Evaluating Creatives*
 Concept Testing: Assessment of potential
Creatives
 Communication Research: A Look at the
Advertising Creative
 Copy Testing: Assessment of Creative
achievement
*
The word creative when used as a noun refers to an
actual advertisement
Types of Concept Tests
 New Product Concept Tests
 Generate concepts for multiple new product
possibilities and test the concepts to assess which
new product has the most potential for success
 Benefit Positioning Concept Tests
 Generate multiple concepts for one product to test
which concept has the most potential for generating
desired outcome, generally purchase intent
 Each concept will focus on a different benefit
(position)
 Example: concept test for a new PDA
 concept 1 focuses on ease of use
 concept 2 focuses on technical capability
Concept Testing
 A concept is similar to the actual ad, but
more succinct without a lot of selling and
posturing
 The concept states in clear terms the
selling premise, unique position or benefit
of the advertised product or service
 We test the concepts in order to determine
which of a set of concepts would be the
most useful in accomplishing our objective
 See pp. 506-507 to see the difference
between a concept and the corresponding
creative
General Outline for Performing
Concept Testing
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Generate Concepts
Generate Questionnaire
Administer the Test
Organize, analyze, interpret data
Concept Generation
 Concepts are typically presented on
8.5”X11” cardstock or board, and are
sometimes called “white card” tests
 Card contains:
 Headline
 Body copy
 Illustrations
White Card Headline
 This is NOT the same as an advertising headline
 A succinct summary of the main selling proposition or
product benefit
 Leads into the body copy
 Gives consumer a clear understanding of the ideas
that are to be presented in the body copy
 Use simple, single-minded declarative statements
 “The new GeoNET PDA integrates many wireless
technologies so you can do more when you travel.”
Concept Body Copy
 Be direct and clear, using short paragraphs
and active, declarative statements
 Do not use:
 Advertisingese; do not embellish
 Industry jargon that is unfamiliar to the
audience
 Overwritten or long concepts
 If new product concept, you should also
 Identify product category membership
 List all primary benefits
 Identify differentiating attributes
Concept Body Copy
The new GeoNET PDA integrates a wireless phone, GPS
receiver, and Blackberry wireless technology with
64MB of internal memory and coast to coast Web
access.
With all of these features in one convenient device,
working while traveling is easier than carrying
multiple devices to accomplish the same tasks.
The GeoNET PDA is available with either Palm OS or
Windows CE for even more flexibility
Suggested retail prices: $599 with black and white
display; $749 with 16-bit color display
Concept Generation Considerations
 Using Brand names is generally accepted as
concept perceptions are often impacted
greatly by brand name presence
 Pricing information should be present
 If not in the concept itself, integrate it into the
questionnaire
 Price does not need to be explicitly stated, but if
it is, it should accurately reflect the actual
expected price
 Illustrations and format between tested
concepts should be as identical as possible
Generate Questionnaire
 Demographic and brand usage questions
 Diagnostic questions pertaining to specific
characteristics of the concept
 Core questions
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Communication of the main idea
Believability of the main idea
Uniqueness of the main idea
Personal relevance of the main idea
Purchase Intent
Purchase frequency
Reasons for purchase intent and purchase
frequency
Concept Test Administration
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Target definition
Research methodology
Questionnaire construction
Concept exposure
Data analysis and interpretation
Data Organization, Analysis and
Interpretation
 Split sample by respondent characteristics
(quota groups) and assess differences
between concepts
 Split sample by concepts and assess
differences between quota groups
 Crosstabs on core questions by purchase
intent, brand usage, and communications
 Correlation matrix between believability,
uniqueness, and relevance
Group Practice Time
 Page 527, exercise #4
 Read through the description of the
study and purpose of the research
 The actual concept and a variety of
crosstabs are provided for you
 Answer the 4 questions on page 533
using the analysis provided
Communication Research
 After concept testing, we have identified
the concept, that is, the main idea that is to
be communicated in the advertisements
 Now we must develop the actual
communications, the ads, and determine if
we are communicating our ideas effectively
 Basic goal is to determine how consumers
react to the ad and why they are reacting
that way
General Outline for Communication
Research
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Create test ads
Specify Respondent Characteristics
Select Methodology
Generate Questionnaire
Analyze and Report findings
Creating the Test Ads
 Print ads should be created to the semi-comp stage,
meaning it is full size, with color and art in place and
scaled to size
 May not be exactly how ad will look in print, but
should be close
 Radio ads can be scratch tracks, meaning that all
aural elements are there, but recording may not be
professional quality yet
 TV ads may be storyboarded as long as the ad comes
across to the audience in the correct way
 May use animatics, photoboards, or photomatics if
needed to get across important visual cues
 In all cases, copy should be precise
Generate the Questionnaire
 Brand usage, demography, etc.
 Core questions to assess:
 Whether the respondent accurately processed
the information presented
 Respondent attitudes toward the
communication, i.e. the message was well
received
 Should probe cognitive and emotional
responses
 Respondent attitudes toward the ad itself
 Questions specific to the particular creative
Typical Format (page 540)
1. Spontaneous Initial Reactions (q1)
2. Essential Message and Brand Name
Communication (q2-3)
3. Specific Reactions to Message and Execution
(q4-9)
4. Spontaneous Likes and Dislikes (q10-14)
5. Execution and Message Diagnostics (q15-16)
6. Execution Specific Issues (q17-18)
Analysis and Interpretation of
Communication Research Data
 Typically standard tests (t-tests, chi-square
tests) are all that are needed to describe
the results
 Relationships between variables can be
interesting, but is more difficult and
requires some creativity on the part of the
researcher since no hypotheses are
developed for testing
 See pp. 546-554 for an example report
from a communication research study using
solely descriptive statistics
Analytical Practice
Page 560, Exercise #2
 In groups, decide what analyses you
would perform on the data to make
recommendations
 I will perform some of these analyses
for you
 Using the results, make the
appropriate recommendations