The best advertising?

The market research industry has done a lousy job educating the advertising media about how to measure effective advertising. B&T has just commissioned some research on the Commonwealth Bank’s new ad campaign which asked respondents (on the internet) “which of the following banks has the best advertising?”. The Commonwealth’s ad ranked “best”.

The subtext in the article is that local agencies, who have rubbished the American ad agency Goodby Silverstein’s work, don’t know their elbows from their armpits.

In the first place, B&T has done the research right after the Commonwealth’s ad had just blitzed TV screens and was fresh in everyone’s minds. But more important, where did they get the idea that you measure an ad’s effectiveness by asking viewers who has the ‘best ads’?

Having worked on some of Australia’s most successful and least popular advertising campaigns, we know that what the consumer says about advertising has precious little to do with its effectiveness. Advertising is not a popularity contest. It’s about clearly communicating a particular message that sticks to your brand.

In its search for novelty, the ad industry sometimes creates video vampires; the campaign with memorable components totally irrelevant to the brand message. Popular? Often. Effective? No.

It’s probably a poor piece of advertising but it’s definitely a poor piece of research and disappointing journalism.