Using Quasi-Experimental Data to Develop Empirical Generalizations For Persuasive Advertising

Summary:

Quasi-experimental data provide a valid and relatively low-cost approach toward developing empirical generalizations. Using data from 240 pairs of print advertisements from five editions of the Which Ad Pulled Best series, 56 advertising principles from Persuasive Advertising by J. Scott Armstrong were analyzed. Quasi-experimental findings always agreed with experimental findings. This is impressive given that the quasi-experimental analyses - and some of the experimental analyses - involved small samples, and often used different criteria. (712 kb)

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Journal of Advertising Research (June 2009)

Its Not Your Father's Magazine Ad - Magnitude and Direction of Recent Changes In Advertising Style

Examines how the style of magazine advertisements changed between 1969 and 2002, using ads included in the Which Ad Pulled Best? (WAPB) editions published over that period. Six aspects of ad style are examined. Using contemporaneous copy test data from the WAPB editions, they show that the style elements that became more common were those that had been more effective, and those that became less common were those elements that had proved less effective. Results suggest that during this period consumers increasingly approached magazine ads as pictures to be viewed and not as documents to be read. In response, magazine advertisers adapted by altering their stylistic and design choices to give more weight to pictorial elements and less weight to verbal elements. (2003 kb)

Journal of Advertising, Vol. 37, no. 3 (Fall 2008)

Engaging Emotions Through Effective Radio Ads - More About How Radio Works

Part Two of a study of how radio affects consumer emotions, conducted by Gallup & Robinson, from the ongoing series "Radio and the Consumer's Mind: How Radio Works." On average, radio ads have emotional impact on consumers that is equal to that of television ads. Strong beginnings make a difference. Words matter in radio ads. Words can be more powerful than pictures. Radio ads need effective advertiser branding. Time is valuable, it should be used well. The quality of radio ad creative matters. It pays to invest time creating good radio ad content to begin with, and whenever possible, it can pay to test the content in advance to make sure that consumers really are reacting as intended. The study also suggests that it can be useful to fine-tune radio ad creative so that it works in tandem with one of radio's greatest strengths - touching listeners at an emotional level. (508 kb)

Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab (June 2008)

Experiential Marketing: A Master of Engagement - Research on How Engaging Events Pay

The pressure on marketers to demonstrate the value of marketing continues unabated in today's business world. Successful CMOs need to be well versed in analytics, and introduce new techniques and metrics to demonstrate the value marketing represents to the company. In addition, they need to be able to fully integrate with sales and other functions of the organization. It is in this environment that the ARF study on B-to-C and B-to-B event, trade show, and sponsorship engagement emerged. (2990 kb)

Advertising Research Foundation, Event Consortium Study Findings (January 2008)

Engagement, Emotions, and the Power of Radio

This new Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab study, conducted by Gallup & Robinson, was designed to assess how well radio ads can generate emotional responses and engage with consumers, compared to television ads. It did so using advanced physiological methods that measure emotional responses in ways that don't require verbal responses. 16 different real ad campaigns within actual programming were evaluated. It was concluded that radio ads have emotional impact on consumers that is equal to that of television ads. (394 kb)

Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab (June 2007)

Engagement Measures of Brand Message

Addresses the concept of Engagement as a metric in communications research, currently receiving considerable attention and support within the marketing and research communities. Through a variety of well-considered and empirically-validated Engagement-related metrics, G&R delivers unique insight that enables clients to delve into the cognitive and emotional objectives on which advertisements or campaigns are based. (86 kb)

Advertising Research Foundation, Measures of Engagement, Vol. II (March 2007)

Reconsidering Recall and Emotion in Advertising

Recall, one of the key metrics in advertising testing, has been criticized over the years as favoring rational advertising over emotional advertising. An analysis and reconsideration of available evidence show that emotional advertising is not penalized by recall, and that emotional content in well-executed commercials can actually boost recall. Strong empirical evidence shows that recall, when used in combination with other measures, is a valid measure of advertising effectiveness and does not miss the emotion in advertising that builds brands. (659 kb)

Journal of Advertising Research JAR (March 2006)

Consumer Response to Print Prescription Drug Advertising

Direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising has grown significantly over the last few years into a variety of health conditions, even as the controversy around it continues. How do consumers feel about this advertising, who reads it, and what are the likely behavioral responses? This article attempts to answer these questions. (2,625 kb)

Journal of Advertising Research JAR (June 2003)

Advertising Effectiveness on the Interactive Television Guide: Lessons Learned

The interactive television guide is becoming an inherent component of the television viewing experience, and with it a new advertising platform emerges. This paper outlines the methodology and results of an advertising effectiveness research study program designed to understand and evaluate usage and effectiveness of the interactive display panel advertising appearing on the interactive program guide (IPG). (822kb)

Proceedings of the 2001 Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) Week of Workshops, Chicago, October, 2001.

Advertising Attitudes and Advertising Effectiveness

Print Advertising performance is influenced by consumers' attitudes toward advertising in general. This study discusses the implications of respondents with more favorable attitudes toward advertising. They recall higher number of ads and are more persuaded by them. (296 kb)

Journal of Advertising Research JAR (2000)

Celebrities in Advertising

Advertisers pay millions of dollars to celebrities, hoping that the the stars will bring their magic to the products and services they endorse and make them more appealing and successful. Are the dollars well spent? Not always. (1,334 kb)

Advertising Business, Edited by John P. Jones, CA: Sage Publications Inc., 1999.

Using Self Concept to Assess Advertising Effectiveness

Presents an analytic framework (Concept Convergence Analysis) for using psychological variable such as self-concept to better assess advertising effectiveness, with particular focus on image advertising. (589 kb)

Journal of Advertising Research JAR (1999)

Emotional Response to Television Commercials: Facial EMG vs. Self-Report

As television commercials increasingly contain emotional elements designed both to get the viewer's attention and to communicate the advertising message, copy pretesting is challenged to evaluate the potential effectiveness of these emotionally stimulating commercials and their success. The author illustrates the promise of facial EMG validated emotion measures in advertising research and copytesting. (375 kb)

Journal of Advertising Research JAR (1999)

The Use of Rhetorical Devices in Advertising

This paper reports on the effectiveness of advertisements that use rhetorical devices, artful deviations that put a twist on the familiar, and compares them to advertisements that do not. (317 kb)

Journal of Advertising Research JAR (1999)

Promoted or Demoted: How to Make Promotional Advertising Work Harder

An examination of how promotional ads in general and coupon ads in particular work. (675 kb)

Presented at the PROMO Magazine Conferences. (1996)

How Advertising Response Modeling (ARM) Can Increase Ad Effectiveness

Uses two case studies to show how Advertising Response Modeling (ARM) can help enhance understanding of the advertising messages that are processed, both centrally and peripherally. (675 kb)

Journal of Advertising Research JAR (May/June 1994)

When Attitudes Towards Advertising in General Influence Advertising Success

How general attitudes about advertising influence people's reaction's in individual advertisements and what implications this has for advertisers. (38 kb)

Presented at the Annual Conference of The American Academy of Advertising. (1995)

Point of View: Recall Revisited: Recall Redux

Day-After-Recall as a means of determining the sales effectiveness of television commercials is reviewed from the perspective of how it is measured during the 1990s as opposed to a decade earlier. Both applied and future research implications are discussed. (1449 kb)

Journal of Advertising Research JAR (1994)

Using Research to Develop a Better Message: What Matters Most

Demonstrates how solid research programs stretch advertising investments. Research improves the quality of advertising messages, the most important discretionary item we control for enhancing advertising effectiveness. (49 kb)

Presented at the ANA Business-to-Business Marketing Communications Conference. (1993)

Observations: What Drives Commercial Liking?

Results on the relationship of commercial liking with other accepted evaluative measures, including findings on what drives commercial liking as illustrated with a case-history example. (226 kb)

Journal of Advertising Research JAR (1992)

New Developments in TV Copy Testing Promise Better Measures

How TV copy testing has evolved with particular emphasis on recent improvements. (352 kb)

Quirk's Marketing Review (1992)

The Benefits of a Standardized Systems Approach to Copy Research

Discusses the major copy testing system used by Coca-Cola, in operation since the 1970's, developed to assess image advertising. It addresses recall/intrusiveness and persuasion by using one of the popular, standardized day-after-recall tests: Gallup & Robinson's In-View service.
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Third Annual Advertising Research Foundation Copy Research Workshop (1986)

Sales Effects of Print Ads

This study showed that exposure to just a single ad produced higher intent-to-purchase. Immediate advertising results were correlated with the degree of intensity of an ad's perception. (414 kb)

Journal of Advertising Research JAR (1971)