8 September 2009

New research from MRI Starch in the US has again proven the causal link between magazine ads and product/service sales, with the best performing ads leading to purchases by around half those claiming to have read them. 

The findings are based on Starch survey data for top-performing ads in 297 magazine issues between October 2008 and April 2009. To make the grade, ads had to have resulted in at least 15 per cent of readers of the ad making a purchase.  

A presentation by MRI of nine of the strongest performing ads shows scores for “As a result of seeing this ad, did you purchase the product/service?”.  

Advertisers include Bed Bath & Beyond, America’s Milk Processors (“Got Milk”), Lipitor, Payless Shoes, Swatch and Vaseline Lotion. 

The following key drivers of high-scoring ads were identified: 

Context – ads of high relevance and natural interest to the magazine readers often performed the best. For example, the “Got Milk” ad (resulting in 55 per cent purchase by ad readers) and Vaseline Clinical Therapy Lotion ad (purchased by 26 per cent of ad readers) appeared in Health magazine. 

Price – a possible influencer on the size of the purchase-action score was how expensive the item was. High-ticket items such as cars tend to have longer purchase consideration periods and the decision is less likely to be linked to a single ad.  

Brand perception – brands to which readers were already favourably disposed scored the highest in terms of purchase action. For example, 89 per cent of readers of the Got Milk ad were favourably disposed to the ad, and 97 per cent of the Vaseline Lotion ad readers thought favourably of that brand. The study found that, overall, brand advocates had a higher tendency to read that brand’s ads.

Source: AdAge, September 04, 2009