TESTING: THE IMPORTANCE OF PRE-LAUNCH CAMPAIGN SUCCESS By Ryan Donohue

nationalresearch.com ADVERTISING TESTING: THE IMPORTANCE OF PRE-LAUNCH CAMPAIGN SUCCESS

Why is Advertising Testing Important? Advertising is expensive. Most hospitals and health systems will spend WHY PRETEST YOUR ADVERTISING? more money on advertising than any other method of communication. With shifting payment paradigms, increasing competition, and the A common advertising sin is pre-launch pride. rise of consumerism, reaching the right audience with the right To create a great campaign, a good deal of message has become incredibly important. Factor in the heavy cost of personal investment occurs. Once the campaign advertising and healthcare marketers and planners cannot aff ord to miss train gets rolling, it can be diffi cult to pause with their message. and check for errors. It’s important to seek a Advertising is matched in its importance only by its instability. qualifi ed, unbiased perspective to evaluate your Strategies change. Agencies change. Messages change. Mediums campaign before you go too far. The easy route change. The market itself changes. Advertising must adapt to stay to take is enlisting a fellow associate, a spouse, applicable to audience needs. To do this, advertising can benefi t greatly from research. Since all advertising aims to infl uence its or a friend to review campaign creative but audience, testing its eff ectiveness on members of that very audience this opinion is neither qualifi ed nor unbiased. before campaign launch adds quantifi able insight and direction. By Ever heard the tale of the marketer who asked entrusting research as a campaign anchor, the pretesting process can a doctor to review an ad? The doctor suggested inject stability into the campaign development process and mitigate more pictures of doctors, even gracious enough the inherent risk of bad advertising. to supply his or her own picture. In reality, this pitfall awaits any marketer who doesn’t seek the genuine feedback of the real target audience. “With shifting payment paradigms, increasing Use AdVoice to reach those who make or break competition, and the rise of consumerism, your campaign in the long run — consumers — reaching the right audience with the right to ensure your campaign is on the right track. message has become incredibly important.”

ELIMINATING THE DEVIL IN THE DETAILS The Market Insights Approach Snowing in Little Rock? Windy in Atlanta? Sunny in Portland? AdVoice can shine a lot on to Advertising incredibly small details, but the type of details Market Insights by National Research Corporation has three consumers pay attention to greatly. Pretesting decades of experience in helping hospitals and health systems can help keep an out-of-state agency in check understand how their advertising will impact their market. In 2008, so the creative doesn’t get off -base in the with budgets in freefall and advertising strategies in peril, Market believability category. Insights developed an advertising testing solution — AdVoice — to quantify the value of advertising. AdVoice is rooted in the belief that On a more serious note, AdVoice can expose your advertising will be more eff ective if it can be pre-tested on an audience. This approach allows for a level of creative refi nement during campaign relationship with your agency — good or bad. development that otherwise would not be possible. Agency should be a partner in the entire process. The pretest involves two parts: quantitative survey and qualitative Agency should be accountable. You should meet forum. A quantitative survey is deployed to assess creative the entire creative team, not just the account performance and provides statistical evidence of possible campaign director, and AdVoice provides license to do success or failure. Then, a qualitative forum is held to get beneath the so. As an agency, AdVoice can benefi t you by numbers to gather consumers’ direct feedback in their own words. The quantifying your value and the value of the ideas dual process of quantitative and qualitative research is the bedrock of you put into action for your client. the unique approach that Market Insights takes to advertising. It’s All About the Brief No campaign should begin without a creative brief outlining the communication

OBJECTIVE objective and main idea of the campaign, along with the overall business objective. This document becomes the compass for the entire campaign and TARGET is essential during initial creative development. A media strategy brief is also OUTCOME helpful as a companion piece to understand how advertising will be placed and promoted. Market Insights Account Managers can show you examples of strong creative briefs from previous campaigns.

Don’t Forget the Creative For the AdVoice process to get underway there is the matter of supplying actual creative to test. AdVoice is welcoming to most formats (no radio, website testing has limitations, etc.) but the most common question is: how far along does creative need to be for testing? While not every fi nishing touch need be applied, creative should be at a near-fi nal phase so that pretest results are accurate. Market Insights Account Managers can help guide you through the submission process and determine what’s best for your creative submission.

The Perfect Marriage for Ad Pretesting The dual process of quantitative survey and qualitative feedback powers the AdVoice pretesting engine. A quantitative study of 100 area consumers develops a statistical understanding of how creative is performing against key metrics. A qualitative focus group of typically 8-10 area consumers provides in- depth, personal feedback on how the creative is perceived. Once fi nished, this dual process sheds full light on the ability of the advertising to resonate with consumers and achieve campaign goals.

The Entire Process in One Deck The entire AdVoice process comes together during the results presentation. Market Insights Account Managers walk through the entire pretest, including CREATIVE BRIEF everything from quantitative benchmarking of AdVoice’s 3 key measures OBJECTIVE ADVOICE RESULTS PRESENTATION against established national norms to word-for-word individual consumer TARGET feedback on the smallest of creative detail. AdVoice clients come away OUTCOME from the results presentation with a clear understanding of the creative’s advertising performance. CASE EXAMPLE: GENERATING BUZZ & BUY-IN: ST. VINCENT’S HEALTHCARE

St. Vincent’s HealthCare in Jacksonville, Florida struggled with the same issue facing many hospitals and health systems: I have a great campaign now how do I get the advertising dollars I need to successfully execute it?

ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN St. Vincent’s HealthCare wanted to convey an image of compassionate care through an heavily featuring the power of their organizational Mission. St. Vincent’s Director of Kelly Brockmeier was no stranger to hospital advertising having worked for a competitor hospital in Jacksonville prior to joining St. Vincent’s. The system’s advertising agency of many years, Brown Parker & DeMarinis (BPD), was also familiar with the challenges as an agency focusing solely on healthcare. In the summer of 2011, the “St. Campaign” was born. It tied the “St.” element of “St. Vincent’s HealthCare” to positive care attributes. Concepts included “St. Compassion”, “St. Healing”, and “St. Dedication”. St. Vincent’s pegged actual employees to star in the campaign and shine a light on their deeply important Mission. BPD developed varied test creative across several mediums including , radio, print and outdoor. Plans unfolded to host all creative online using St. Vincent’s system website as a hub to highlight the campaign’s seamlessness across mediums while providing online visitors a portal to view all elements of the campaign in one place.

An example of St. Vincent’s advertising campaign which incorporated “St. Comforting/Compassion/Healing” positioning and featured real employees to boot. The response? Via AdVoice’s qualitative forum a consumer remarked, “The St Vincent’s caregiver stands out from the others. He makes the ad.”

Internal Communication of the Bold Variety directly to Market Insights. From there, the Market Insights For Brockmeier, BPD, and the entire St. Vincent’s marketing team recruited respondents, executed quantitative/qualitative team, the challenge was crystal clear: demonstrate the value of surveys, and compiled the fi ndings into a seamless report. The the “St.” campaign to secure the necessary budget to launch. entire AdVoice process was complete in three weeks. The jury They personally believed in the campaign and knew it could was no longer out on the “St.” campaign. The AdVoice results be successful but — a campaign is only as good as its budget. showed the campaign ads tested well in both the quantitative Without dollars, great campaign concepts eternally remain survey and the qualitative focus group. Consumers responded concepts. Brockmeier and company aimed big: they planned to well to the message, understood the ties to the St. Vincent’s present the ad campaign concepts to the entire St. Vincent’s Mission, and by extension its , and were infl uenced to leadership team, including the CEO, c-suite members, and an prefer and use St. Vincent’s after viewing. assortment of senior leaders with the aim to get full budgetary buy-in. In order to succeed they sought out the marketplace, the Agency Interaction very target audience of the campaign, to provide the necessary During the AdVoice process, St. Vincent’s marketing team’s evidence for the green light. partnership with BPD was harmonious. At times, creative can and will be fi ercely defended by its authors but BPD understood The Pretesting Process the importance of testing upfront and welcomed the AdVoice As with any advertising campaign, time is of the essence during process. The prospect of reducing internal scrutiny and development. “We wanted to move quickly,” Brockmeier protecting campaign development through pretesting was a explains, “to secure budget and get our campaign off the shared and valuable concept to both St. Vincent’s marketing ground.” St. Vincent’s HealthCare was a client of Market Insights team and BPD. “Our CEO is driven by numbers — not creative,” and had access to AdVoice, an advertising pretesting model Brockmeier explains. “We certainly needed creative inspiration that puts advertising campaigns in front of consumers before but it had to be paired with evidence that demonstrated its a single media dollar is spent. Through AdVoice, St. Vincent’s eff ectiveness. Our agency understood this and we were able to marketing team was able to submit their “St.” campaign creative collaborate to make changes with ease.” value of their proposal through measurement, Brockmeier and Key Measures Summary - Top Box company achieved the buy-in necessary to proceed. Buy-in Above. Beyond. through both the traditional budgetary means and also the Measures AdVoice Norm Signifcant vs. Norm Because. internal spirit of a job well done. Breakthrough 43%33% Directional vs. Norm A Fitting Premiere Brand ID (Very Easy) 44%38% Energized by approval and inspired by feedback, Brockmeier Utilize/ 34% and the marketing team worked with BPD to fully fl esh out the Very Likely 43% AdVoice Highs “St.” campaign creative and do fi nal refi nements using consumer Main Idea 75% - above beyond /compassionate care Breakthrough 71 insights provided through AdVoice. Once the campaign Relevance 39%27% Brand ID 54 was complete, they continued to innovate through internal Persuasion 64 Relevance 39 communications, this time with the employee screening event. Informative 43% 40% Informative 64 Often hospitals lightly communicate a new advertising campaign Likeability 56 to internal associates, or they don’t communicate it all. “We Likeability 52%31% Believability 67 wanted to do something special,” Brockmeier explained, “and Believable 42% 49% turn the typical screening into a full Hollywood-style premiere.” The St. Vincent’s marketing team popped popcorn, provided St. Vincent’s actual AdVoice pretest results using the top 8 metrics of refreshments, and lined seats in rows to give a movie theater advertising eff ectiveness. Performance was above expectation according feel to the screening room. Employees could conveniently come to the Market Insights database of AdVoice norms, save for Believability and go during the schedule-friendly two-day event. The best which became a post-approval focus during fi nal campaign edits. part of all? Employees were the stars. Because St. Vincent’s used real employees in their advertisements they had no issue with The Best Kind of Buy-In attendance as internal associates turned out in droves to see Bolstered by AdVoice feedback and inspired by teamwork, their fellow stars in action. The screening event was even topped St. Vincent’s marketing team built a persuasive internal off with behind-the-scenes footage and reinforced with verbatim presentation showing the benefi ts of investing in the “St.” quotes from actual consumers provided through the AdVoice campaign using actual AdVoice results to anchor their points. testing process. The interactivity of the screening left employees They presented to senior leaders as planned. By providing feeling in the know and engaged in the campaign. evidence of the “St.” campaign’s immense potential, they were given the funds to move forward with the campaign. Following Time to Go Live the presentation, St. Vincent’s CEO wasn’t just satisfi ed with the All that was left was to actually implement the campaign. campaign, he was thoroughly impressed. “We weren’t sure what Brockmeier, BPD and the St. Vincent’s marketing team felt to expect,” Brockmeier said, “after we fi nished, our CEO stood confi dent in their fi nal creative and ready for launch. Since up, asked the rest of the leadership group to join him, and gave AdVoice encouraged collaboration from the start, St. Vincent’s us a standing ovation. It was remarkable.” It’s hard to imagine a was able to move briskly in lockstep to complete the media CEO giving a standing ovation to a group of associates, let alone buying process and roll out the campaign. Soon, the “St.” any asking for advertising dollars, but St. Vincent’s bore witness campaign was a market reality in Jacksonville. to this very event. By working as a team and demonstrating the

RESULTS OF MANY KINDS The outpouring of positive feedback and support has been nearly overwhelming for Brockmeier and company. Comments, notes, and inquiries came from colleagues, competitors and actual consumers. The “St.” campaign’s pretest performance was a harbinger of future market success. Take the metric of “compassionate care” for example: AdVoice showed a lift in consumer reaction to St. Vincent’s ability to provide “compassionate care” after viewing the ad. What about after launching in the marketplace? The ability to track important advertising metrics shouldn’t end with the pretest. According to an ongoing Market Insights survey of Jacksonville consumers, of those who recalled St. Vincent’s advertising, 68.6 felt St. Vincent’s advertising conveyed the message they provide “compassionate care” in Q3 of 2011. By Q4, when the campaign was in full swing, the “compassionate care” metric grew to 77.2 percent. Using a larger market view, by the end of 2011, St. Vincent’s led all competitors in total advertising recall. “The outpouring of internal support and personal notes was incredible,” Brockmeier recalls, “and on a larger scale, the market seemed to follow suit in their positive reaction to the campaign.” Indeed the internal momentum of a great idea, an inspired team, a willing agency, and a dash of consumer feedback created a force that could not be slowed and resulted in a campaign that won’t soon be forgotten. ADVERTISING TESTING: THE IMPORTANCE OF PRE-LAUNCH CAMPAIGN SUCCESS Picky.Pick a highly qualified doctor.

The Three Key ADVOICE HIGHS: METRIC RECORD BREAKERS Measures of Advoice Once you start your AdVoice you have access to a library of regional and national pretesting benchmarks. What’s a good score for Breakthrough? While an expansive list of questions is presented Where should you rank in Relevance? For perspective, take a look at the to consumers during pretesting, AdVoice hones in current title holders for AdVoice’s three keys and a few more essential metrics: on three specifi c metrics for measurement: Pick a location near you. Picky.Pick a highly qualified doctor. Picky.ADVOICE METRIC SCORE CLIENT CAMPAIGN Breakthrough 71 John Muir “Picky Picky” 1. Breakthrough Does your ad “breakthrough” the clutter? Is it unique? Does it catch the eye? If your creative doesn’t instantly connect with the consumer it will easily disappear into the Brand ID 54 John Muir “Midlife Woman” noisy barrage of healthcare and especially non-healthcare advertising currently PickPick a John location Muir near Health. you. inundating your target audience. Picky.Picky.

Persuasion 51 Duke University “Challenging the Norm” 2. Brand Identifi cation 800-123-1234 johnmuirhealth.com Is your ad clearly branded? Can respondents connect the dots between brand and ad? Put consumers to the test and see if they can identify your brand in a competitive lineup. Relevance 49 Baylor University “Roots” Picky.Pick John Muir Health. 3. Persuasion Will your ad change consumer perception of you? Will respondents act favorably after viewing? 800-123-1234Believability 69 Baylor University “Roots” Learn if your campaign will infl uence consumers to johnmuirhealth.com utilize your services, and resonate enough for them to recommend you to others.

Informative 64 CHRISTUS “Santa Rosa” Using AdVoice’s three key measures, a campaign is thoroughly tested to ensure it has the best chance of market success. A campaign should capture the attention of the consumer, clearly tie itself to its brand, and enact a favorable change in the Likeability 55 CHOC “No Place Like CHOC” behavior of the target audience, translating into brand lift and higher market share.

In addition to the three keys, AdVoice asks: Is your campaign’s main idea translating to consumers? Do they fi nd your creative relevant? Is it informative? In addition to outside benchmarks, once you complete your fi rst AdVoice Is it likeable? Is it believable? It’s best to ask these you can set your own bar. Was your campaign a success? You now have your questions before a campaign goes live in the market. measuring stick. The same applies to a campaign that fell fl at; you’ll know how to aim higher next time. As AdVoice alumni, you’ll never go unguided in measuring your campaigns. A FRAMEWORK FOR STRONG CREATIVE AdVoice: Your Advertising Provided courtesy of Bert Miklosi, MarCom consultant, AdVoice contributor Campaign’s Most and longtime Market Insights collaborator with over 20 years of experience on the client, agency, and research sides of advertising. Important Ally In conclusion, there is no denying the expense Be Objective About Your Goal of advertising. The mantra “there is no second A successful advertising campaign starts with one thing: your advertising chance to make a fi rst impression” is especially objective. Defi ne what your advertising is attempting to do. Is it to raise true for hospitals and health systems. With facility and/or system awareness? Establish brand positioning? Increase eroding budgets and rising competition, the need web traffi c? Grow a service line? Whatever the intended outcome, the for eff ective advertising has been no higher. A advertising objective is the singular driving force behind a successful campaign that fl ops can create a domino eff ect campaign. Don’t start without defi ning one. of lost confi dence, shrinking budget allotments, and thinner ice for marketers under increased Look at Your Market, Look in the Mirror scrutiny to do more with less.

It is critical to understand where your facility fi ts within the market. Enlist the advertising pretest approach to Are you the market leader, second, third, sixth? What is your spend eliminate creative guesswork and internal level versus key competitors? What is your share of voice? What type handwringing. The Market Insights off ering of advertising clutters your market most? Brand advertising, product — AdVoice — presents a methodical, proven advertising, call to action advertising? Taking time to look around will help solution to advertising uncertainty by providing you create advertising that stands out. credible, consumer-based feedback. As proven by the St. Vincent HealthCare case example, Being Outspent? the AdVoice process can ignite your internal Don’t have deep pockets? Get creative to compete. Consider the “book team, enrich the ad agency partnership, and end” approach: advertise the months before and the months after your engage leadership in a meaningful way. It can key competitor or the “strategic fl ighting” approach: advertise in a series also produce relevant advertising and in turn of short, intense bursts using robust media weight. Either strategy boosts cause brand lift among your target audience. By your ability to be heard and build a greater share of voice instead of being becoming an AdVoice alumni, you unlock two drowned by your competitor’s spending. sets of essential benchmarks: normative national benchmarks for a broad perspective of average Media & Creative: Make Them Work Together advertising performance and custom individual benchmarks which allow you to set your own An eff ective media strategy is critical to success but creative is “king”. The baseline for future campaign development. media strategy must optimize creative so the concept has an opportunity to breakthrough and persuade in the most eff ective environment. If the media Whether you are seeking budget buy-in, strategy calls for out-of-home advertising but the creative idea is best suited managing internal expectations, elevating your for television then problems will occur. Such decisions need to be made at brand, or all of the above as your build your the beginning of the advertising development process and as a client, your next big campaign, ensure the best possible input and direction will be valued by the advertising agency. You know market results by enlisting the consumer as your your market best. campaign’s compass. By simply asking your target audience key questions about your creative, you Continuous Learning can make vital improvements and increase your To develop best practices, hold a campaign postmortem to understand odds of a great campaign. Advertising pretesting what worked, what didn’t and why. This can be done through pre- and strips away the uncertainty and fi nancial risk that post-tracking research available through Market Insights to holistically view often clouds advertising and restores campaign campaign dynamics. Learning obtained through research before, during, and control to its rightful owner — you. after the campaign must carry on to the next. RYAN DONOHUE Corporate Director of Program Development National Research Corporation

Ryan Donohue is the corporate director of program development for National Research Corporation. Through the Market Insights marketing measurement and strategy solution for healthcare providers, Ryan has partnered extensively with hospitals and health systems to leverage market intelligence and build consumer-centric healthcare . Ryan has studied the eff ect of consumerism across multiple industries and collaborated with Mayo Clinic, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Vanguard Health Systems, Trinity Health, Medical College of Georgia, and other providers, big and small, to analyze and understand consumer decision-making. Ryan specializes in creating simple yet eff ective strategic models any healthcare brand can use to reach and infl uence its customer base.