The business of proving advertising effectiveness
08 Mar 2007
Are business content providers able to tell whether their advertising messages are understood by decision makers and what effect campaigns have on overall brand perception? If not, then why not? Business publishers need to measure the effectiveness of their advertising, because their competitors are one step ahead of the game…
Advertising works. PPA B+P knows it and is determined to prove its media effectiveness, help members discover who their advertising reaches and how successful their brands are. A successful project run by Reed Business Insight (the market research strand of Reed Business Information) called ‘The Colouring Book’ was presented to PPA B+P. Forces have been joined to develop new PPA B+P research for the benefit of all members in the magazine and business information sector.The ongoing programme of media effectiveness has identified several campaigns in relation to brand awareness, new launches and changing brand perception – the results of which will be incorporated into a new PPA B+P research publication. The first case study to receive ‘The Colouring Book’ treatment is Rotana Hotels. Advertising in the business publication Travel Weekly, Rotana is a hotel management company operating in the Middle East. In order to raise awareness of hotel expansion developments, Rotana placed an advertising campaign in Travel Weekly magazines during October and November 2006.
The objectives of the project included measuring spontaneous and prompted awareness of Rotana, and determining readers’ association of the Rotana brand as a hotel chain in the Middle East. In order to provide a robust sample for the study, the research took the form of a quantitative online survey conducted amongst 100 travel decision makers. The research took the form of two stages: Stage I was conducted in October 2006 (immediately following the first advertisement of the campaign), and stage II was conducted in November 2006 (immediately following the last advertisement of the campaign). Respondents were selected at random from the Travel Weekly reader database and were emailed a copy of the questionnaire. Data processing of the results took place during early January 2007.
In summary, Rotana were found to be the sixth highest brand in terms of awareness for around three fifths of the sample. Awareness of the Rotana brand increased by 14 per cent over the campaign period – the highest out of all hotel brands in the study. Almost half of respondents (48 per cent) were familiar with the Rotana brand, with seven per cent being very familiar with the brand. Over a third of respondents (spontaneously) correctly understood the message of the advertisement, and both ads at stage II of the research were rated as good overall.
Daniel Hajjar, corporate vice president of sales and marketing for Rotana Hotels said: “There is nothing more important for any company and specifically a marketer to know the outcome and feedback from any campaign. The findings of the ads that we placed in Travel Weekly were of extreme value to Rotana Hotels and provided us with the levels of brand awareness, of advertising recall, an insight and perception of the ad and the messages communicated.”
PPA and Reed Business Insight are currently working together to produce further research for campaigns in areas such as finance, electronics, property and aerospace. This project will continue throughout 2007 and will be fully funded by PPA, therefore generating no cost to the advertiser or publisher. Results will be shared with clients, providing information on advertising recall and changes in brand awareness for specific advertising campaigns over a period of time. If you have a campaign suitable for this research please contact Amy Duffin with your objectives.
Details from tina.hart@ppa.co.uk at PPA on 020 7400 7524.