IPC to offer ‘first’ online testing tool for magazine advertisers

IPC Advertising is launching an online creative testing facility for magazine advertisers, with dairy products company Yoplait Dairy Crest becoming the first advertiser to sign up to the service.

The initiative, claimed to be a first, will offer advertisers the first chance to test or pre-test their magazine creative work with a database of IPC’s readers. The service will allow clients to assess the impact of their magazine ads by analysing how readers consume advertising.

Creative testing, while common in broadcast advertising, is new to mainstream UK consumer magazines, and will be offered by IPC Advertising as part of its “access all areas” initiative. IPC Advertising has teamed up with Hamburg-based MediaAnalyser to offer the service.

The ads will be provided to readers online in their homes. As well as asking the readers a series of questions about the ads, the process will also generate an eye-tracking movie to pinpoint where exactly on the ad the viewers have focused their attention.

Yoplait Dairy Crest brand development manager Sarah Russell says/ “When IPC first approached us with this, through our media agency John Ayling & Associates, we realised it was a new, quick and cost-efficient way to gauge what real readers think of real ads. The findings demonstrated to us just how communicative our ads are, as well as where we can improve that communication.”

IPC marketing and strategy manager James Papworth adds: “This new system is a revelation in ease of use and cost efficiency for testing creative work before a large media investment. Discovering which elements of an ad actually draw and hold attention has always been a tough question to answer. Now we have the video evidence.”