• by Larry Dobrow , July 2, 2003

A consortium of magazines advocating the Involvement Index have released a report that claims print magazines can potentially outperform TV in the category of unaided brand recall.

The Involvement Index was developed by Reader's Digest using MRI data to create a new index that, in her words, would allow planners to assess magazine strength based on reader connection. That MRI data used to quantify the index was average time spent with the publication, "one of my favorites" and "read four out of four issues." The index has been used to compare magazines to magazines, but the newest study takes the Involvement numbers to a new level.

The study was conducted using a six-month sample from publication involved in the Involvement Alliance as well as other major publications. Reader's Digest teamed up with Better Homes and Gardens, National Geographic, People and TV Guide. Respondents were asked to recall fives ads per issue in four different ways - unaided, aided with a brand list, aided with a written description and aided with a visual.

All measures analyzed from all magazines added up to a 15.4% unaided ad recall. "Although there are very few points of comparison known," says the study, "15.4 compares very favorably to the 12% that Steward and Fuse reported (after modeling the effect of ad executional elements on ad recall and persuasion."

The results were most impressive on the category of totally unaided recall. For the readers who read all four issues of a magazine, 5.2% had unaided recall for the ads they were asked about. That number dropped slightly for readers who read for more than 31 minutes to 2.9% and for those who said the magazine was "one of my favorites" it posted a 2.3% recall rate.

According to the Alliance conclusion: "The number one challenge for marketers is connecting with consumers and getting their attention. Although clearly this needs to be addressed on many fronts.... this research validates the connection between increased reader involvement - in the form of the optimized Involvement Index - and increased advertising effectiveness."