A: A great TV Advertising Commercial – the kind that drives new web visits, call volume, store traffic, appointments, reservations, requests for proposal, etc. — always starts with a unique, new insight into your core customers. Turning insight into a TV Advertising Commercial that stands out and delivers the desired business results in an increasingly noisy marketplace requires the application of proven advertising techniques.

So what advertising techniques are proven to break through the noise and clutter? Let’s look at the TV Advertising research. M.J. Schlinger’s Viewer Reaction Profile (VRP) is a good place to start if you want to understand what make a TV Advertising Commercial effective.  Schlinger’s Viewer Reaction Profile measures a person’s level of agreement (strongly disagree to strongly agree) with 32 descriptive statements about the advertising. The 32 statements are then grouped into seven key TV Advertising Commercial effectiveness dimensions:

     1. Entertainment Value (seven statements).

     2. Confusion Factor (four statements).

     3. Relevant Information (five statements).

     4. Brand Reinforcement (two statements).

     5. Empathy Factor (five statements).

     6. Familiarity Factor (three statements).

     7. Alienation Factor (six statements).

According to Schlinger’s research, high ratings from viewers on the Entertainment,  Relevant and Empathy dimensions correlates to higher levels of TV Advertising effectiveness.  Specifically, high ratings from viewers on these specific questions about their reaction to your TV Advertising Commercial correlates to higher levels of TV Advertising effectiveness.

  1. The commercial was lots of fun to watch and listen to.

  2. I thought it was clever and entertaining.

  3. The enthusiasm of the commercial is catching-it picks you up.

  4. I appreciate that it wasn’t just selling the product; it was also entertaining me.

  5. The characters (or persons) in the commercial capture your attention.

  6. The commercial keeps running through your mind after you’ve seen it.

  7. The commercial gave me a new idea.

  8. The commercial told me about a new product and I think I’d like to try it.

  9. During the commercial I thought how that product might be useful to me.

  10. That’s a good brand and I wouldn’t hesitate recommending it to others.

  11. I know that the advertised brand is dependable and reliable.

  12. The commercial was very realistic-that is, true to life.

  13. I felt that the commercial was acting out what I feel at times.

  14. I felt like I was right there in the commercial experiencing the same thing.

  15. I learned something from the commercial that I didn’t know before.

Research Sources:Strasheim, Arien; Pitt, Leyland; Albert Caruana,. “Psychometric properties of the Schlinger Viewer Response Profile (VRP): Evidence from a large sample. (Report).” Journal of Advertising. 2007.George M. Zinkhan, Scot Burton (1989), “REFINING A MULTIDIMENSIONAL PROFILE FOR TELEVISION COMMERCIALS: AN APPLICATION OF TARGER ANALYSIS”, in Advances in Consumer Research Volume 16, eds. Thomas K. Srull, Provo, UT : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 711-718.

A: A Critical Customer Desire, Clearly Communicated as a Competitively Distinct Brand Benefit.How we create, measure & evaluate a TV Advertising Commercial‘s effectiveness is quite different from most traditional advertising agencies that like to talk about their work in terms of amusing, clever or creative.At Quenzel & Associates, making an effective TV Advertising Commercial starts with a clear understanding that we are salespeople and our job is to sell a client’s products and services.Like any great salesperson, we also like to keep score of what matters.  For a full-service advertising agency, keeping score of what matters means understanding what methods of communication are the most persuasive for selling a particular client’s products and services and what methods are the least persuasive.Over the years, our team has produced hundreds of TV Advertising Commercials that won in the marketplace. We’ve spent countless hours researching, testing and analyzing the commercials that worked the best for our clients… those TV Advertising Commercials that persuaded the most people to visit a website, call for more information, make a reservation, book an appointment, request a proposal or drive to a store. When we studied those TV Advertising Commercials that were extremely effective from the clients point of view — those commercials that truly persuaded people to take the desired action — we heard our client’s potential prospects & current customers describe the commercials as appealing, believable, convincing, effective, informative, likable, true to life & worth remembering.  When we studied those TV Advertising Commercials that didn’t work, we heard them described as confusing, dull, easy to forget, irritating, phony  & pointless.Our research into TV Advertising Commercials, across a variety of advertising categories (Travel Advertising, Retail Advertising, Medical Advertising &  Real Estate & Construction Advertising) shows the following Best Practices:

• Critical Customer Desire. Generating the desired marketing action requires the delivery of a highly meaningful message. The most effective TV Advertising Commercials grow out of a clear understanding of the key drivers of customer satisfaction and delivery of a highly meaningful message to the target audience.
• Clearly Communicated. To survive the ‘sensory overload’ today’s noisy marketplace causes, viewers actively filter out most messages.  The most effective TV Advertising Commercials attract a viewers attention by breaking through their active filters with an emotional sensory connection and then helps them process & comprehend the message by relating it to their past experiences & memories or desired expectations.
• Competitively Distinct Brand Benefit. Generating the desired marketing action requires a clear understanding of the desired customer experience. The most effective TV Advertising Commercials consistently present the customer’s desired experience as a competitively unique benefit of the brand.

Welcome to Quenzel & Associates, Inc.

Welcome to the new Quenzel & Associates Agency Blog. Or, should I say Blogs?The new Quenzel & Associates Agency Blog is actually three blogs… a Branding Blog, an Advertising Blog and a Web Marketing Blog.Although your Branding, Advertising & Web Marketing efforts should always be carefully integrated for maximum effectiveness & efficiency,  we separated our old Agency Blog into 3 content-specific blogs, so we can provide you — our clients (and prospective clients) — with a more focused conversation on your specific topic of interest — Branding, Advertising or Web Marketing.We will retain our Q&A-format for sharing interesting information.You can expect a new post every month. More often, if we can be informative.Thanks!

Quenzel & Associates, Inc. is an integrated branding, advertising & web marketing agency that provides experienced leadership, strategic insights and competitive advantage to clients in the following market segments:

• Travel Destinations, Resorts & Hospitality.
• Sports, Recreation & Leisure Activity
• Medical, Professional & Business Services
• Upscale Retail, Restaurants & Consumer Services.
• Real Estate, Construction, Home Improvement.
• Event Sponsorships & Event Marketing.