Testing Advertising Perceptions

One of London’s leading independent direct, digital social agencies, who produce integrated and below the line campaigns for prominent brands across a range of sectors, commissioned TLF to conduct a tailored piece of research on advertising perceptions.

The agency were keen to understand public perceptions of a proposed Direct Response TV campaign for a leading vehicle finance company. They had a specific target audience and needed to obtain opinions from this target audience about the appeal of alternative TV advertising campaigns.

Working with the TLF panel, target demographics and consumer profiles were produced, to ensure that the ads were tested on exactly the right market segment. The quotas were based on age, gender, geography, socio-economic grouping and propensity to use car finance. Using the TLF Panel, 900 people who matched the target profile were recruited as a sample.

The agency had produced 3 different TV advertisements, and wanted to see which advert people preferred, and why. The total sample was split into 3 groups and each group was invited to watch a different proposed TV advert.

The agency produced storyboard films with voiceovers and music accompaniment. These films were then hosted on the TLF Panel website and each sample group was invited to watch the storyboard twice, then answer questions about the advert and provide opinions on it.

Questions were based around likelihood to distract, likelihood to remember, word association, how the advert made people feel, which bits of the advert did people like / dislike and what attributes they felt the advert had. As each sample group only watched one advert, this meant they weren’t swayed by the other adverts and results weren’t influenced by people making comparisons with the other storyboards.

The results of the research identified a clear ‘favourite’ advert and provided explanations into why people preferred the winning ad rather than the two less popular ones. It also provided useful initial insight to the agency’s client, as feedback highlighted how people perceived the company based on the content they had viewed.

The research results were presented to their client to support their creative recommendation, and to forecast consumer reactions to the proposed campaign. The research also informed further refinement of the creative content to maximise its impact.

If this is something that you feel would benefit you, please get in touch at tom@tlfpanel.com, we’d be happy to create a similar piece of research bespoke to your advertising requirements.

We will also shortly be launching a cost-effective ad tracker package, so keep your eyes peeled on www.tlfpanel.com for more info!