Lab42 Client Case Study: Pre / Post Advertising Effectiveness Test

BACKGROUND

Our client, an Ad Agency, launched a new integrated public awareness campaign with the goal of changing perceptions of their own client, a public transportation service in a big metro area of the US.

The campaign utilized ads on buses, trains as well as digital ads, and social media channels to raise awareness of the service and showcase all the cool places one can get to with when using this public transportation service.

The Ad Agency hired Lab42 to measure the effectiveness of their integrated awareness campaign by conducting a Pre and Post Wave Ad Campaign evaluation study. Specifically, we wanted to measure whether the campaign was impactful in:

• Increasing awareness for the public transportation service
• Changing perceptions and attitudes towards the public transportation service
• Changing the frequency of usage
• Changing perceived barriers to using the public transportation service

SOLUTION

Lab42 designed a custom Pre and Post Advertising Campaign effectiveness study, in the metro area where this public transportation agency operated.

• The pre-advertising wave was conducted and completed before advertising begun and the post wave started as soon as advertising was completed.
• We collected 250 responses in each wave among respondents 18-34 and who resided in the specific area where this public transportation agency operated.
• Identical quota structures were placed in both Pre and Post waves to ensure that we did not skew results.

STUDY DESIGN

The study design Lab42 created was identical in pre and post waves to ensure consistency, and covered the following areas of interest:

KEY FINDINGS

• The advertising campaign was successful at significantly increasing awareness for the public transportation agency and directionally improving top of mind awareness.
• The campaign was also successful at somewhat strengthening associations of this public transportation service with bus and train services.
• The campaign may have also helped perceptions directionally improve – except in the area of “safety” which experienced directional declines. Safety was also mentioned as a barrier to usage.
• However, the campaign did not have a significant impact on frequency of using public transportation.

IMPACT

Based on the results of the study, our client decided to focus on how to impact usage change as the campaign was successful at increasing awareness, but not usage.

• Safety was an area that clearly needed to be addressed as it was a significant barrier for using public transportation.