Dragging the Pre-testing Debate into the 21st Century

Helen Lythgoe

Revisits the arguments adduced by advertising agencies against quantitative pre-testing, and argues that diagnostic tests can meet the needs of both agencies and clients.

Dragging the PreTesting Debate into the 21st Century

Helen Lythgoe The Research Business International

The topic of pretesting (particularly quantitative) always raises hackles, yet the debate has not moved on in recent years. Ad agencies take the role of the 'wildly misunderstood'. They criticise research for not appreciating how advertising works (an argument also used against ad tracking), for stifling creativity (by using essentially 'scientific' methods to evaluate a 'piece of art'), and for not moving on and designing new methods to adapt to changes in advertising, media and consumers. Too often, the case for research is made by...

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