Magazines equal TV for creating awareness – but do so at less cost
IPC's Ad Track
As already discussed, IPC’s Ad Track 94 survey [44] showed that on average magazine advertising generates the same level of awareness as television advertising - at the rate of 13% awareness per 100 gross rating points. However for magazines the figure of 13% was an average across all exposures in the campaign. A higher awareness level was generated by the first exposure to magazines - whereas Millward Brown found that for the television campaigns the first exposure produced the same awareness level as the TV campaign average.
In fact the awareness score of magazine ads at their first exposure was 18% awareness per 100 rating points, averaged across all campaigns. This can be compared with an average awareness score for TV commercials at their first exposure of 13% awareness per 100 rating points. As Millward Brown wrote, “this suggests that when they first appear, the print executions are often better at registering something in connection with the brand than TV”.
This is a most impressive result for magazine advertising - creating more awareness on first exposure than television usually accomplishes. The explanation is no doubt to do with the repeat reading of magazine pages (which QRS's PEX has demonstrated) and readers' ability to pause and study anything that catches their interest.
The reason that the average awareness index for magazine ads across complete campaigns fell to 13% is, in Millward Brown’s view, that a given creative execution in print eventually loses some of its impact because readers have either absorbed the message from the ad or else mentally edit it out of their subsequent reading. Millward Brown call this ‘wear-out’ but a more appropriate term is ‘over-exposure’ because “this label correctly places responsibility for dealing with the factor upon the user of the medium” [117], the advertiser/agency. This potential for over-exposure of a given execution arises from one of the great benefits of print advertising - that readers are in full control of what they look at and can study an advertisement for as long as they choose, and as often as they choose.
The solution to over-exposure of a given creative treatment is to use more executions: instead of running just one advertisement, create two or three. The new ads will stimulate fresh involvement and push the average awareness index above the 13% mark - that is, above TV’s average level.
There is much more to be discovered about the ability of magazines to refresh a campaign by introducing new creative executions. This is one of the priority areas for further research. Meanwhile Millward Brown are surely correct in saying “a major magazine campaign needs to be conceived in the form of several complementary executions” [118].
MPA's 113-brand tracking study
"Dollar for dollar, magazines deliver significantly higher advertising awareness levels than television."
This was the clear conclusion of a major analysis published in 1998 by Magazine Publishers of America [119], in which Millward Brown examined 113 campaigns in the USA which used both television and magazine advertising. Awareness of the campaigns had been measured by Millward Brown as part of their normal continuous telephone tracking studies, during the two-year period January 1996-December 1997. For every campaign, Millward Brown compared the awareness generated by each medium with the expenditure in the medium, and to the number of gross rating points bought in the medium.
Combining all 113 campaigns, 36% of total advertising awareness was created by television, 29% by magazines, and 35% jointly by television and magazines together. Television therefore had a 71% share of awareness (36%+35%) and magazines had a 64% share (29%+35%).
77% of the advertising expenditure had been on television and only 23% in magazines. Relating this to awareness, television had an index of 92 (71% share of awareness divided by 77% share of expenditure) whereas magazines had an index of 278 (64% share of awareness divided by 23% share of cost). Magazines' index of 278 is 3.0 times greater than television's 92. In other words for every dollar spent, magazines delivered three times as much ad awareness as television.
It was a similar conclusion when looking at gross ratings rather than expenditure. Television generated 76% of the gross ratings while magazines generated 24%. Thus the index for television was 93 (71% share of awareness divided by 76% share of ratings) and for magazines it was 267. So for every 100 rating points bought, magazines delivered almost three times as much ad awareness as television.
These general conclusions were found to be true:
- across product categories
- for different budget levels
- whether there were few or many competitors
- for new and established brands
Another finding was that for most brands (61% of them) a change in advertising awareness was associated with a corresponding change in purchase intent ("Definitely or probably will buy") - confirming that awareness is an important measure. Moreover, for brands where this association occurred, most of the ad awareness was attributed jointly to television and magazines working together. This reinforces the view that the two media in combination are more effective than either on its own.