LAUNCHING CREATIVE EXCELLENCE GETTING THE BEST OUT OF YOUR CREATIVE COMMUNICATIONS OUR QUALITATIVE SPARK
BENEFITS OF QUAL CREATIVE COMMS TESTING Put simply... Understanding how people interpret and make sense of communications is absolutely critical to successful brand development. Great communications build and reinforce positive brand memories and capture attention to disrupt or challenge. Investing in understanding the brand impact, message take outs and potential to capture attention at an early stage of creative development is financially prudent and can save blood, sweat and tears in the long term. Qualitative research can be incredibly valuable in understanding how people perceive creative content and why. Importantly it allows us to explore consumers spontaneous dialogue and physical and emotive responses to creative. There are many different routes into qualitative creative testing and often a combination of approaches delivers the richest and most useful outputs. SPACE AGENCIES ALWAYS CARRY OUT A FLIGHT READINESS REVIEW BEFORE TAKE OFF Should you launch your creative without carrying out those critical checks?
RESEARCH THAT SPARKS GREAT COMMS Asking the right question, at the right time Stages of Creative Development RESEARCH AT BIG IDEA STAGE Does the idea represent a credible, resonant and clear connection back to the brand? Is it a strong foundation for all communication platforms and campaigns? Big Idea AT COMMS IDEA STAGE How does the Big Idea translate into communication ideas - for different platforms, channels and audiences? Which communication idea best brings the Big Idea to life? AT EXECUTION STAGE How does the execution fulfil its objectives? What does this mean for media plans? In market Comms. idea AND IN MARKET How does the execution perform in the real world? How does this feed into current and future campaign learnings? Execution
WHAT WE DO: Disruptive consumer led thinking IPSOS THINKING: Fuelling powerful creative KEEP IT REAL Show in context as far as it is possible e.g. using environment templates to simulate creative in situ (e.g. show OOH as it would look in real life by sitting at a bus stop, or a digital banner on Facebook). We know powerful creative assets are Simple to understand Well-branded Consistently use and reinforce brand iconography Connect with the audience s values Employ high quality emotionally powerful creative MOVE BEYOND FACE VALUE Always go beyond face value: don t just ask consumers how they are feeling, observe their response. Body language and gestures can offer clues that are just as powerful as responses from direct probing. HOT AND COLD In order to Cut through the media environment, gaining attention for the brand + Building brand desire Elicit both hot (instinctive, emotive, System 1) and cold (considered, thought through, System 2) responses to capture consumers holistic perspective. Brand relationship Purchase consideration
THE IPSOS OFFER We recommend the best approach dependent on your needs and stage of creative development Need SPEED Need DEPTH Overnight qual Creative groups Adlabs Need IN CONTEXT Semiotics & cultural intelligence Need REAL LIFE Ad Safaris Gogglebox Communities TAKE ONE SMALL STEP WITH IPSOS
NEED SPEED OVERNIGHT QUAL NEED DEPTH CREATIVE GROUPS WHY USE IT? WHAT IS IT? APPROACH WHY USE IT? WHAT IS IT? APPROACH Provides a quick qualitative steer to optimise creative while gaining some feedback on the why behind reactions. Swift timings possible - from kick off to reporting in 5 days (depending on complexity of recruitment criteria). Perfect when there are challenging timelines that other qualitative methodologies cannot meet. Less appplicable for fundamental understanding, exploratory research or strategic questions. Online forum, where participants provide in-the-moment feedback over the course of 24 hours. From 5 day turnaround from brief to debrief. Strategic reporting delivered the day after fieldwork. 60 recruited for 30 completes. 1-5 stimuli included. Up to 5 screening criteria e.g. demographics, product usage. Streamlined screening questions, discussion guides, fieldwork and reporting. Toolkit of mark up highlighter tool, video dial test and discussion forum can be utilised in Overnight qual approach. In depth exploration of creative across all stages of development. Creative agency and stakeholders can view in the moment. Group dynamic and interactive responses. Captures verbal and non-verbal responses. Can adapt approach/stimuli explored between or during group sessions. Group sessions of 6-8 consumers typically held at a viewing facility. Ability and time to generate imagery, associations, stories and use projective techniques. Can be incorporated into an Adlab fast and robust quant measurement (offline or online), partnered with exploratory qualitative. Tailored pending objectives; but some commonalities. Session captures spontaneous (System 1, Hot) responses and (System 2, Cold) responses to stimuli using projective techniques. Stimuli rotated across groups before comparison and ranking. Ability to dress the walls for advertising gallery activities. Explore individual responses, prior to group discussion. COST SIMPLICITY SPEED SUBSTANCE COST SIMPLICITY SPEED SUBSTANCE
NEED SPEED COMMUNITIES NEED CONTEXT SEMIOTICS / CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE WHY USE IT? WHAT IS IT? APPROACH WHY USE IT? WHAT IS IT? APPROACH Communities foster comfortable environments where members speak candidly and openly, leading to in-depth consumer understanding of creative stimuli. Consumers respond in their own time and in their own environment which permits a more considered and natural response as reactions can develop over time. Fits well with an iterative approach - fieldwork over multiple days can allow refining of stimuli. Focus on individual responses but opportunity for group interaction. Communities can be designed to meet the specific research objectives and stimuli that needs to be included: Instant: 2-10 days, (e.g. testing of different executions). Pop-Up: 10 days 5 months (e.g. campaign evaluation of all assets). Ongoing: 6+ months (e.g. different waves of an ongoing campaign). Clients have 24/7 real time community access to review discussions and activities to gain an immediate pulse on the tone and direction of community input. Engage consumers with a variety of tools to elicit reactions to stimuli including marker boards, video dial test, blogs and video diaries, voting etc.. Allows for rotation of stimuli and capture of Hot and Cold responses to stimuli. Provides fundamental cultural insights that can be used to inform future creative. Helps explain consumer opinions and behaviours which they often struggle to articulate. Flexibility stand-alone or to complement other methods. Timely non consumer facing allows for flexibility with timelines. Draws upon deeper cultural principles to explain how groups think and perceive the world. Breaks down all visuals and language into its components and decodes them - connecting them to long-held cultural beliefs, rituals, traditions, tropes and archetypes and their current associations. Used to explore and steer different creative assets. Scope is decided upon with client to develop a set of stimuli to establish breadth of the analysis (which categories, brands & their language/visuals). Semiotician or cultural analyst conducts in-depth analysis of stimulus to come up with broader cultural themes around topic of interest. Results create foundational insights that can be used for creative development and beyond. Ability to connect with consumers across wider geographic areas. COST SIMPLICITY SPEED SUBSTANCE COST SIMPLICITY SPEED SUBSTANCE
NEED IN REAL LIFE AD SAFARIS NEED IN REAL LIFE GOGGLE BOX WHY USE IT? WHAT IS IT? APPROACH WHY USE IT? WHAT IS IT? APPROACH Creative is live and consumer understanding is sought to explore impact of assets as they are encountered in real life. Fits well when assets to evaluate are logistically close to compare ie OOH can travel from one site to another. Ability to explore various channels. One on one individual safaris where consumers travel to various sites/spaces exploring assets as they are encountered. Length of interview 1-2 hours depending on stimuli. Potential to combine eye-tracking data to deliver another layer of detail on where eyes are drawn, hot spots, etc. No pre-tasking of consumers seek unbiased reactions to each asset. Safari can take place in home, out of home or in viewing facility or a combination of these. After exposure to individual assets, comparison and optimisation of all stimuli. Illustrates and brings to life consumer opinions towards creative in a visually engaging way. Typically used to complement other qualitative or quantitative methodologies. A video output capturing participants natural reactions to ads in a Gogglebox style. Filmed in participants homes with a professional videographer. Typically test up to 8 ads in a 2 hour session. Scope can be defined based on client objectives but typically we run 3 x 2 hour in-home video sessions. No pre-tasking of consumers seek unbiased reactions to each ad. Captures natural reactions followed by some light probing on key objectives. Fits well with OOH, print and TV. Professionally recorded and edited for a high quality output. COST SIMPLICITY SPEED SUBSTANCE COST SIMPLICITY SPEED SUBSTANCE
BLAST OFF: HOW WE VE HELPED CLIENTS LAUNCH POWERFUL CREATIVE CASE STUDIES 1. 2. SITUATION SITUATION 3. SITUATION A vaping brand sought direction on an upcoming campaign. We conducted a 2-week community drip feeding campaign assets and semiotic analysis of brand creative assets and competitors. Off the back of an on-going quant study, a major fast food company wanted to bring to life consumer opinion of their ads within their campaign. We conducted a Gogglebox study with three of their target audience groups. A global petcare brand had an aggressive one week timeline for feedback on three routes and needed granularity on which execution had the most potential. We employed an Overnight Qual approach to explore each route. OUTCOME Key themes and direction to optimise campaign including assets to prioritise/drop and how this feeds into the overall brand narrative. Client praised the clear direction and depth of insight. OUTCOME Delivered real life spontaneous reactions to each execution and impact on the brand from their target audience. The videos provide an output which lives on and have been used in numerous presentations by the client. OUTCOME A clear understanding of the impact of each execution and the effect on the brand. The client was impressed with the depth of detail and professionalism they received in such a short timeframe.
FOR MORE INFORMATION Please contact our brand and comms experts Natalie is a passionate Qualitative Director who is seasoned at working at all stages of creative development and has partnered with many clients and creative agencies to fuel effective creative outputs and understand the brand impact. She has a strong interest in branding, new techniques, and has been working in a qualitative specialism with Ipsos MORI since 2009. Prior to Ipsos she resided in New Zealand where she began her qualitative career. She hasn t looked back since. Natalie Kearse Natalie.Kearse@ipsos.com +44(0)7554 402 783 Hanna has extensive expertise in brands and brand development research both agency and clientside. Hanna has an intuitive feel for the way brands are understood, grounded in a lifelong interest in cultural studies. In her role at Ipsos MORI Hanna is a senior member of the qual team driving thinking and innovation in this area. Hanna s particular value is in infusing, into all the research she undertakes, a deep understanding of the wider socio-economic and cultural landscape. Hanna Chalmers Hanna.Chalmers@ipsos.com +44(0)7774 283 562
ABOUT IPSOS MORI Ipsos MORI, part of the Ipsos group, is one of the UK s largest and most innovative research agencies, working for a wide range of global businesses, the FTSE100 and many government departments and public bodies. We are passionately curious about people, markets, brands and society. We deliver information and analysis that makes our complex world easier and faster to navigate and inspires our clients to make smarter decisions.