Posters and the Pru
Learning from 'a fairly large leap in the dark'
Dominic Owens
Two years ago, the Prudential's admired poster campaign set out to stretch the effects of its television economically, and compensate for some of TV's limitations. To an outsider, the move now has all the unassailable logic of hindsight. But at the time it required nerve as well as solid planning. This paper shows how the Pru aims to learn by trial and error, and describes its approach to effectiveness measurement. Valuable lessons include the difficulty of isolating poster effects, however tangible (research respondents tend to...