Howard, Merrell Works With AnswerStream in Industry Review of Copy Testing Research
RALEIGH, NC – JANUARY 2005 – Howard, Merrell & Partners, a full-service strategic communications firm, is partnering with AnswerStream, LLC, an independent market research company, in a revolutionary industry project on copy testing research. The Emotion in Advertising Project, sponsored by the Advertising Research Foundation and American Association of Advertising Agencies, with the support of the Association of National Advertisers, will determine if new findings in the area of brain science and recent developments in advertising theory can be leveraged to improve the research tools we use to develop and evaluate advertising.
The goal of this project is to develop an understanding of, and ways to measure, the emotional response to advertising, that will impact both copy development and copy testing. Because of emphasis on cognitive/rational measures, current copy testing techniques cause a regression to the mean, thereby reducing advertising effectiveness, that may be due to the industry’s adherence to a flawed model of how advertising works.
Tools that measure the "emotional response" to advertising are not in widespread use among advertisers and agencies. The accepted model of how advertising works does not account for higher order learning or emotional response.
“AnswerStream and Howard, Merrell have been working for several years to find new solutions to this problem,” explains Dr. Bruce F. Hall, who has joint appointments with AnswerStream, as CEO, and HM&P, as Partner and Research Director. “We are gratified that the ARF has turned to us as key participants in the project.”
Phase 1 of the project brought in five leading research companies, including AnswerStream, to test the same set of four famous, and highly effective, ads in the beer category. At a meeting in New York January 6, all five companies presented their results in a joint symposium. This symposium highlighted the diversity of methods and measures that have proliferated in the industry, illustrating vividly the dilemma many clients face in solving the difficult problem of measuring emotion in advertising.
“Although there were central themes that tied together all the approaches, AnswerStream clearly has a unique ability to capture the unconscious, emotional reactions consumers experience when they watch a powerful ad like Budweiser’s ‘Whassup’”, said Hall. Some of the other participating companies were also able to add color and dimension to the fundamental reactions, which helped complete the picture.
Phase 2 of the project will assign three individual categories, with associated representative television ads, to each of the five participating companies for evaluation. The results from Phase 2 will be presented at the ARF Annual Convention and Trade Show April 17-19 in New York.
About AnswerStream, LLC
AnswerStream, LLC, was formed by Dr. Bruce Hall, a thought leader in the theory of advertising, to address one of the most vexing questions in marketing—how do you evaluate the intangible value of creative materials? AnswerStream acquired its first client, a leading producer of long-form direct-response advertising, in December of 2003.
Howard, Merrell & Partners, Inc., headquartered in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina, is a pioneer in understanding and applying the power of emotions in business and communications strategies. Using Neurodynamic Modeling and deep consumer insight, it creates communications that yield superior levels of financial performance. Recent clients have included Kimberly-Clark, Sappi Fine Paper, Fujitsu, Coors Brewing, BB&T, SAS Institute, MED-EL, Canvas on Demand, Baseball Factory, and MacGregor Golf.
The agency’s work has been recognized in numerous awards competitions, including the Effies, the New York Art Directors Show, The One Show, Print, MPA/Kelly Awards, and the Communication Arts Annual. For more information, visit www.merrellgroup.com.
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