The Out-of-home Marketing Association of Canada (OMAC) has partnered with Toronto research firm BrandSpark to introduce a new creative testing and optimization tool called AdSpark.
The fee-based service gives out-of-home advertisers access to BrandSpark’s online shopper panel – which is comprised of more than 100,000 Canadians – in order to determine the overall effectiveness of their creative and identify specific elements within ads that resonate with consumers.
In development for 10 months, AdSpark enables clients to check an ad’s effectiveness against a specific target audience, and offers a creative impact scorecard (based on a sample of 100 people) as part of its standard $2,500 offer. A $3,500 service tier adds creative hotspot/message optimization analysis, while the $4,500 tier adds zoned element analysis and a larger sample size of 200.
AdSpark uses a real-life simulation of between one and three seconds of exposure for outdoor ads and 10 seconds for indoor ads to measure the attention value of specific creative. Clients receive an analysis report within two or three weeks of the study’s completion.
“Our goal is to work with advertisers to make them feel comfortable with the out-of-home medium, and we saw [creative testing] as a missing element in the industry,” said OMAC president Rosanne Caron. “Some of our industry counterparts in other countries have developed creative testing tools…and we recognize it as an area where we can provide guidance.”
BrandSpark’s expertise in creative testing and package design testing – as well some testing of out-of-home creative for individual clients – made it a good fit with OMAC’s objectives to create a testing tool, said Caron.
The tool had its origins in a meeting with one of OMAC’s marketer advisory councils about 18 months ago. The council suggested that creative testing would help the industry evolve and possible garner a greater share of ad dollars.
As part of its ongoing efforts to convince marketers of the merits of out-of-home, OMAC last year introduced a series of creative guidelines that marketers could use to help direct their agency partners.
The industry association conducted two pilot studies around AdSpark that provide an overview of the type of market intelligence that clients can expect to receive from the service.
One study involved an established brand in the frozen food category that was seeking to drive awareness of a new line of seafood pizzas, with a focus on appetite appeal.
The research found that while the creative message met established brand fit and purchase benchmarks, it underperformed against benchmarks in the likeability, relevance and brand favourability benchmarks, with research suggesting that the niche nature of seafood products in combination with pizza likely affected the results.
The research also showed various degrees of effectiveness between certain demographic groups, with higher relevance to women and 18-34 year olds and greater purchase intent among adults 50+. The studies also provided insight on specific design elements.
Respondents also questioned the appearance of a fork, knife and a napkin in the ad. While they were intended to convey quality, many respondents said they didn’t relate to them since pizza is not typically eaten with cutlery.
OMAC will promote the AdSpark service in industry presentations, said Caron. “It’s a good tool to give marketers the confidence in their communication before they go ahead and run it,” she said.
