3.2
Tools and measurement
Brand monitoring & campaign impact measurement
Brand monitoring and campaign impact measurement are essential components of marketing and advertising strategies. They help businesses assess the effectiveness of their marketing efforts.
“If you don’t invest 5% of your marketing budget in research, you don’t know what you’re doing”
- Mark Ritson2
According to world leading marketing expert Mark Ritson, brands should invest 5% of their marketing budget in research, to guarantee that the remaining 95% of the budget is invested properly. Both brand measurement and campaign impact measurement rely on data collection, analytics and performance tracking to make data-driven decisions. Measurement is possible through various methods. We will focus on campaign post-testing and brand tracking/monitoring.
Ad Impact Model: inhouse expertise for 27 years
DPG Media Advertising started post-testing the campaigns on its channels 27 years ago. In 2023, up to 8 campaigns are tested every single week, with a quantitative questionnaire among a sample of 300 respondents aged 18-54. The standardised questionnaire is flexible enough to adapt to the specific goals of the advertiser. The questionnaire consists of three main parts and includes the common post-test metrics:
1.
Ad impact: assesses how well the audience remembers the specific campaign (recall) and how well it is linked to the correct brand (attribution). Recall and attribution are the first essential steps required to create impact for a brand, regardless of the brand's objectives.
2.
Creative evaluation: determines whether the ad is appreciated by the audience with multiple KPIs: emotional response, rational evaluation of the ad message, etc. The creative evaluation forms an important declarative variable for the level of ad impact.
3.
Brand impact: measures the impact of the campaign on traditional brand funnel KPIs like brand awareness, brand perception and purchase intent.
A recent two-layered meta-analysis by DPG Media Advertising has identified the determining drivers of the impact of video campaigns. With these insights, advertisers can optimise the effect of their campaigns. As mentioned, creating ad impact is the prerequisite to brands growing with advertising. In the first part of the meta-analysis the Ad Impact Model (AIM) is developed. In 2016, DPG Media Advertising proved that the creation of a spot is the number one contributor of ad impact. New data confirm these results and clearly indicate which 4 drivers are decisive and to what extent.
DPG Media Ad Impact Model 2023
Creativity
Creativity is the decisive factor for impact. 65% of the impact of a campaign is determined by creative factors. Creative advertising not only has the power to make a brand stand out, but it also enables clearer distinction from competitors. The way in which your brand is presented, the right balance between distinctiveness and differentiation are key factors. Differentiation entails highlighting product features that distinguish a brand in the eyes of the customer (USPs). Distinctiveness has everything to do with making a brand easily recognisable. Distinctive Brand Assets (DBAs: a typical colour, jingle, logo or recurring characters) contribute to this. Even now, after many years, the importance of both differentiation and distinctiveness, as well as the creative balance between them, is still subject to discussion among marketeers at the highest level (eg. Mark Ritson, Ehrenberg-Bass). To make your distinctiveness and differentiation memorable, trigger the consumer with affective messaging. Humour is a powerful tool that helps you trigger an emotional response.
Media planning
A second element that advertisers have control over to generate impact is, to a lesser extent, media planning. Focusing on reach and repetition is crucial. This may seem obvious but was also confirmed in the AIM in which 3+ reach3 is the most determining planning variable. The length of the ad is also a key driver for impact: the longer the ad, the greater the chance that it will leave a lasting impression on the consumer.
3 The number or percentage of people reached who were exposed to the message at least three times
Brand awareness
Brand awareness, the extent to which a brand is known among the target audience, contributes to the impact of a campaign and increases the chances of success by up to 15%. Brands that have been advertising and investing in their brand for years have a clear advantage. This factor is directly related to the extent to which a brand has built up distinctiveness with DBAs over time.
Brand attitude
Another new element that we wanted to add to the model is the attitude of a consumer towards a brand, the so-called brand attitude. This concerns both brand image and a concrete preference for a brand. Just like brand awareness, the broader associations a consumer makes with a brand help increase its recognisability and distinctiveness.
What drives brand impact
In other words, for the communication strategy of a brand there are two elements that a brand has control over: the creation of the campaign and the media planning behind it. Those elements should of course be tailored to the campaign objective. What drives brand impact was the focus in the second layer of the meta-analysis. When it comes to brand impact, there are four distinct goals: brand awareness, consideration, brand preference and activation. Each of these objectives has specific guiding principles for ad creation and media planning.
Creativity
Creativity is the decisive factor for impact. 65% of the impact of a campaign is determined by creative factors. Creative advertising not only has the power to make a brand stand out, but it also enables clearer distinction from competitors. The way in which your brand is presented, the right balance between distinctiveness and differentiation are key factors. Differentiation entails highlighting product features that distinguish a brand in the eyes of the customer (USPs). Distinctiveness has everything to do with making a brand easily recognisable. Distinctive Brand Assets (DBAs: a typical colour, jingle, logo or recurring characters) contribute to this. Even now, after many years, the importance of both differentiation and distinctiveness, as well as the creative balance between them, is still subject to discussion among marketeers at the highest level (eg. Mark Ritson, Ehrenberg-Bass). To make your distinctiveness and differentiation memorable, trigger the consumer with affective messaging. Humour is a powerful tool that helps you trigger an emotional response.
Media planning
A second element that advertisers have control over to generate impact is, to a lesser extent, media planning. Focusing on reach and repetition is crucial. This may seem obvious but was also confirmed in the AIM in which 3+ reach3 is the most determining planning variable. The length of the ad is also a key driver for impact: the longer the ad, the greater the chance that it will leave a lasting impression on the consumer.
3 The number or percentage of people reached who were exposed to the message at least three times
Brand awareness
Brand awareness, the extent to which a brand is known among the target audience, contributes to the impact of a campaign and increases the chances of success by up to 15%. Brands that have been advertising and investing in their brand for years have a clear advantage. This factor is directly related to the extent to which a brand has built up distinctiveness with DBAs over time.
Brand attitude
Another new element that we wanted to add to the model is the attitude of a consumer towards a brand, the so-called brand attitude. This concerns both brand image and a concrete preference for a brand. Just like brand awareness, the broader associations a consumer makes with a brand help increase its recognisability and distinctiveness.
What drives brand impact
In other words, for the communication strategy of a brand there are two elements that a brand has control over: the creation of the campaign and the media planning behind it. Those elements should of course be tailored to the campaign objective. What drives brand impact was the focus in the second layer of the meta-analysis. When it comes to brand impact, there are four distinct goals: brand awareness, consideration, brand preference and activation. Each of these objectives has specific guiding principles for ad creation and media planning.
Overall, above guidelines can be simplified and summarised as follows:
1.
Consistency is key: frequent repetition over a long period of time with a similar ad concept makes things easier.
2.
Regardless of the objective, distinctiveness is always more dominant than differentiation. You must stand out as a brand and be easily identifiable by the consumer. Nevertheless, the lower you are in the marketing funnel, the more important USPs (differentiation) become.
3.
A positive emotional response does the trick: creating positive emotions (and avoiding negative ones) is the key to stimulating consideration, preference and activating the consumer.
4.
The lower in the funnel your objective is, the more decisive the creative elements (affective messaging, distinctiveness, etc.) are for achieving it. An on-point creative strategy is a decisive factor in generating lower funnel impact through video advertising.
Campaign post-testing
A post-test is a method used by advertisers to evaluate the performance of a specific advertising campaign after it has been launched and exposed to the target audience. The primary goal of post-testing is to measure the campaign's effectiveness in achieving its objectives, such as increasing brand awareness, driving sales or changing consumer attitudes. And while business metrics show the true effectiveness of the campaign, traditional tracking metrics can be intermediate indicators of success.
Brand tracking / monitoring
A brand tracker is a systematic and ongoing research tool used by businesses to monitor and evaluate the performance and perception of their brand over time. It provides valuable insights into how a brand is perceived by its target audience and how it compares to competitors. A brand tracker often includes a set of KPIs that are relevant to the brand's goals and industry. These might include brand awareness, brand recall, brand preference, customer satisfaction and Net Promoter Score (NPS).