ABX Advisory

We all know Chipotle fell from grace in 2015 with an e-coli scandal that cost them billions of dollars over many years.  Today, they are more successful than ever.  Many stories have been written about Chipotle's multi-pronged strategy to recover, one of which was its dramatically improved ad creative and messaging. ABX tested 100's of Chipotle ads from 2015 through YTD and found powerful correlations to revenue.  The story below is a teaser of those findings, which will be presented in full to students at Pennsylvania State University soon.   

ABX has long been fascinated by the power of radio.  We've written several blogs on the topic, which are full of research: "Four Great Tips for Radio Advertising" and "Research Shows Radio Advertising may be Most Effective."  And today we directly compare sets of TV and radio ads that are very similar, to see how well both score.  We'd love to hear your feedback at the end!

Special Guest Michael Wolfe, CEO of Bottom-Line Analytics, repurposes his recent article on advertising effectiveness through the efficacy of different Television spot lengths.  If you've followed the ABX Advisory, you've seen a number of articles from Michael utilizing his vast talents in market mix modeling to yield best practices for advertisers.  

Last month's ABX Advisory post, "Positive Portrayals of Females in Ads leads to Financial Gain," announced the major leaps forward advertisers are making in the respectful portrayal of women in advertising.  A 2019 ABX longitudinal survey showed an increase in the presence of women in ads, an increase in understanding as to what makes an ad "appropriate," and a decrease in tolerance for ads that are "inappropriate."  Even more exciting, ABX research shows it is possible to increase sales to women by 45% by depicting females properly in advertising.  Today, we will look at top ABX Gender Equality Index ads in the UK, Germany, Japan and the US to see what is working in each.

So far, you've seen good and bad Print and OOH ads from 2018 in this column, and today you'll see the same for Radio. To make this analysis really useful, we've contrasted good and bad 2018 spots within Four Tips for Great Radio Advertising. These tips have emerged through our testing of 15,000 radio spots over the past five years, and 1833 in 2018. For more on radio creative testing, see our Integrated Media pillar page.

The respectful portrayal of women in advertising has made major leaps forward according to a longitudinal survey by Advertising Benchmark Index. Other major associations that are promoting female gender equality also report the same terrific progress.  So, if you want to increase sales to women by 45%, read on!

The recent AdWeek Announcement of a celebrity Brand Visionary and 12 Brand Geniuses begged the question: are their ads reflecting higher Reputation scores as a result of their corporate outreach efforts?   We've borrowed from the stories of AdWeek's T.L. Stanley, Patrick Kulp, Lisa Lacy and Diana Pearl, who interviewed these marketing heroes.  Since ABX has tested more than 250,000 ads across all media, we decided to take a closer look.  Join us! 

A few weeks ago, Michael J. Wolfe of Bottom-line Analytics published the article below using ABX advertising analytics.  With his permission, ABX is re-running his article because of his excellent analysis of which key messages and emotional approaches resounded among 70 analyzed ads during the COVID-19 Pandemic.  Michael is a market mix modeler who has worked with the largest companies (see bio below) who always finds insights.  We hope you enjoy this latest article from Michael.

In a study of 145 COVID-related Radio ads measured by ABX since March 4th, advertising effectiveness scores were amazingly high.  Radio spots featuring thanks to first-responders, helpful advice to listeners regarding resisting the virus, and conveying a serious tone in their announcements all did well.  Of course there are always those that don't work, as well.  Below are a sample of each and some tips for using radio effectively in crisis times.