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!

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.

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.

Today's post looks at two case studies in integrated marketing communications - how paid and non-paid media interact in two major scandals - one with Nike and the other with United Airlines. The post is reprinted with permission from the Institute for Public Relations, and is written by three of its members: Katie Paine of Paine Publishing, Mark Stouse of Proof Analytics and Angela Jeffrey, APR, of ABX.  Contact information is below.  For more on this topic, see ABX resource page on integrated marketing.

Are consumers spending more for Holiday In-Store or Online?  During the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, which of the two are getting the lion's share?  We've been watching this for the past five years through a Share of Wallet survey during the seven weeks surrounding the big weekend. The purpose is to see what respondents are spending for gifts at the top retailers.  The data provides insights to our retail clients, so they can tie results to their ad effectiveness results.  We hope it is also useful to you. This year's survey covered 14,110 respondents, or roughly 2,000 per week over seven weeks.

As the Holidays approach, thoughts turn to retail. It's a perfect time to see how various department stores, fashion stores and online retailers have done in advertising effectiveness over the last 12 months.  Some retailers, like Kohl's, have consistently good ads (outside of radio), while others (high-end retailers) always bring up the rear. This post explores the best ads across seven media types, analyzing why they work so well out of almost 1450 ads tested in the past year.

Today's Special Report on the absolute latest advertising technology comes from Sophia Karakeva, Ph.D., a communications & marketing executive from DataScouting, based in Thessaloniki, Greece.  Sophia and ABX have both been deeply involved in the measurement of advertising and public relations.  

Ads in Space? Deep Fakes? Licensing Celebrity Faces?

No matter how companies do it, advertising remains one of the most important aspects of a business. However, the advertising ecosystem has evolved so much over the past decades that it has become nearly impossible for businesses to keep up. From simple flyers and giant billboards, to taking your ads into space and licensing celebrity faces, technology continues to disrupt the advertising industry.

In our systematic review of good and bad ads for 2018 by Media Type, today's post focuses on Outdoor Advertising.  Our syndicated ad effectiveness panel tested 803 OOH ads last year, so we decided to look at six of the Top 5% and three of the bottom. For information on using different media types in integrated campaigns, see our Integrated Media pillar page.

Powerful creative is at the core of every impactful ad.  Sound in particular is a critical component in conveying brand messages and connecting with an audience emotionally.  It is also big business. To continue reading scroll down to read this special guest post by Pierre Bouvard, Chief Insights Officer of Westwood One, or view this article on MediaVillage.com.