Creative Concept/Copy Testing

Creating an effective advertisement that resonates with the intended target audience can be a challenging process. Fors Marsh Group feels it is essential to test creative concepts in order to better understand how individuals will engage with and respond to an ad prior to complete production.

Objective
To ensure the client’s ad resonated with the intended target audience of medical professionals, Fors Marsh Group identified and exposed respondents to multiple executions and concepts in a controlled fashion.

Approach
Fors Marsh Group worked closely with the client’s advertising agency to fully understand their creative objectives and target market.  To test the creative concepts, several different measures were layered to determine which execution met the campaign’s objectives. In this case, a pre- and post-exposure design was utilized to measure changes in key metrics that can be directly attributed to ad exposure. 

The pre-exposure begins with a baseline measure of question topics such as the product, generic brand knowledge and/or perceptions, attitudes and associations toward the product, and product interest, involvement, and purchase intention.  In order to gauge the target market of medical professionals, question areas such as knowledge of and attitudes toward the brand were examined in the pre-exposure measures.  Following the pre-exposure measures, the first ad is shown and several advertising specific questions are asked. Additionally, the pre-exposure measures were asked again as the post-exposure test.  Repeating these questions allows for a direct comparison of to determine the impact of the ad.   

Participants then view the remaining test ads and answer questions regarding emotions, appeal, engagement, and persuasion following each ad.  The specific creative execution that is presented as “Ad 1” is randomized to ensure an adequate amount of post-exposure data for all creative concepts being tested.

Once the participant has viewed all of the test ads, they receive a series of ad comparison questions.  When testing multiple creative concepts, a pre- and post- exposure measurement is not sufficient.  It is necessary to also introduce comparative measures to help determine which concept best embodies the scope of the creative objectives.  The ad comparison questions examine topics including ad ratings, reaction, and persuasiveness to determine which ad participants responded to most favorably.  Additional test questions on ad emotions, character identification, and messaging perceptions serve as a comparative diagnostic tool.

Outcome
As a result of copy testing, Fors Marsh Group was able to pinpoint the creative concept that best met the client’s objective to recruit medical professionals. In addition, this study helped identify the most persuasive elements of each ad so that the creative team was able to evaluate and incorporate the strongest elements into the final design and messaging as they saw fit.  By measuring effectiveness, attitudes, reactions and perceptions of each perspective ad, the client was able to work with their advertising agency to compare and validate final creative, confidently moving forward with ad production.