Concept Testing
Testing the Effectiveness of Print, Broadcast and Digital Promotion
The HCD AdverTest™ concept testing tool uses the Internet to provide marketers with rapid insight into consumer preferences related to all forms of marketing communications, including print or broadcast advertisements and digital communications.
The HCD AdverTest tool is a flexible, cost-effective method for rapidly obtaining comprehensive data on consumer preferences to speed marketing decision making, which has become increasingly important in today's costly and highly competitive advertising arena.
Unlike traditional research methods, the technology can be employed with respondents located virtually anywhere in the world to provide powerful insights into why a print or broadcast advertisement does or doesn't work. HCD Research has compiled an extensive normative database that can be used to measure the effectiveness of new advertising concepts.
Using the HCD AdverTest tool, research participants are asked to review an on-line print advertisement on their computers. The participants are then asked a series of questions, to which they respond using the HCD PointSelect™ tool that has been correlated with our mobile eye-tracking system. Advanced programming techniques and the PointSelect tool are used to identify, for example, which part of the ad they noticed first. Participants are also asked to use the PointSelect feature to select actionable words and phrases, explain what they mean to each participant, and whether or not the brand logo was identified.
In addition, more tailored follow-up questions — such as open-ended "reason why" questions - can be posed during the course of the research based on the individual participant's responses. While the approach relies on each participant's memory, experience suggests that responses using the HCD AdverTest tool remain generally in accord with data generated from conventional eye-tracking techniques.
When testing broadcast ads, viral videos and webisodes, participants are asked to view the content three times, once to familiarize themselves with the content, and then to evaluate the content for interest and believability using an automated response methodology. While participants view the content, they move the mouse to the left to indicate low levels of interest and to the right to indicate high interest. They repeat the procedure to measure the content's believability.
Their responses are recorded in quarter-second intervals, and the mean of all responses is reported in the form of curves, which indicate levels of believability and interest for different market segments. The high and low points on the curves are also identified for each respondent, and verbatim responses are obtained to determine why respondents liked or disliked certain segments of the content.