Part of the team

Editor's note: Tim Huberty is advertising research manager with Minneapolis-based Fallon McElligott advertising agency. He is also an adjunct instructor in the graduate programs in management at The College of St. Thomas, St. Paul.

Over the past decade, the Fallon McElligott (FM) agency has won more awards than any other agency in the United States. Its creative product has been praised extensively in both the trade and popular press. This distinctive style of advertising has given rise to a "Minneapolis school" of advertising. In fact, Minneapolis, as an ad community, is so hot, that multi-billion dollar advertising agencies have gone so far as to open satellite offices in the Twin Cities.

What's the secret of this success? Why does Fallon McElligott continue to win awards year after year? Actually, there isn't any secret to FM's success. Instead, it's just a matter of common sense teamwork.

Working together

One of the secrets of FM's success obviously lies in teamwork. But creativity is not a process or a possession of a single department, but all departments working together.

The agency's creative inspiration does not spring forth accidentally. FM's creatives do not sit around, waiting for lightning bolts of creativity to strike them. Instead, they work with everyone else in the agency to create advertising that not only wins awards, but, more importantly, sells the client's product. When a creative wins an award at FM, everyone celebrates.

Realizing that the first step of marketing research lies in secondary research, FM has two full-time secondary research people. A complete set of SMRB volumes is on file in the Research department (a second set is in the Media department). Besides subscribing to several database services, FM maintains an extensive list of periodicals that are routed to people throughout the agency. Finally, the FM library has hundreds of marketing-related texts as well as subject folders filling more than 25 file drawers. FM's creatives take ample advantage of all of these sources. They do their homework up front, immersing themselves in a subject area before putting pen to paper.

As part of the creative process, writers and art directors frequently sit down and bounce ideas off account people-and even research folk. For example, when preparing print ads for a marketing research company (several of which have appeared in this magazine), both the writer and art director presented several preliminary ideas to the agency team-which included a research person. This "what do you think, are we headed in the right direction?" attitude helped produce ads that have been recognized in several award shows.

Pre-testing copy-who needs it?

FM does not pretest its advertising. First of all, no research methodologies have proven capable of predicting success in the marketplace. In addition, "big ideas" are all-too-often eliminated because they don't fit the norms of a test methodology.

This is not to say that several copytesting companies have not courted FM's cooperation. The physiological, the psychological, and the mechanical copytesting services have all offered-at their expense-to test FM's creative to "prove" that their systems work. A few years ago, a "galvanometer skin response" company tested several pieces of FM's pro bono work and determined that the "weakest" ad was a commercial which had been produced for a local children's guidance center. Instead, "real market" results repeatedly demonstrated that the testing technique was one of the "weakest."

The availability of a vast array of secondary research information, and the concept of teamwork, virtually eliminates the need for pretesting any copy. Instead, creatives and account people alike adhere to one of the agency's founding principles, i.e., that research dollars can be most effectively invested up front, in identifying market opportunities, attitudes, segments, trends, competitors, etc. and evaluating creative concepts and positions. These up front investments allow the advertising professional to develop "big ideas" that break through and provide creative leverage. FM believes that up front investment in research leads to strong, well-directed strategies than can then produce on-target, effective advertising.

Testing communication by measuring empathy

FM does use research to refine its advertising, to make great creative even better. These tests are referred to as "communications checks." After the ads have been produced, a communications check determines what the ads' strongest points are, in order to use these strengths in the development of future creative.

These communications checks are also referred to as "Empathy Testing." It's a form of communications research that gives agencies-and clients-the opportunity to get inside consumers' heads via a series of diagnostic questions.

As in many systems, respondents are asked a series of up front, open-ended questions about the ads they see. However, rather than settling for an eight to ten word sentence fragment, we follow up respondents' initial statements with extensive probing. More comprehensive than a five-minute interview, Empathy Testing is a 25-30 minute interrogation that enables us to pinpoint what works in the execution, why it works, and how it works. We get inside consumers' heads to discover what they are feeling and why they are feeling that way.

The real key, however, is in how that information is used. Respondents' actual verbatims are featured extensively in the research presentation and written report so that the client, account team, and creatives can share and identify with the consumers' feelings. They can feel and hear what consumers have to say in their own words.

Empathy Testing combines qualitative information with a quantitative sample. The system can tell anyone what percentage of respondents recognized an ad's main idea. But those percentages tell only half of the story; respondents tell the other. Extensive use of respondent verbatims gives the client, account team, and creatives the best of both possible worlds-cold, hard numbers and warm, soft feelings.

Respondent comments

Advertising is a subjective process. It is only through careful reading of respondents' own comments that we can determine whether or not the advertising has not only captured consumers' attention, but has actually moved them.

A year ago, FM produced an ad for one of its financial services clients that presented a bank account for consumers 55 years and older, billed as the bank account "you've waited your whole life for." The ad showed pictures of a man at four stages in his life, including a photo taken while he was in the military. To ensure that the ad would have an impact, we felt that the target audience had to "internalize" the ad. It certainly did, as illustrated by this respondent's comment:

"Yeah, I remember that time. Everybody was united for a single cause. Those were the days. That's when I married Grace. You know, we had seven kids. I guess it ain't too late to be saving, is it? I'm a (bank name) customer, you know. I didn't know they had an account like that."

Empathy Testing allows us to tap into respondents' feelings, to measure an ad's strength by how much it is being internalized. Several copytesting services focus too extensively upon the negative aspects of an execution. An ad is often killed if it generates any amount of dislike. However, by reading respondents' comments, the ad agency-and the client-can discover how powerful, painful, and effective "negative" feelings can be.

Recently, FM produced a pro bono television spot for an organization dedicated to increasing awareness of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Intended to emphasize the fact that a cure hasn't been found for SIDS, the ad features several seconds of a baby crying in the background, until, at the end of the ad, the crying abruptly stops. A printed message tells the story: "Until we find a cure, we'll have to keep them awake." The target audience, young mothers, certainly recognized that message:

"I thought about the fear that we all have that this might happen to us. I go through this every time my baby sleeps longer than he should. "Until we find a cure, we'll have to keep them awake." That's profound. It is a drastic measure. You want to find out if there's something you can do."

Testing advertising by tracking advertising

Perhaps the greatest amount of advertising testing done by FM is done via tracking advertising. Virtually every one of FM's clients conducts advertising tracking, either with the agency or via their own internal research departments. Tracking studies are conducted for most of FM's clients to monitor awareness as well as to measure the staying power of a campaign.

Tracking is conducted in two ways: at regular intervals or immediately prior to and immediately following a wave of advertising. More importantly, FM's advertising tracking measures shifts in attitudes rather than just shifts in awareness for both its clients and their competitors.

Periodic tracking is conducted at six month intervals on the recreational product of an FM client. Respondents are drawn from a list of subscribers from a magazine in which the advertising is placed. In a 20-minute interview, respondents are asked about their awareness of the various brands and their advertising. But that's not all. Respondents are also asked to rate those brands on such attitudinal items as durability, price-value, and brand name. Both awareness and attitudinal scores are carefully analyzed and the advertising is issued its biannual "report card" (with actual letter grades).

At the same time, a form of empathy testing is also used. The importance of respondents' own verbatim comments cannot be overestimated. Both the client presentation and final report make extensive use of these verbatim comments. For example:

"I remember the ad with the lemon. It says, "Spot the lemon before we do." That really gets your attention. And you stop and try to find it Those are great ads-for a great product."

When tracking is conducted immediately prior to or after the advertising has run, it is performed via mail questionnaire or telephone interview. An example: a paper products manufacturer ran a series of ads in several magazines. Before any of these ads were run, randomly selected subscribers to each of the magazines were sent questionnaires asking them to rate this brand and its competitors on familiarity as well as several attitudinal items. The day after the last issue in the advertising wave had been circulated, a second mailing of the questionnaire was sent to a different group of subscribers. The results of the two waves were then carefully evaluated. Once again, both shifts in awareness and attitudinal scores were carefully examined.

Why the emphasis on tracking attitudes rather than just awareness? We feel attitudes are a truer indicator of the long-term impact of the advertising. More often than not, awareness scores are merely measures of media weight and/or a brand's long-term equity. Throwing media money into the marketplace is no measure of an ad's effectiveness. Rather, measuring attitudes allows us to determine whether or not a campaign is moving people, instead of just determining which company is spending the most media dollars.

One FM client, an apparel manufacturer, spends most of its media dollars in the period right before the new school year begins. So does every other apparel company. Furthermore, our client does not have the media war chest of the category leader. In fact, the category leader outspends our client so dramatically that respondents reflexively mention the leader when asked to name the "first brand that comes to mind."

However, by measuring attitudinal shifts, we see how advertising works more subtly to change long-entrenched attitudes towards our client. Our client's "top of mind" awareness may never overtake the category leader's, but shifts on such attitudinal items as "fit," "make me look good" and "comfort," truly measure the impact of the client's advertising.

Summary

Advertising research is alive and well at Fallon McElligott. As noted earlier, outstanding teamwork is the key ingredient to producing outstanding ads. The research plays an integral role in that process. The contributions of research come via checking communication by measuring consumer empathy and tracking advertising's impact by monitoring awareness and attitudes. This process has been a successful one, and will continue as FM continues to win awards-and clients.