analyzing the creative content of advertising and the evaluation of advertising.

1. ANALYZING CREATIVE CONTENT
ADVERTISING EVALUATION
BY
Zarmeen Durrani

2. ANALYZING THE CONTENT
For a media organization, the main purpose of content
analysis is to evaluate and improve its programming.
Two main ways of content analysis for advertising
 Rhetorical analysis
 Semiotic analysis

3. RHETORIC ANALYSIS
 Rhetorical criticism analyzes the symbolic artifacts
of discourse, the words, phrases, images, gestures,
performances, texts, films, etc. that people use to
communicate.
 Rhetorical analysis shows how the artifacts work, how
well they work, and how the artifacts, inform and
instruct, entertain, and convince and persuade the
audience; as such, discourse includes the possibility
of morally improving the reader, the viewer, and the
listener.

4. What is the ad doing to its audience?
What is the purpose of ad?
How it is convincing the audience?

5. SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS
 Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols.
Advertisements have many hidden signs and
meanings in it for example brand name, logo,
package design, color, punch line and trade mark
etc.
 The objective of semiotics is to learn and
interpret the message which is conveyed in
advertisements. The different elements of
advertisements can be interpreted at two levels.
• outside level
• second is original level.

6.  The outside level uses signs creatively to create an
image or character for the product. These signs can be
images, words, fonts, colors and slogan.
 The original level is made up of different unseen
meanings. The arrangement of images, words, colors,
and slogan must be interpreted by the audience or
consumer.
 Semiotic analysis is therefore, perhaps the basic
building block in constructing ideologies.
 The key to content analysis is the process of
understanding the signifier and the signified in the
advertisement.

7. Code Analysis
 The concept of the code is very important in semiotics.
 Codes are very important in advertising communication
as a code is an established meaning across the society.
 For example “Dood si safeedi nirma se aaye”.
 It informs that milk is a symbol of ultimate whitening
and this meaning is same in all cultures. So there is zero
probability of its misinterpretation.

8. Visual Analysis
 The visual analysis of the advertisements is the analysis
of the elements of the advertisements like- sign, symbol
and image etc.
 Visual analysis helps us to find out how visuals
communicate and which element of advertisement is
more communicative.
Image Analysis
 This approach seeks to break down the elements of a
given image and to find out now the meaning in the
image is constructed into it. In fact, there is often more
meanings in the image than there seemed to be at first.

9. ADVERTISING EVALUATION
 It is an attempt to measure whether the time, talents and
the treasure invested in the creative activity has resulted
in attaining the goal of profit maximization to the
advertiser and the maximization of satisfaction to the
consumers

10. EVALUATION TESTS
 Pre testing
 Concurrent testing
 Post testing

11. PRE TESTING
 Pre testing follow the universal law ‘’Prevention is better
than cure’’
 Pre testing help the advertiser to make a final go or go
decision about finished or nearly finished advertisement

12. METHODS FOR PRE-TESTING
ADVERTISING
Print advertising
 Direct questioning: respondents are asked about specific
questions about the.
 Focus group: 8-10 people participate in discussion &
interview. Role of moderator is crucial.
 Portfolio test: one group of respondents is exposed to a
portfolio of test ads interspersed among other ads &
editorial matter. Another group sees the portfolio without
editorial matter.
 Order of merit test: respondents see two or more
alternate ads & arrange them in rank order.

13.  Paired comparison test: respondents compare each ad in
a group.
 Mock magazine test: ads to be tested are stripped into a
magazine which is left with respondents for a specified
time.
 Direct mail test: two or more ads are mailed to different
potential customers on a mailing list to test which ad
attracts more orders.

14. Television and radio advertising
 Central location test: respondents see test commercial film in a
central location such as shopping centre.
 Clutter test: test commercials along with non competing control
commercials are shown to respondents to determine their
effectiveness, measure comprehension & attitude shifts & detect
weak points.
 Trailer test: respondents see or listen to commercials in trailers at
shopping centers & receive coupons for the advertised products.

15.  Theatre test: respondents use electronic equipment to
indicate what they like or dislike as they view TV
commercials shown in theatre setting.
 Live telecast test: test commercials are shown on closed
circuit or cable TV & subsequently respondents are
interviewed by telephone.
 Sales experiment: alternative radio or TV commercials
run in two or more markets.

16. CONCURRENT TESTING
 Concurrent test is evaluated throughout the whole
advertisement execution process.
 Test are conducted while audience is exposed to different
type of media

17. Consumer Diaries
Diaries are provided to a selected customers. They are also
informed to record the details of advertisement they watch,
listen or read. The result obtained from such a survey
reveals the effectiveness of advertisement

18. Electronic devices
Now a days electronic devices are widely used to measure
the effectiveness of advertisement. They are mainly used in
broadcast media. These are auto meters track electronic
units etc

19. Co-incidental surveys
Calls are made during the time program broadcast, the
respondents are asked whether their radio or television is
on, and if so, to what station or program it is tuned? The
results of the survey are used to determine the share of
response for the advertisement or the program.

20. PRO TESTING
Post testing is done to know to what extent the advertising
objectives are achieved
Five broad categories of post testing methods:
 Aided recall (recognition-readership)
 Unaided recall
 Attitude tests
 Inquiry tests
 Sales tests

21.  Recall refers to a measure of proportion of a sample
audience that can recall an ad as having seen.
 In aided recall respondents are shown certain ads with
the name of the sponsor or brand concealed & then asked
whether their previous exposure was through reading,
viewing or listening.
 In unaided recall respondents are asked without prompt
whether they read, saw or heard advertising message.

22.  Inquiry refers to checking the effectiveness of ads in
print media on the basis of which consumers respond by
requesting for more information.
 Inquiry may depend upon phone calls received from
interested persons, coupons returned or requests for free
samples.

23. Sales tests: comparing past sales with current sales.
Attitude tests: to measure effectiveness of the ad campaign in
creating a favorable image for a brand or a company.
5 techniques of attitude testing
 direct questioning,
 rating scales,
 checklists,
 semantic differential & partially structured interviews.