Advertising best practice, evidence and insights

Article • WARC Best Practice, April 2016

This article provides marketers with information and guidance about avoiding advertising wearout and decay.

Article • ARF - Knowledge at Hand, 2018

Discusses the issue of ad wearout, including the challenges for advertisers and tips on how to face them.

The Dilution Effects of Media Strategy on Brands’ Copromotion Efficiency: Identifying Best Practices for Copromotion Media Planning

Research Paper • Kyung-Ah Byun, Doori Song and Mikyoung Kim, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 57, No. 2, 2017, pp. 207-226

Drawing on media-dilution effects, this article investigates the role of media planning, such as media use and scheduling, in copromotion efficiency, calculated with super-efficiency data-envelopment analysis.

Television's brand building power – From GRPs to PRPs

Research Paper • Frank Findley, Douglas Crang and Kelly Johnson, ARF Experiential Learning, Audience Measurement, June 2017

This paper examines the effectiveness of television advertising and changes in audience response since the 1980s within the United States.

What we know about scheduling TV ads

Article • WARC Best Practice, April 2016

This article provides marketers with information and guidance about scheduling TV ads.

What we know about recall and recognition

Article • WARC Best Practice, July 2017

This article provides marketers with information and guidance about using recall and recognition to test the effectiveness of a campaign.

Advertising creativity and repetition: recall, wearout and wearin effects

Research Paper • Kevin Lehnert, Brian D. Till and Brad D. Carlson, International Journal of Advertising, Vol. 32, No. 2, 2013, pp. 211-231

Creativity is seen as an important component of advertising, with highly creative ads being easier to recall than control ads.

Mythbuster: Replace ads before they wear out

Article • Les Binet and Sarah Carter, Admap, December 2012, pp. 9-9

Clients and agencies have many different reasons for making new work: partly it's self-interest as both can make their names from new work and partly it's a kind of restlessness - they tire of their own ads long before the public does.

What happens when brands go dark?

Article • Millward Brown Knowledge Point, November 2012

Analysis of Millward Brown's data indicates that brands can "go dark" - i.e. stop or suspend TV advertising - for six months or so with little deleterious effect, but longer periods are likely to weaken brand health.

Do TV ads “wear out”?

Article • Millward Brown Knowledge Point, February 2012

This Knowledge Point article looks at advertising wear-out. Broadly speaking, the response generated by a TV ad doesn't change much over time.

Assessing Celebrity Endorsement Effects in China: A Consumer-Celebrity Relational Approach

Research Paper • Kineta Hung, Kimmy W. Chan and Caleb H. Tse, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 51, No. 4, 2011, pp. 608-623

Celebrity endorsement is a salient executional strategy in China, where national celebrities often endorse more than 20 brands.

Mythbuster: Stick with what works

Article • Les Binet and Sarah Carter, Admap, July/August 2011, pp. 9-9

In this article from the "Mythbuster" series in Admap, Les Binet and Sarah Carter challenge the idea that novelty and creativity are inextricably connected.

Generalizations about Advertising Effectiveness in Markets

Research Paper • Gerard J. Tellis, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 49, No. 2, June 2009, pp. 240-245

Based on over 260 estimates, the mean elasticity of sales or market share to advertising is 0.1 percent.

Do TV ads work harder as they “wear in”?

Article • Millward Brown Knowledge Point, 2007

Generally speaking, it’s true that repeated exposure to the same ad is likely to result in it becoming better established in consumers’ memories.

Do print ads wear out?

Article • Andrew Green, WARC Media FAQ, May 2006

In this paper, ZenithOptimedia's Andrew Green assesses the effectiveness of long-term advertising in the printed media.

Can pre-testing improve campaign decisions?

Article • Spike Cramphorn, Admap, October 2004, Issue 454, pp. 147-148

Spike Cramphorn, chairman of add+impact®, believes that pre-testing can improve campaign decisions but not in the way it has been done so far.

Media Scheduling and carry-over effects: Is adstock a useful TV planning tool?

Research Paper • Erwin Ephron and Colin McDonald, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 42, No. 4, July/August 2002, pp. 66-70

The current U.S. recency-based scheduling model focuses entirely on the short-term effects of advertising, arguing that in competitive markets the data show that response to advertising dissipates rapidly.

An Empirical Investigation of Advertising Wearin and Wearout

Research Paper • Margaret Henerson Blair, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 40, No. 6, November/December 2000

This paper is one of 18 selected by the Editorial Review Board of The Journal of Advertising Research to be a 'classic' - an article that has withstood the test of time.

Exploring advertising wearout

Article • John Walling and Sian Owen, Admap, February 2000

In the mid- to late 1980s the ARP Group uncovered evidence relating to advertising effectiveness: advertising's selling power gets used up, or wears out, in a predictable fashion.

Advertising Wearout: What and How You Measure Matters

Research Paper • David W. Stewart, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 39, No. 5, September/October 1999

Two recent papers on advertising wearout appear to arrive at seemingly very different conclusions about advertising wearout.

Planning for Wearout: An Advertiser's Guide to Evaluating Campaign Needs in the Americas

Article • J. Walter Thompson, Douglas Scott and Debbie Solomon, Advertising Research Foundation Workshops, Marketing Beyond Cultures and Borders, May 1999

Discusses the problem of how to measure wearout, the point when an ad ceases to be effective. Over 50 studies since the 1960s have failed to produce a consensus.

Beyond copy testing

Article • John Walling and Sian Owen, Admap, March 1999

Argues for the ARS Persuasion method of copytesting, on the grounds that it is both reliable and valid, being consistently related to sales success.

Advertising Wearout: Advertising Wearin and Wearout: Ten Years Later - More Empirical Evidence and Successful Practice

Research Paper • Margaret Henderson Blair and Michael J. Rabuck, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 38, No. 5, September/October 1998

In 1987 the Journal of Advertising Research published an article by the author entitled 'An Empirical Investigation of Advertising Wearin and Wearout'.

Advertising Wearout: What is Wearout Anyway?

Research Paper • Douglas R Scott and Debbie Solomon, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 38, No. 5, September/October 1998

Studies on television wearout conducted over the past 30 years show inconclusive results, underscoring the complexity of the process and the number of factors that need to be examined to understand it.

Should the Language of "Testing" be Abolished?

Research Paper • Karl E Rosenberg, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 38, No. 3, May/June 1998, pp. 73-76

Discusses the true reasons why research should be employed, and the key compenents of successful research.

Media planning