Evaluation of advertising. analyzing the creative content of advertising

analyzing the creative content of advertising and the evaluation of advertising.

1. ANALYZING CREATIVE CONTENT ADVERTISING EVALUATION BY Zarmeen Durrani

2. Analyzing the content For a media organization, the main purpose of content analysis is to evaluate and improve its programming. Two main ways of content analysis for advertising Rhetorical analysis Semiotic analysis

3. Rhetoric analysis Rhetorical criticism  analyzes the symbolic artifacts of discourse, the words, phrases, images, gestures, performances, texts, films, etc. that people use to communicate. Rhetorical analysis shows how the artifacts work, how well they work, and how the artifacts, inform and instruct, entertain, and convince and persuade the audience; as such, discourse includes the possibility of morally improving the reader, the viewer, and the listener.

4. What is the ad doing to its audience? What is the purpose of ad? How it is convincing the audience?

5. Semiotic analysis  Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols. Advertisements have many hidden signs and meanings in it for example brand name, logo, package design, color, punch line and trade mark etc. The objective of semiotics is to learn and interpret the message which is conveyed in advertisements. The different elements of advertisements can be interpreted at two levels. outside level second is original level.

6. The outside level uses signs creatively to create an image or character for the product. These signs can be images, words, fonts, colors and slogan. The original level is made up of different unseen meanings. The arrangement of images, words, colors, and slogan must be interpreted by the audience or consumer. Semiotic analysis  is therefore, perhaps the basic building block in constructing ideologies. The key to content analysis is the process of understanding the signifier and the signified in the advertisement.

7. Code Analysis The concept of the code is very important in semiotics. Codes are very important in advertising communication as a code is an established meaning across the society. For example “ Dood si safeedi nirma se aaye ”. It informs that milk is a symbol of ultimate whitening and this meaning is same in all cultures. So there is zero probability of its misinterpretation.

8. Visual Analysis The visual analysis of the advertisements is the analysis of the elements of the advertisements like- sign, symbol and image etc. Visual analysis helps us to find out how visuals communicate and which element of advertisement is more communicative. Image Analysis This approach seeks to break down the elements of a given image and to find out now the meaning in the image is constructed into it. In fact, there is often more meanings in the image than there seemed to be at first.

9. ADVERTISING EVALUATION It is an attempt to measure whether the time, talents and the treasure invested in the creative activity has resulted in attaining the goal of profit maximization to the advertiser and the maximization of satisfaction to the consumers

10. EVALUATION TESTS Pre testing Concurrent testing Post testing

11. PRE TESTING Pre testing follow the universal law ‘’Prevention is better than cure’’ Pre testing help the advertiser to make a final go or go decision about finished or nearly finished advertisement

12. METHODS FOR PRE-TESTING ADVERTISING Print advertising Direct questioning: respondents are asked about specific questions about the. Focus group: 8-10 people participate in discussion & interview . Role of moderator is crucial. Portfolio test: one group of respondents is exposed to a portfolio of test ads interspersed among other ads & editorial matter. Another group sees the portfolio without editorial matter. Order of merit test: respondents see two or more alternate ads & arrange them in rank order .

13. Paired comparison test: respondents compare each ad in a group . Mock magazine test: ads to be tested are stripped into a magazine which is left with respondents for a specified time. Direct mail test: two or more ads are mailed to different potential customers on a mailing list to test which ad attracts more orders .

14. Television and radio advertising Central location test: respondents see test commercial film in a central location such as shopping centre. Clutter test: test commercials along with non competing control commercials are shown to respondents to determine their effectiveness, measure comprehension & attitude shifts & detect weak points. Trailer test: respondents see or listen to commercials in trailers at shopping centers & receive coupons for the advertised products .

15.   Theatre test: respondents use electronic equipment to indicate what they like or dislike as they view TV commercials shown in theatre setting . Live telecast test: test commercials are shown on closed circuit or cable TV & subsequently respondents are interviewed by telephone. Sales experiment: alternative radio or TV commercials run in two or more markets .

16. CONCURRENT TESTING Concurrent test is evaluated throughout the whole advertisement execution process. Test are conducted while audience is exposed to different type of media

17. Consumer Diaries Diaries are provided to a selected customers. They are also informed to record the details of advertisement they watch, listen or read. The result obtained from such a survey reveals the effectiveness of advertisement

18. Electronic devices Now a days electronic devices are widely used to measure the effectiveness of advertisement. They are mainly used in broadcast media. These are auto meters track electronic units etc

19. Co-incidental surveys Calls are made during the time program broadcast, the respondents are asked whether their radio or television is on, and if so, to what station or program it is tuned? The results of the survey are used to determine the share of response for the advertisement or the program.

20. PRO TESTING Post testing is done to know to what extent the advertising objectives are achieved Five broad categories of post testing methods: Aided recall (recognition-readership ) Unaided recall Attitude tests Inquiry tests Sales tests

21. Recall refers to a measure of proportion of a sample audience that can recall an ad as having seen . In aided recall respondents are shown certain ads with the name of the sponsor or brand concealed & then asked whether their previous exposure was through reading, viewing or listening . In unaided recall respondents are asked without prompt whether they read, saw or heard advertising message .

22. Inquiry refers to checking the effectiveness of ads in print media on the basis of which consumers respond by requesting for more information . Inquiry may depend upon phone calls received from interested persons, coupons returned or requests for free samples .

23. Sales tests: comparing past sales with current sales . Attitude tests: to measure effectiveness of the ad campaign in creating a favorable image for a brand or a company. 5 techniques of attitude testing direct questioning, rating scales, checklists, semantic differential & partially structured interviews.