Magazine Advertisers Given Chance To Test Creative Work
Advertisers will now have the chance to test their magazine creative work with the launch of IPC Advertising’s first major online creative testing facility for magazine advertisers in the UK.
IPC Advertising will be working with Hamburg-based MediaAnalyser, who specialise in creative ways to manage and improve the quality of visual communications.
The facility will offer advertisers a database of IPC’s readers to test their creative magazine work on. The service allows clients to assess the impact of their magazine advertising by analysing how selected readers consume the ads.
The ads are provided to readers online in their own homes. As well as asking the readers a series of questions about the ads, the process also generates an eye-tracking movie, which pinpoints exactly where on the ad the viewers have focused their attention.
The eye-tracking movie is generated by recording the on-screen position of the viewer’s mouse for the period of time that they view the advert. Individual pinpoint maps of each viewer are available or these can be aggregated to produce a hot-spots style video.
The results allow advertisers to understand how their existing creative is being read, and where necessary to improve it to better communicate with readers.
Creative testing, while common in broadcast advertising, is new to mainstream UK consumer magazines. Yoplait Dairy Crest is the first advertiser to sign up to the service.
YDC brand development manager, Sarah Russell, said: “When IPC first approached us with this, via our media agency John Ayling & Associates, we realised it was a new, quick and cost efficient way to gauge what real readers think of real adverts.
“The findings really demonstrated to us just how communicative our adverts are, as well as where we can improve that communication.”
IPC marketing and strategy manager, James Papworth, added: “This new system is a revelation in ease of use and the cost efficiency of testing creative work before a large media investment.
“Discovering which elements of an advert actually draw and hold attention has always been a tough question to answer. Now we have the video evidence.”
IPC Media: 0870 4445000 www.ipcmedia.com