Using Ad Tracking to the maximum

Sue BurdenManaging Director

Diagnostic Research UK

February 2004

aka Ad Tracking Keep Fit Plan

Is your Ad Tracking

a lumbering giant

or a nimble gazelle?

Ad Tracking Keep Fit Plan

• Set goals• Demand more• Measure progress• Constantly challenge• Slim down• Meet new people!

Set goals

• The ad tracking study will:– make xx significant and measurable

contributions to improve the brand’s communications value

– contribute consumer insight to all parts of consumer activity

– be an indispensable tool for the creative team– be an indispensable tool for the media team

• Show these at the start of every ad tracking meeting!

Demand more

…and you will get more

Demand more

• Ad Tracking should be able to contribute way beyondway beyond creative and media decisions

• Ask the research agency to provide action-oriented presentationsaction-oriented presentations answering specific questions relevant to the brand rather than standard reports

Demand more

• Briefings for new campaignsBriefings for new campaigns – what are the 6 key learnings from the last campaign?

• Strategic decisionsStrategic decisions – who are our main competitors in terms of consumer share of mind?

• What is the competition’s ad strategycompetition’s ad strategy and what would be their next move?

Demand more

• How could we optimise the target optimise the target audience definitionaudience definition? Should we go broader or narrower?

• How do our consumers segment? Many ad trackers have sufficient variables to be used as the base for a segmentation segmentation studystudy.

• Keep a flexible “brand omnibusbrand omnibus” section to ask last-minute key questions.

Demand more

• What does it tell us about our PRPR?

• How do our consumers express consumers express themselves about the brandthemselves about the brand? What kind of language do they use?

• Always have a re-contact questionre-contact question so ad tracking respondents could be recruited / diverted to other / follow-up studies

Demand more

…all this and more…..get Ad Tracking

out of its box!!out of its box!!

Your research agency will relish the challenge!Include these expectations in your next brief for a new ad tracking study / review with your current supplier.

Measure progress

• Regularly calculate the money savedcalculate the money saved by decisions taken based on tracking findings. Publish the results.

• Compare savings to the cost of the study….incentiviseincentivise the research agency

Measure progress

• Communicate previous usesprevious uses of your study at the beginning of presentations.

• Survey ad tracking users on its perceived usefulness.perceived usefulness.

Constantly challenge

• If it’s not used, chop it off! Regularly review the questionnaire and MINIMISEMINIMISE

• Every question needs to earn its placeearn its place

• Not every question is needed all the time – rotate and save money!rotate and save money!

Slim down

• Insist on one-page summaries

Meet new people

• Ad Agency creatives should be a key audience for creatives – how their ads performed.

• Sadly, this is often not the case – Creative teams’ views on ad research– Interviews with 6 ad agency creatives who are

frequently involved in advertising research; September 2002, London

Ad Tracking – terra incognita for creative teams

“I’m not involved in tracking research – I don’t hear about it unless it’s very good news”

“I only occasionally attend a tracking debrief”

“Tracking is ‘box-ticking’ – the worst side of research”

“The tracking people always comment on the level of branding – client-pleasing trick!”

Ad Tracking – terra incognita for creative teams

In other industries, quantitative consumer feedback is carefully studied by the designers, who search for ways to improve their design

Are creatives invited to tracking debriefs? (I know from first-hand experience that this can work well!)

Tracking companies should also reach out specifically to creatives (as they do for media)

run training in how to interpret results create special results summaries for them

Meet new people

• Financial DirectorsFinancial Directors should be interested in the results of one of their company’s biggest investments.

• Ask them to comment on the findings – are they presented in a way relevant to them – is every aspect covered?

Meet new people

• Relate Ad Tracking to other KPIsother KPIs – eg brand sales, share and growth – put them all on the same chart

• Ensure other researchersother researchers working on the brand see the ad tracking results.

• Do some modellingmodelling!

Ad Tracking Keep Fit Plan

• Set goals• Demand more• Measure progress• Constantly challenge• Slim down• Meet new people!

Your research agency will relish the challenge!