How Curated Digital helped improve their client’s creative campaign
Once you’ve narrowed down the creatives that you want to test, the next step is to test that they would be efficient and effective at not only targeting your customers but also persuading them to consider your brand.
Testing allows you to know whether your advert is memorable, if customers like the creative and if the creative is likely to persuade them to purchase the product or service that the brand sells.
Curated Digital, a data driven digital marketing consultancy working primarily with UK brands, wanted to improve their client’s creative campaign by testing the creatives in overseas markets, in order to effectively deliver strategy and recommendations to their client launching abroad.
We worked closely with Curated Digital on their approach to testing their creative campaigns.
“We were looking for a trusted partner in market research who has experience and knowledge in overseas markets, confidence in research, quality analysis and recommendations who could deliver within a tight timeline.”
— DAVID ANGUS, CURATED DIGITAL
Before Rare: Consulting began the creative testing, Curated Digital spoke to their client (a betting and gambling company) to define their target market to conduct the creative research in. This information was then shared with the wider team who were able to effectively capture insights and recruit from the target audience.
Before you can begin testing, understanding who your audience are is one of the few basic steps to take before testing to ensure you know what you want to achieve.
What are market research approaches to creative tests?
If you’re looking for something more in depth and tailored, perhaps you have a global audience or specific target group you want to test against, another approach would be to test via a consultancy, which is what Curated Digital chose for their market research.
Whichever route you decide to take, whether it is through an automated platform or a consultancy, there are some key questions that you need to know in order to run an effective creative test; such as:
How memorable is the creative?
Does the creative increase intent or consideration to purchase your product or service?
How much would the target audience love or hate your ad?
Is your creative on-brand?
The approach to market research depends on a number of factors including the complexity of the creative test, such as;
How many creatives you want to test
The locations of your target audience - a more niche audience may be harder to find, so a consultancy route may be best for this.
What types of questions you are wanting to ask - more bespoke questions such as asking about feelings on positioning statements or slogans that go along with the creative may require expert curation to ensure the questions are effective, valid and reliable.
By using reliable research questions and choosing a consultancy to help target their niche audience, Curated Digital were able to get the most out of their creative testing in a quick and timely manner.
“We trust Rare: and their ability to conduct valid and reliable research. They were able to curate questions using their industry knowledge using a limited concept and turn it into a brief and in turn effective research that provided valuable insights to report to the client.”
— DAVID ANGUS, CURATED DIGITAL
How are market research creative tests carried out?
So how exactly do you carry out creative testing?
Once the questions were finalised, using a third party panel provider, the research was launched into the field to test how well the creative performed.
Rare: Consulting surveyed 1024 men aged 18-40 in Brazil (the target audience of the creative campaign). The respondents were shown 4 creatives in order to understand:
The perception and feelings towards the creatives.
To understand the intent towards using the brand and competitor brands.
Relative strengths, weaknesses and creative strategies.
Following a successful creative testing process, the results found that the creatives resonated well with the target audience; it also identified the biggest competitors for the sports betting brand that Curated Digital was working with.
“The creative process not only was an enjoyable experience, Rare:Group gave us guidance and knowledge in market research, developing our understanding of creative testing. We will only choose Rare:Group for market research as a result and that is testament to Keith and the team.”
— DAVID ANGUS, CURATED DIGITAL
This valuable information allowed Curated Digital to advise their client on the preferred creative campaign, whilst also gaining insight into what their competitors were doing allowing them to use this information for future creative campaigns.
Understanding customers is central to Curated Digitals ideology, by testing their creatives this allowed Curated Digital to understand which creative would resonate with customers, paired with their knowledge of the customer, this process gave them a more detailed picture of not only who to target but also how.
