A Loyal Reader Asks:
“What do you think of ‘pre-testing’ radio commercials, to see if they really work before launching the campaign — which long has been standard for national television ads?”
I’m all for it — depending upon the test design.
It’s true that testing is very common for big budget TV campaigns.
It’s also true that many “pre-tested” TV ads don’t work, either. But that’s due to poor testing that allowed bad ads to get through.
If radio commercial pretesting is designed by academics who know nothing about advertising or by advertising professionals who know nothing about testing, they’ll probably do something silly like test for “recall” or “likability.”
(There’s one academic out there who tests for…Well, I’ll save that for a future article.)
Testing for “likability” is very popular among People Who Like To Write About Advertising But Can’t Create It Themselves.
Who cares whether people say they like a commercial or not? There are plenty of successful commercials consumers say they dislike.
(You can think of at least one campaign that you dislike but which you know worked.)
And there are plenty of campaigns that consumers loved but which lost money for the advertisers.
“Did you like it?” is a foolish question.
“Did/does it motivate you to act on the sales message?” — to make the purchase, to go to the website and take the specific action, to pick up the phone and request the free information, etc. — ultimately is the only question worth asking.
But what about “recall”?
1. Recalling a commercial that does not motivate you to buy doesn’t put a penny in the pocket of the advertiser.
2. One of Radio’s great strengths is Frequency. Even a weak message can score well in “Recall” with a heavy advertising schedule.
But the typical test design has a number of people listen to one or more radio commercials — just once per commercial — and then later tests for recall.
In no way does that mirror the real world of radio listening.
If I wanted to score well in such a test, I’d definitely load up the spot with outrageous humor, shocking language, and/or a wacky character.
That’s the kind of commercial that scores well in a single-exposure test for “recall.”
But that’s not the real world.
If I were asked to help design a standardized radio commercial “pre-test,” here’s the single most important element it would test for:
“What is the one message — above any and all others — that you get from that commercial?”
In other words, I’d test for the efficacy of what I call the “Core Message” — the one thing you want the targeted consumer to hear, to understand, and to remember.
Sure, there are other things I’d test for.
But singe Core Message is the biggie.
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I’d put one of the test messages in a typical 2+ minute spot cluster, then ask the respondent questions about what product he would consider buying in that product category – and why. Not only would it bring out the recall of the results offered by the product, but how it stacks up against other competitors in the respondent’s mind.
@Jim: Sounds logical, but ad agencies would love that kind of a test. What it lacks are controls:
– What products what they have named without having heard that commercial at that moment?
– What would the results have been if they heard a different product’s name?
– What is the “control” commercial against which they are testing? If an increase in Top of Mind awareness follows the test airing of the commercial, how do you know determine if it’s because of the message itself or simply of the inclusion of any commercial for the product (regardless of how weak the commercial)?
– What would the test results show one week later, when any temporary effects might have worn off in the consumer’s mind?
This reminds me of a recent trip to visit my wife’s family out of state. I was talking with my sister-in-law, and she mentioned how much she liked those “Caveman” commercials. She even remembered the slogan, “So easy a caveman can do it.” But…she had NO IDEA which company or product was being advertised. Based on her feedback, those spots would’ve scored very well on “likability” and “recall.” Effective? Not so much (obviously the targeted consumer won’t be motivated to purchase the product if they can’t identify the product).