Identifying key metrics for magazine planning

The objective of this study is to prioritize the generally available print planning resources and metrics with respect to their potential to predict advertising effectiveness. Advertising effectiveness is a broad and expansive notion. Therefore, for the purposes of this research, it is defined as advertising recall. The study is designed as a first step in discerning the hierarchy among metrics for different print ad campaigns spanning product categories and magazine genres. The project expands upon the work undertaken by the Magazine Involvement Alliance – presented at the 2003 Worldwide Readership Research Symposium – by broadening the focus to assess the relative contributions of multiple drivers of ad effectiveness, not simply involvement. For this study, one branded campaign within each of three product categories is selected to assess a set of working assumptions. All three campaigns ran in the U.S. in the spring of 2005. The subject brands include a widely recognized consumer package good, a prescription pharmaceutical drug (promoted direct-to-consumers), and an apparel brand. All are considered leading brands within their respective categories. The respondents, recruited from Knowledge Networks’ representative online consumer panel, answer a series of questions probing their relationship with the magazines using the language of MRI’s qualitative measures, as well as their recall of the advertisements from the three ad campaigns.

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