Are our Ways of Evaluating Advertising too Restrictive?

Simon Broadbent

This paper argues that some ways of evaluating advertising undervalue its contribution to the bottom line, and forget the fact that manufacturers advertise to protect or improve the long run cash flow that a brand produces.

Are our Ways of Evaluating Advertising too Restrictive?

Simon BroadbentLeo Burnett

This paper argues that some ways of evaluating advertising – though currently popular and apparently scientific – undervalue its contribution to the bottom line. Manufacturers advertise to protect or improve the long run cash flow that the brand produces, but this is often forgotten when the evaluation is carried out.

I am not discussing here the evaluations done to improve our understanding of how the campaign worked, but those which attempt to make advertising more accountable, to estimate what return we got on our investment, and...

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