Advertising Assessment—Myth or Reality?

In this paper the topic of advertising assessment is revisited, given the widespread availability of low-cost microcomputer modelling developments. It is recognised that when regression analysis became popular in the 1970s with the advent of the mainframe computer, much hype and little marketing benefit ensued. It is argued that simply speeding up the old practices of the 1970s, which rightly fell from favour, will provide no benefit to the advertising industry. ‘What is new’, the ‘benefits’ of advertising assessment, and where it is applicable are described. It is suggested that not only does technology facilitate data analysis, but also, critically, modelling methodology itself has changed, with a greater ability to remain close to one's data. As a consequence, it is argued that improved advertising decisions can only be made when the other elements of the marketing mix are formally taken into account. The methodology described in the paper has been developed and successfully applied in a number of sectors for different UK clients of Coopers and Lybrand, and Collett Dickenson and Pearce.