The Brand Aid Panel from Guardian News & Media – Winner of Research & Insights Project 2009

Proving return on online media investment is all the more important during a recession, as every penny of marketing spend comes under increased scrutiny. With paid-search taking the lion’s share of online ad-spend, it is vital to convince advertisers of display’s positive brand impact if the online display market is to hold its own.

With this in mind, GNM developed a panel-based solution to provide insightful feedback on online, print and cross-media campaign performance, building a database of online brand ad effectiveness, against which other ads can be benchmarked.

Objective

While many brands currently undertake online ad effectiveness research, most ad measurement solutions are cost-prohibitive for advertisers with a small level of media spend.

The Brand Aid Panel’s objective was to provide a cost-effective and flexible brand impact research solution for clients that:

1. Generated valuable and insightful feedback on digital campaign performance for clients
2. Worked for online and print advertising, enabling enhanced feedback on cross-media campaign performance
3. Built a normative database on the effectiveness of online brand advertising, against which other ads can be benchmarked

Methodology

To address the issues of cost-effectiveness, flexibility and timeliness, a panel-based approach to proving online ad effectiveness was taken. Over 3,500 guardian.co.uk users and Guardian and Observer readers were recruited to GNM’s Brand Aid Panel, while the panel management system and survey interface were provided by research agency RAM.
The Brand Aid Panel, from Guardian News & Media

• The Brand Aid Panel is weighted to reflect the audience profile of guardian.co.uk and GNM’s print properties, so that feedback is an accurate reflection of reality
• Panellists are incentivised with points which can then be traded in for Amazon vouchers

Panellists are alerted via e-mail when a new questionnaire is available for them to answer. They are asked whether they used the website / read the paper on the day in which the ad ran and whether or not they recall the ad itself. They are then asked a number of standard questions relating to how ad exposure influenced brand perception, awareness, cognition and interest.

These standard metrics can then be benchmarked against a vast database of industry norms, or against the GNM normative database that provides insight into advertising performance across its online and print media properties. Panelists also answer questions customized by the client specifically relating to their brand.

Enterprise and creativity

1. A highly cost-effective solution - because GNM has invested in the creation of the panel, the cost of each individual survey is dramatically reduced for advertisers. Furthermore, the problems encountered in traditional online ad research are also overcome. Sufficient sample can be generated to measure ads on much smaller campaigns, while there is no need to launch intrusive ad invites on the website
2. Client as key - the client is at the heart of all ad effectiveness research planning, and their needs and objectives shape questionnaire design and results analysis. GNM clients are involved at all stages of the research process
3. True flexibility - the flexibility of questionnaire design enables both a high degree of creativity when customising research solutions for clients, and the provision of much deeper insight into ad effectiveness – whether that be related to what creative elements of the ad are most appealing to a consumer, what makes a brand’s target audience tick or simply how it impacts their purchase intent
4. Actionable insights - GNM clients are provided with an insightful presentation and debrief following the analysis of the results, with tangible results enabling them to make informed decisions on future media spend

Success against objectives

A senior digital planner at Mediavest says:

"The Brand Aid Panel has allowed us to gain valuable insights in to how our client's campaign was received by its audience. It’s enabled us to explore how interactive rich media creatives can be used, as well as gauge opinions of the product being advertised. The research was turned around efficiently and was also highly flexible in allowing us to ask the questions most pertinent to the insight that our client required."

Judges’ Comments: “A timely research project for these recessionary times which delivers effective R.O.I. information to advertisers.”

Contact Ian Gibbs (GNM Commercial Planner) for more details: 0203 353 2329
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