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TWO METHODS of testing commercials involve audiences gathered for viewing. At left, members of the Institute for Motivational Research's consumer panel view ads at the "Living Laboratory." At right, a somewhat larger audience answers Schwerin questionnaires at Avon Theatre
8 FIRMS THAT TEST TV COPY
^ Here is a rundown of the services, methods, theories, basic fees of the 8 major tv commercial testing outfits
^ Clients include agencies and advertisers with slight stress on latter group. Pre-testing is gaining momentum
I he area of testing tv commercials is a growing one as more and more advertisers want to know exactly how :heir messages are hitting home, and where they may be missing the sales joat.
Pretesting in particular has been gaining ground at the research louses. "Advertisers are getting vise," one New York researcher raid. "They want to protect that big. at, expensive tv investment. They vant a little insurance."
Who does the testing? Among the inost prominent are Institute for Monational Research, Schwerin, Marketing Impact Research, Audits & Purveys, Starch, Gallup & Robinson, IPrendex, and Psychological Corp.
Who orders the testing — agency it client? There is a division of opinion as to whose responsibility estine tv commercials is. Whether
the agency or the client makes the decision, it is the client who orders most tests of commercials.
Often, as a Starch spokesman pointed out, the agency order is instigated by the client. Starch orders come 60^0 from clients, 40% from agencies.
In the main, small to mediumsized agencies are the major agency customers for these services. Most of the larger agencies, such as Ted Bates, have their own research divisions equipped for commercial testing.
Agencv opinion is as varied on the virtues of tv commercial testing as are the methods used from Starch to Schwerin. A spokesman for a leading creative shop in New \ ork explained that his agency "doesn't worship testing commercials . . . We do testing as much as anyone, hut we
don't use it as a crutch."
And, generally, commercial testing is considered a worthwhile protection of an expensive and precious investment.
Among the methods of exposure and testing are (1) theaters, where roughly 200 people are gathered together to view the commercials integrated into a half -hour show; (2) house-to-house interviews with projecting machine: (3) coincidental phone calls: (4) phone calls within 48 hours of telecast; (5) cutting-in of new commercials in several markets on a network hookup; (6) working with storyboards; (7) gathering small groups to view commercials in simulated living room situations, (81 closed-circuit systems involving viewing at home.
The costs vary considerably. Theater testing is claimed to be one i>f the least expensive methods. Storyboards are also inexpensive becau-c of the minimum production investment.
On cut-ins. the costs depend on the rating and time of the show, the sample size and the number of markets, but this is considered the most expensive method of pre-testing.
\n explanation of the varied meth
PONSOR • 31 JULY 1961
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