Intermedia Advertising Group (IAG) has launched an ad effectiveness system, which measures the performance of all primetime advertising on the major broadcast networks.
According to company
officials, IAG's system measures the performance of ads at the time of broadcast on a daily basis addressing two of the most significant challenges facing advertisers today - declining attentiveness
and increased demand for accountability.
The IAG system is being developed with the world's biggest consumer brands, including Tricon (KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell), Unilever and Coca-Cola. IAG says
that using their data, advertisers and agencies can pinpoint ad "wear-out" (the point at which an ad loses its effectiveness), understand how different ad creative works on individual programs and
with specific demographic groups, target their ads toward the most effective shows and time slots, while their campaigns are still in progress.
IAG collects data from a base of consumers who "play"
interactive trivia games about the TV shows they watch on a separately branded entertainment website called RewardTV. These questions, written in the style and spirit of the show, test consumers'
recall of both program and advertising content on network programming (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, WB, UPN).
Currently, advertisers use a variety of copy testing and post-advertising survey methods, none
of which actually measure the effect of the ads as actual viewers see them. IAG hopes that by using their data, companies will be able to customize their creative messages, as well as media planning
and buying to achieve greater recall and message understanding by television viewers, which in turn should result in more sales.
-- Adam Bernard