Is Most Advertising a Waste of Money?

Paris, France - For a profession that is supposed to cause and lead change, the $300 billion global advertising industry has not evolved well, writes John Hallward in an essay, "Money Down the Drain?" In fact, despite the knowledge gained over the past 75 years, many advertising practices are money wasters, adds Hallward, leader of global product development for Ipsos-ASI, The Advertising Research Company. And the solution, he argues, doesn't rest with ad agencies as much as with advertisers themselves. The essay appears in Ipsos Ideas, the new global newsletter published by the Ipsos Group, the world's second largest survey-based marketing research company. Ipsos Ideas will be published five times a year in English, French and Spanish, and will feature essays by leaders of the company's core practices in advertising, customer loyalty, marketing, media, and public affairs research. "Our researchers are well-known among clients and within our industry as having deep category, analytical and methodological expertise," says Jean-Marc Lech, Co-Chairman of Ipsos and the publisher of Ipsos Ideas. "As a global marketing and public opinion research institution, we're privileged to hear from millions of individuals around the world. "What we are doing through Ipsos Ideas is sharing our insight and views, along with some challenging opinions, with a larger audience outside our core constituencies." Last year, Lech notes, Ipsos companies conducted more than 6 million interviews with citizens around the world on behalf of more than 4,500 clients from business, trade groups, citizen associations, government, and non-government organizations. And Lech promises that while Ipsos Ideas will always be based on solid research and data, it will also be opinionated and entertaining. In the first issue of Ipsos Ideas, John Hallward takes on the world of advertising, where an estimated $300 billion is spent each year globally. In the packaged goods industry, it is estimated that spending on advertising and promotions account for 25% of sales. Hallward, with more than 15 years experience in in-market advertising, questions why so few ad campaigns achieve their goals and what advertisers could do to improve things. As well, he tackles head-on the criticism that "researchers kill good creative ideas." "This happens and I'm sorry it does," Hallward says. "But our leading copy tests are accurate about 80% of the time, which means we have an 80% chance of preventing a bad ad from being used....which can save (the advertiser) considerable amounts of money." Lech himself weighs in with a provocative essay titled "Falling in love...With a Brand". "Good ad creative is always money well spent. But what constitutes good ad creative? Simply put, a good ad is one that evokes the feeling of `falling in love'..." The full text of each issue is available online or by electronic subscription. About Ipsos The Ipsos Group is the second largest-survey based marketing research company in the world, and has been listed on the Paris Stock Exchange since 1999. Ipsos companies offer a full suite of research services, guided by industry experts and bolstered by advanced analytics and methodologies in advertising research, customer loyalty research, marketing research, media research, and public affairs research. Member companies, employing more than 3,800 staff in 35 countries, also offer in each of their specializations a full range of off-line and on-line research products, as well as custom, syndicated, omnibus and panel services. For more information on this release, please contact: In North America Dan Maceluch 604.893.1635 In Europe Charlotte Vigne 33-1-53-68-2807