1. Newspaper Creative Benchmark Report
Sun Rice
February 2012

2. A monthly study designed;
It’s a component of the Newspaper Effectiveness Metric which is run by the newspaper industry marketing body, The Newspaper Works.
A monthly study designed;
To measure and identify the effectiveness of newspaper creative
To help improve understanding of how to use newspapers effectively
To improve the understanding of the roles newspaper advertising can play
To improve the standard of newspaper creative
To provide a consistent metric that is accepted as the industry standard
This metric is the first of its kind in Australia, providing previously unavailable insights into how consumers respond to newspaper advertising.
It was developed for a number of reasons;
Newspapers are pigeon-holed for certain advertising categories and roles
Most tracking metrics are designed for TV, not newspapers
There is no recognised approach to measuring effectiveness in relation to newspapers
The Newspaper Works is the newspaper industry marketing body eestablished in 2006 by the major Australian newspaper publishers: Fairfax Media (including Rural Press), News Limited, APN News and Media and West Australian Newspapers
They represents paid national, metropolitan, regional and community titles.
Primary aims:
To promote newspapers as a powerful medium for advertisers
To ensure that newspapers are perceived as being contemporary and relevant in a transforming media landscape

3. Comparison of creative against category averages
Pre/post effectiveness studies, measuring in-market effects and how newspaper work with Television
Comprehensive analysis of how newspapers can best be used to influence purchase behaviour
The Newspaper Effectiveness Metric was designed to be used across three applications;
Newspaper Creative Benchmarking
Designed to demonstrate how consumers are responding to newspaper advertising compared to all newspaper norms and category averages.
It takes on two formats, one category report e.g. Retail and secondly as a regular monthly benchmark –
The other applications are more in depth;
Case studies: with incredibly robust samples of 1300 pre and 900 post same (rather than matched) samples which measure a campaign in totality
Category Deep dives: key category deep dives, focusing on categories with a more complex path to purchase and investigating what role
The Newspaper Works’ effectiveness partner:

4. Proprietary newspaper measures
Recognised industry measures +
Newspaper measures
Ad Recognition
Brand Linkage
Message Comprehension
Brand Equity Impact
Role Map
Action Map
Newspaper Creative Diagnostics
The findings in the report are based on the ad-related measures contained in The Newspaper Effectiveness Metric.
Alongside industry accepted measures The Newspaper Works has developed newspaper-specific measures that provide insights that advertisers and media agencies don’t have access to.
Role Map graphically represents how consumers respond to newspaper advertising in terms of six strategic roles, which have been developed and validated in research both here and in the UK.
The Newspaper Creative Diagnostics allow us to investigate the reasons behind the lower performing ads.
Proprietary newspaper measures
The Newspaper Works’ effectiveness partner: 4

5. This ad was one of three shown to respondents Sample: Australians 16+
Sample size: 108
Test market: Melbourne
Fieldwork: 5th-12th February 2012
Conducted online by Ipsos MediaCT
Benchmarks used: Newspaper Norms (see appendix for details)
The survey is conducted online.
The ad is first seen with newspaper editorial facing it so it is quite clearly a newspaper ad (rather than a magazine ad or poster) and to get respondents into the newspaper ‘frame of mind’.
For Ad Recognition and Brand Linkage, all logos, copy and price references to brand are masked out.
Only those who recognised the ad answer the brand linkage question.
For all questions after that, the logos, copy references and prices are visible.
All respondents, whether they recognised the ad or not, then answer the remaining questions on Brand Equity, Role Map and Creative Diagnostic measures.

6. Branded Newspaper Benchmarks
Branded Newspaper Benchmarks

7. Newspaper Norm
Newspaper Creative Diagnostics are to be used diagnostically, they measure consumer reaction to specific aspects of the creative execution.
Provides an indication of the how/ why the ad is working or not working.
Explanatory notes
Newspaper Creative Diagnostics are asked as forced exposure.
Respondents are given a series of statements and asked to indicate which apply to the ad i.e.
Following is a series of statements that could be used to describe the newspaper ad for [BRAND]. Please indicate whether each statement describes well, describes somewhat or does not describe the newspaper ad for [BRAND].
The ad performs better than Norms against many positive statements including “Has a great photo/image” and “Looks good”. It also achieves a high score for “Has too much information” however it does not necessarily follow that the ad does not meet it’s communication objectives.

8. Newspaper Norm
These top line measures provide an indication of how many people recall seeing an ad (ad recognition), what proportion of those who can name the brand it was for, and how interesting they found the ad’s content.
The All Newspaper Norm is calculated from testing 40 randomly selected newspaper ads and quantitatively testing amongst almost 1,700 respondents.
Explanatory notes:
Top line measures reveal;
Ad recognition (sometimes referred to as ad recall, prompted ad awareness, prompted recall, executional cut through).
Indicates extent to which the advertising creative cuts through and is the main indicator against which media agencies are assessed
It is affected by the weight of newspaper activity i.e. if it only appeared once, this could explain lower results.
It is a prompted question i.e. respondents are shown a visual of the ad in situ (how it appears on the page) with all branding removed. Respondents are then asked: “Do you remember seeing the newspaper ad before?”
Brand Linkage (sometimes referred to as brand recall)
This measure is generally considered to be a creative indicator i.e. how well the name of the brand is recalled and attributed to the advertising message
It can be affected by brand life-stage, consistency of approach, a lack of a point of difference to others in the category, on, or if the ad takes a similar approach to the category or another advertiser (who may reap the benefits of the advertising)
It is asked immediately after the ad recognition question while the ad is de-branded: “You mentioned that you saw the newspaper ad; what brand was it for?”
It is an important measure as it indicates of those who recognised, what proportion are able to attribute the message to the right brand.
High brand linkage norms are a prominent benefit of newspapers as reading consumption and concentration is active.
Interest
Provides a measure (self reported) of the interest in the advertising message.
The results are from forced exposure (i.e. the ad is branded and shown to all respondents.
It is asked as a statement using an agreement scale i.e.
“Following is a series of statements that could be used to describe the newspaper ad for [BRAND]. Please indicate whether you agree or disagree that the statement describes the newspaper ad for [BRAND].
What the ad said or showed was interesting to me
The results used are those that reflect strongly or somewhat agree.
Ad recognition and brand linkage are not incongruent with the results from a new campaign or irregular advertiser within newspapers. The ad generates interest above Newspaper Norms.
Significantly different to Newspaper Norm at 90% c.l.
Note: Ad Recognition and Brand Linkage can be affected by weight of campaign and timing of research

9. Newspaper Norm
Brand Equity Impact as the title suggests measures how the ad influenced feelings towards the brand.
Indicates the effect the ad is having on the key components of the brand’s brand equity
Familiarity
Relevance
Uniqueness
Here we can see the ad is working to benefit brand equity, by making the brand appear familiar, relevant and different
Explanatory notes:
Brand Equity Impact is tested by using forced exposure i.e. regardless of whether a respondent has recognised the ad it is shown to them and they are asked a series of statements:
Following is a series of statements that could be used to describe the newspaper ad for [BRAND]. Please indicate whether you agree or disagree that the statement describes the newspaper ad for [BRAND].
The ad made the brand seem different from other brands in the category (uniqueness)
The ad made the brand appear to be appropriate and fit in with my lifestyle and needs (relevance)
The ad improved my familiarity and understanding of what the brand is about (familiarity)
The ad performs significantly above Newspaper Norms against three key brand metrics. It is seen as highly relevant and different to other brands in the category.
Significantly different to Newspaper Norm at 90% c.l.

10. 83% of respondents were able to feedback specific elements of the messaging with 42% generally correct in many aspects of message comprehension (the bottom two categories)

11. What did the respondents say about the ad?
Different to expectations
Healthy and fresh
Offers ideas/solutions
I like the ad because it shows nice looking food that is also healthy, and informative. Most other ads I've seen aren't as informative or descriptive.
Tailoring the ad to the health and wellbeing articles on the page seems like advertising being made in to news.
healthy and fresh
As I am a real "foodie", I really looked at and enjoyed reading this ad - I generally take little notice of ads.
I think it is a very good ad, showing what you can ad to the rice cakes to make a very tasty and healty light meal or snack
I don't like rice cakes so was not interested
It's a good idea putting the sandwich ideas in the ad, makes you want to try it more, something different.

12. The word cloud shows the most common language associated with the ad plays back key messages very strongly.

13. Newspaper Norm
Significantly different to Newspaper Norm at 90% c.l.
Rolemap investigates how consumers responded to the newspaper advertising.
It measures response against 6 key advertising roles that newspaper advertising can perform
Rolemap statements to the left of the graph show the statements that define the six roles. The respondent is asked: Thinking about the newspaper ad, which of the following statements below would you agree with?’
(Mark as many or as few as you want)
This is a high performing ad, achieving significantly high results versus Newspaper Norms for driving Affinity, generating Reappraisal and encouraging a Call to Action

14. Newspaper Average
Significantly different to Newspaper Norm at 90% c.l.
This ad significantly drives three key ‘actions’ that lead directly to purchase intention and long term brand awareness.

15. Comparison with other ads
Comparison with other ads

16. Comparitive ads
February 2012
May 2010
November 2011

17. Food performs well in newspapers
The Vita Weat ad comparing their lack of flavour enhancers versus a competitive brand performs well against all Role Map measures, while the Praise recipe ad helped them gain Affinity, Reappraisal and Call to Action

18. The ‘”light” message
February 2012
February 2012
March 2011

19. ‘Light’ and practical is a winning message
Comparing the strategy of the Sunrice ad to those of Diet Coke and Special K, we see a much stronger result for Sunrice in respect to Brand metrics and Call to Action. This may be due to the useful information Sunrice provides in terms of a healthy lunch, more than the depiction of an image some readers may find an unrealistic goal.

20. “This ad encourages me to think differently about the brand”
Our FMCG Top Ten* : Reappraisal
“This ad encourages me to think differently about the brand”
* Across 68 ads tested from 2008 to Feb 2012

21. This is a good example of a food advertiser using a practical application of the product to drive renewed product consideration and trial
The ad positions the product as relevant and different versus competitors and drives a strong call to action
Message comprehension was clear, and off the back of the ad, purchase intentions were significantly above Newspaper Averages
We would consider this ad to be amongst our ‘high performers’ and it sits within our Top Ten for FMCG products driving brand reappraisal as a result of their Newspaper advertising strategy.
Food is a growing category for newspaper advertising and we are seeing more and more food advertisers setting the bar for effective newspaper communication.

22. Top Performers on Rolemap
Top Performers on Rolemap

23. 6.2x 5x 2.4x 2.9x 8.0x 3.8x Higher than norm Higher than norm
All newspaper norm. February 2012 (Updated monthly)

25. Established in 2006 by the major Australian newspaper publishers:
News Limited
Fairfax Media (including Rural Press)
APN News and Media
West Australian Newspapers
Represents paid national, metropolitan, regional and community titles.
Primary aims:
To promote newspapers as a powerful medium for advertisers
To ensure that newspapers are perceived as being contemporary and relevant in a transforming media landscape

26. Creation of All Newspaper norms
Testing of randomly selected newspaper display ads
5,100 ad observations in total
40 test ads, 100+ observations per ad
Population representative sample of the five mainland state capitals
Conducted online by Ipsos Media CT, July-August 2008
Sample size 1,737

27. Newspapers are a powerful medium to utilise across a broad range of strategic roles.
Six strategic advertising roles have been validated both qualitatively and quantitatively, resulting in the creation of Role Map, one of two proprietary newspaper metrics.
Role Map demonstrates how consumers connect with newspaper advertising across the six roles, comparing the performance of creative against a footprint of all ads tested.
The six strategic roles were originally identified via research by the Newspaper Marketing Agency in the UK and have subsequently been validated in both quantitative and qualitative research in Australia.
It’s well known that newspapers are very powerful in delivering information and call to action campaigns, and the grey footprint on the Role Map chart of all retail ads tested reinforces this.
What is less well known is that newspapers can also be used by advertisers, including retail advertisers, to effectively:
build brands (Affinity)
challenge people’s thinking (Re/appraisal)
raise important social issues (Public Agenda)
and build on other media activity, particularly television (Extension)
Retail average
Statements are tailored to be appropriate to the advertising category. 27

28. Newspapers are recognised as an effective medium for delivering a Call to Action.
Action Map, the third proprietary newspaper metric, expands on this strategic role to provide an understanding of the types of action a newspaper ad inspires.
Measured via forced exposure, people are asked about the actions they would consider taking (or have taken) as a result of seeing the ad.
New measure introduced in March 2010, norm not yet available. 28

29. Another proprietary newspaper metric provides a set of creative diagnostics unique to the attributes of newspaper advertising. They’ve been developed to help identify areas for improvement where results across other brand and advertising measures may require further analysis and interrogation.
The Newspaper Creative Diagnostics are tailored to unique attributes of newspaper advertising.
These measures help better understand the ‘why’ behind lower performing ads.
Statements are tailored to be appropriate to the advertising category.
Retail average 29