PRETESTING TV COMMERCIALS - METHODS, MEASURES, AND CHANGING AGENCY ROLES

Research directors with the largest 200 agencies and, advertising exec utives with the largest 200 advertisers were surveyed to examine their views on the current state of TV commercial pretesting. One-hundred a nd one agency researchers and 89 ad executives returned completed ques tionnaires (adjusted response rates of 52% and 49.7%), which asked the m 23 closed-ended questions about (1) the methods and measures used to pretest TV commercial executions; (2) the perceived role of the agenc y versus the client in the selection of pretest methods, and (3) perce ived changes in the role of the agency research department in TV comme rcial pretest research. Of those responding, 18 percent of the agency researchers and 19 percent of the advertising executives indicated tha t their agencies do not pretest TV commercials for assigned brands. Ba sed on the responses of the 83 agency researchers and 72 advertising e xecutives whose agencies pretest commercial executions, the findings s uggest that the role of the agency research department has changed ove r the past 10 years. Most notably, there has been a proliferation in t he use of qualitative methods and measures in TV commercial pretest re search.