specific green message (i.e., uses less plastic, 60 mpg highway) tend to influence consumers more than ads with general green messaging (good for the environment).
- Specific messaging which emphasizes a personal benefit (i.e., uses less plastic but cleans twice as much, 60 mpg highway saves you hundreds of dollars a year) is a splendid one-two punch in a green advertisement.