• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, December 8, 2010

-Men are just as important as women when targeting holiday ads. (Half the population, after all.) Women have higher baseline awareness of retailers and  likelihood to visit, but men's ability to associate a brand's message with its advertising after exposure increases more than women's.

-While rich media helps achieve ad awareness, its ability to persuade retail store or site visitation isn'tt significantly different from static ads.

-Retail "intent to visit" does not vary much as frequency increases. The benefit of a high number of ad exposures is in awareness, not store or site visits. If visits are the objective and budget is a concern, consider static images instead rich media and less frequency.

-Celebrities and rich media help improve brand favorability for retailers. A celebrity or child in an ad can generate a 3.0 point increase in favorability. Just don't tap the Kardashians to hawk a prepaid debit card.