Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

How Do You Calculate Value Of Awareness?

Posted by adspiker on 4/13/2011 at 9:23 AM ET 250 Points
I'm doing a rationale to demonstrate a localized event can be less expensive (Mktg spend) vs a traditional advertisement. I can show that this event will not only generate greater conversions (take rate) but how do I calculate the value of the awareness (via the event promotion) for those who are now aware but did not/could not take advantage of the event.

My gut tells me that a traditional ad cost (which reaches far greater audience than that targeted for this event) of $18,000/nbr
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  • Posted by adspiker on 4/13/2011 at 9:25 AM Author
    Sorry, got cut off...
    /nbr of impressions is a spend of about $2 per impression. If so, does that mean that through this event's promotion I generated $2xNbr if people made aware? Is it that simple?
  • Posted on 4/13/2011 at 11:01 AM Accepted
    It depends on how much of an impact the exposure made on those people. It's not just a media calculation like reach, frequency or CPM.

    Said another way, AWARENESS is generated by effectively communicating some kind of message. If someone sees your name but then forgets it 5 minutes later, that's hardly "awareness," even though some media rep might tell you that you delivered an exposure.

    So to answer your question, NO, it's not that simple ... even though the calculation you're making is itself very simple. You need to find a way to measure recall of your intended message if you want to learn about awareness.

    Example in another context: Some products with visual appeal will create terrific awareness when they're shown on television, but fall flat with the same level of exposure in a radio commercial. Both media can deliver exposures, but only one is likely to create real awareness.
  • Posted by adspiker on 4/13/2011 at 12:07 PM Author
    Gotcha.
    So it's clearly the old game of Athentic Awareness (lasting recall) vs Synthetic Awareness (short recall).
    If I'm using the terms the client uses "our full page ad was read by X# of readers and they deduce awareness as cost/impression, can I also follow that logic since I'm reporting the same back to the client (in their terms, right or wrong)?
  • Posted on 4/13/2011 at 2:45 PM Accepted
    Sure. You can become an enabler for a client that doesn't understand the right questions to ask. I'd just be careful not to use the term "awareness" when you report cost-per-impression.

    If this were outdoor advertising, would you count impressions as the number of vehicles passing the sign each day times the average number of people in each vehicle? Would you count children? Teens? People who live in nursing homes? People who don't speak or read the language? Etc. Etc.

    One other factor: Reach vs. Frequency. What if it requires 5 impressions before someone is "aware?" Then anyone who only sees the message 3 times, for example, isn't "aware." And if you get 10,000 impressions because 5,000 people each see the message twice then your awareness is still zero. Same if 10,000 different people each see the message exactly once.
  • Posted by adspiker on 4/13/2011 at 8:43 PM Author
    Killer follow up Goodman. All great stuff and understood. You illustrate the spider's nest of perpetuating the client's (poor) use of terminology and the slippery slope it presents for me. Thanks
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