1. Rethinking Advertising Development –
Is it Time to Shift the Paradigm?
Peter Haslett, Ipsos ASI
December, 2011
REFLECTIONS
Inspiration for Action

2. Page 2 Rethinking Advertising Development
One recognizes that, when they set out to develop a new building efforts should ultimately lead to improved sales,
advertising campaign, most advertisers do not plan to air brand equity or brand closeness.
communications that are mediocre, or at best average. Yet year In our experience there are three mainstays to achieve great
in and year out, mediocre advertising is aired. advertising. More importantly, these three do not need to add
Why isn’t all advertising great? time to the development schedule (in fact they often reduce
cycle times) nor do they need to add to the overall cost.
You have probably heard the “reasons”: there is no time, no
alternative ideas, too little money, or too much equity in • Plan Holistically
the existing campaign (even when it is starting to falter • Seek consumer input at an earlier stage to optimize what
in-market). These reasons suggest to us a need to take a hard you Create
look at the development process to understand what might • Rethink your action standards when Qualifying copy
be missing. We would argue it is consumer input.
More intriguing reasons, from a researcher’s perspective,
include that pre-testing really can’t gauge the impact of the
ad being tested, or that pre-testing is no longer relevant • Creative
Create • A few near
Monitor
and media finished
given the fragmented and increasingly more digitalized together
• Grounded
• Many early
stage ideas creative
ideas
• In-market
evaluation
or creative
world around us. in strategic
platforms
Plan Qualify
The opportunity cost of great creative is equal to
(if not more than) the cost of the whole media budget
Great advertising is possible, even with today’s increased
complexity. The old adage remains true – great creative is the
Are you planning holistically?
underpinning of a successful campaign. It accounts for more
than 75% of a campaign’s success, making it more important The benefit of a Tight Creative Brief
than the media buy. The foundation of a holistic plan is the creative brief. But for
that creative brief to be successful, it needs to be tightly
70% Proven Recall Brand A (Strong Creative, Less Support)
60%
focused – confident almost. This provides the agency the
50% 49% freedom to create and not be hampered by “what ifs. It ”
40% must also have complete buy-in from all key stakeholders,
30% 25% not just the agency, to be successful. Without buy-in, the
20% process will be mired in the debate of alternatives.
10% Proven Recall Brand B (Weak Creative, High Level of Support)
0% The brief needs to be informed by strong foundational
research, together with a holistic understanding of your
Owing to the role of online social networks, great creative in-market insights, especially to effectively define:
ideas can additionally drive strong viral activity because • What you are trying to accomplish for the brand in the
great creative is one of the drives of word-of-mouth (WoM). context of the competitive set;
And, WoM can often outperform paid media within the • What the consumers’ emotional needs are that are associ-
touchpoint mix. ated with your brand;
• What is the clear, compelling, undeniable and leverageable
Brand*Graph 360 Summary Audit consumer insight.
Source: Average results from 20+ observations (when present),
across multiple industries + studies “I have learned that people will forget what you said, people
Average
Recall %
Average
(excluding product will forget what you did, but people will never forget how
touchpoints)
60%
v Word of Mouth
you made them feel.” — MAYA ANGELOU
v Performance
50%
v Packaging Are you thinking Big?
v Price
40%
The brief should outline a strong strategy or “Big Idea” – the
v POS v Television
30% v Word of Mouth backbone for a holistic campaign. To be strong it needs to
v Radio Promo Average
v Posters
20%
v v
(excluding product tap into essential human motivations to which everyone can
Cinema Sponsorship v In-Store touchpoints)
v
v v v On-Line relate, not just a select few. And, it also needs to have a
10% v Website
FSI Magazine
natural role or connection for the brand, without which you
0%
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
do not have a Big Idea. The agreed to Big Idea should serve
Share of Impact % as the roadmap for all creative, regardless of medium. It
should also further serve to align teams and focus efforts by
What might you be missing out on? ensuring shared accountability.
You might be missing out on creating great advertising. Are Can you ask more from your media?
you sure that you are creating great ads for your brand? We The continual merging and blending of media means that
think the objective behind developing great advertising consumers are empowered to determine where and when
should be to develop the best advertising possible to build to access the content they want. Within this environment,
one’s brand, not to simply pass a pre-test; because, brand television advertising is not declining in importance, but
Ipsos ASI – The Advertising Research Specialists

3. Page 3 Rethinking Advertising Development
it will continue to evolve while other media increase in
relevance. Advertisers may be more likely to succeed if they Opportunity
Foundational
plan their creative content and media plans together as to explore, fail
Research & Final Execution
and try again
one exercise. Knowing beforehand which mediums work Brand Strategy
without risk
best for your category, brand and message, makes this
process seamless.
You can test early stage stimuli with consumers
33 Touch Points were captured in our survey Contrary to popular belief consumers, are able to react and
respond to Big Ideas, creative strategies, and early stage
advertising and provide meaningful input. The only challenge
6 Touch Points account for (more or less)... consumers face is clarity of the stimulus at hand. And typi-
cally that lack of clarity does not come from the level of
finish, but the lack of appropriate articulation. But knowing
60+ % of the driving impact for each KPI that and understanding why consumers may be confused,
can provide brand teams and agencies with the roadmap
to comprehension.
Combine insight of where to focus with an understanding of media
synergies and the style, tone and level of message detail required to Learn what does and does not work for
maximise efficiency of each contact with your consumer.
consumers with regards to your brand
Some useful tips: Take the opportunity to learn at various stages. It is about
knowing your consumer intimately – fully understanding
• A customer’s purchasing behavior and potential loyalty
their needs and emotional desires for your brand. It is also
can easily be bought with discounts – it is not enough to
about knowing what articulation of an insight caries more
simply focus communications on loyal purchasers as there
emotional triggers, and then knowing how to visually express
are so few of them.
that. Or what brand connection caries more credibility and
• With this in mind, there is a difference between attitudes meaning, so that the story is complete.
and behavior – advertisers should focus on building the
emotional desire for a brand. There are no regrets when you learn from failure
• Segmentation limits mass appeal of your product. Most of The outcome could be creative that really pays-off: agencies
the biggest brands do not segment – but rather target all can break free of the one or two safe ideas and create with-
consumers with the same emotional desire. This allows out the risk of failure. Iterate without risk, by exploring and
consumers to choose the brand for their own personal refining ideas and executional elements before making the
reasons. expensive investment of full-up production. It is far easier to
make adjustments to concepts, storyboards and animatics
versus re-cuts and re-edits of already finalized communica-
tions. We recommend that the process act like a funnel –
start with as many good ideas as possible, and winnow
down to a few great ideas. Early stage research means you
can identify the best ideas quickly, and weed out the ideas
that fall short.
Maximize Ad Quality
Screen and identify the best communication ideas and optimize those ideas based on
consumer feedback before investing in full-up production, minimizing cost of failure
• Touchpoints are not substitutes for each other; they cannot and maximizing advertising quality.
serve the same objective, with the same Reach, and to 160 Quality: Average Copy Effect Index (CEI)*
the same target. Focus the message on the strengths of 140
the medium. 120 138
123
100
Are you seeking consumer input at 80 93
the earliest stages to optimize what 60
you Create? 40
20
“Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous (n=2116) (n=152) (n=62)
0
as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals.” Non Screened Screened in Screened & Scored
Early Stage test Average or Strong in
— DAVID OGILVY. Early Stage test
Early consumer input makes our clients more effi cient. *CEI was developed by Ipsos ASI to provide clients with a relative indicator of
advertising efectiveness: the higher the CEI, the greater the potential for an ad to
It saves time and money by providing a breadth and depth create a sales response in response to ad spending (other things being equal).
of insight that can fill in any knowledge gaps that may occur Average CEI = 100; Above Average CEI = 130+
between foundational research and final ad development.
Ipsos ASI – The Advertising Research Specialists

4. Page 4 Rethinking Advertising Development
A few useful tips for early stage:
Gain Greater Efficiency • Tone and personality are easily conveyed in a strategic
Earlier feedback in the development process eliminates weaker ideas before
significant production dollars have been invested and translates to more effective concept – both to the benefit and disservice of an idea.
ads on air. Higher success rates mean less time and money wasted on re-work. Don’t suppose to know what consumers are thinking or
Efficiency: Airable Copy Rates feeling. But do surprise them with great insight and under-
100
90
standing. Remember, every single word and phrase counts.
80
84% • Using images in strategic concepts does not help to better
70 76%
60
explain an idea to consumers. Images can distract from
50 your underlying message. And while consumers may like
40 52%
the image and relate to what is shown, they may not
30
20 notice that they do not connect to your idea.
10 (n=2116) (n=152) (n=62) • You can get meaningful consumer response to static key
0
Non Screened Screened in Screened & Scored visuals or PowerPoint slides with a recorded script as an
Early Stage test Average or Strong in
Early Stage test early stage ad idea. Just make sure that you do not over-
narrate and therefore over-promise on what the final
Qualitative input is still a must. communications can deliver.
• Screen various creative devices and hooks: if there are a
Important for the development of consumer insights or need
variety of different ways to demonstrate the same thing
states, it can play as important a role in creative develop-
and you are not sure which one will have the most impact,
ment. You can deconstruct and reconstruct stimulus more
test them with consumers. You may find the least expen-
readily, getting to the heart of what is and isn’t working,
sive device could have the most impact.
and what you may have missed. You can also easily tap into
the emotional associations consumers have with your brand. • Given the expense of celebrity endorsements, get consumer
But qualitative alone is only directional; combined with input before you sign on the dotted line.
quantitative data, qualitative research can help propel ideas What about Action Standards?
forward efficiently.
“Don’t bunt. Aim out of the ball park. Aim for the company
Same Brands, Same Ad Agencies, Same Research of immortals.” — DAVID OGILVY
Company, Different Process
If your action standards for airing an ad are that your ad
Once convinced of the value of early stage research some of must fall within an average range on pre-test results, then
our clients have chosen to test focus on Big Ideas, some on the ads you air will most typically be average. At the end of
creative strategies, while others have focused on executional the day, what is the opportunity cost to the brand of putting
strategies or storyboards and animatics. Regardless of what mediocre advertising on air?
they chose to test, a few commonalities:
So, are you missing out? Consider your creative development
• All agency partners, both above and below the line, were a process: is it designed to deliver excellent creative, or could
part of the process ensuring fully integrated communications. it potentially evolve? And might it be time to rethink the goal
• While more pieces of early stage stimulus were developed of creative development?
than in the past, only the best one or two ideas proceeded
to finished production, saving on production costs. “Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop
improving. — DAVID OGILVY
”
• Having learned from the early stage research, there were
no “what ifs” about what to do when investing in final
production – no re-cuts or re-edits.
Our experience is that by investing in the process means less
time spent on deciding what to proceed with. And those
ideas that were produced were far more likely to be Great
Creative right away.
Case Study Clients
CEI* Results After Early Average CEI
Stage Idea Testing in Category
Personal Care
(Region 1) 176 242 92
Personal Care
(Region 2) 245 299 107
Home Care
(Region 1) 167 135 93
*CEI was developed by Ipsos ASI to provide clients with a relative indicator of
advertising efectiveness: the higher the CEI, the greater the potential for an ad
to create a sales response in response to ad spending (other things being equal).
Average CEI = 100; Above Average CEI = 130+
Ipsos ASI – The Advertising Research Specialists 1 1 - 1 2 - 1 8

5. About Ipsos ASI
Ipsos ASI offers marketers state-of-the-art advertising research built on more than 40 years of experience using measures
predictive of in-market performance. We offer a full-range of solutions across all media – at any stage in the creative
process – from equity assessment to strategic development, advertising testing, and tracking. Our research is backed by
a dedicated team of advertising research specialists whose mission is to deliver the answers that will add value to your
business anywhere in the world.
About Ipsos
Ipsos ASI is a member of the Ipsos Group, a leading global survey-based research company. Ipsos member companies offer
expertise in advertising, customer loyalty, marketing, media, and public affairs research, as well as forecasting, modeling,
and consulting. With offices in 66 countries, the Paris-based company was founded in 1975.
For general information, contact us via email at:
info@ipsos-asi.com
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naminfo@ipsos-asi.com
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lataminfo@ipsos-asi.com
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