• by Kate Kaye , April 13, 2004

Cross-media marketing research firm Dynamic Logic has augmented its AdIndex suite with an online sponsorship measurement product. The new AdIndex Sponsorship offering is tailored to gauge the effect of online sponsorships that link brands to things like Web sweepstakes and events, interactive games, branded microsites, and editorial content.

In order to measure online sponsorship effectiveness, Dynamic Logic uses the same control/expose methodology used for other AdIndex studies. For control groups, says Jeff Landi, client development manager at Dynamic Logic and AdIndex Sponsorship product leader, "our technology allows us to intercept people before they enter the sponsored area."

CondéNet, online publisher of lifestyle sites such as Epicurious.com and Style.com, is currently using AdIndex Sponsorship to evaluate an advertiser-branded microsite. CondéNet did not respond to calls from the MediaDailyNews by press time.

While all surveys feature standard metric questions involving brand awareness and favorability, purchase intent, and message association, the sponsorship studies include inquiries regarding experience with the sponsored content and whether it is a good fit with the brand. Users for both control and expose groups are recruited simultaneously from the same Web site area. Studies can last from three days to eight weeks depending on the nature of the sponsorship; a typical study measures 500 control group respondents and 500 expose group respondents.

The product was developed in response to advertiser and agency clients in a variety of markets--including Consumer Package Goods, Pharmaceuticals, Technology and Automotive--that have shown interest in measuring Web sponsorships. AdIndex Sponsorship isolates online sponsorship measurement, but can be integrated to evaluate more traditional Web media campaign components against the efficacy of a specific sponsorship, according to Landi. Offline activity that drives people to the online sponsorship may be picked up through the survey; however, Landi adds, "Cross-media would be a different animal. It always is."

"A sponsorship is a unique marketing effort in that it gives an advertiser who might not be thought of as having a relationship with a particular product that extra connection," said Christina Goodman, marketing manager, Dynamic Logic.