Have you ever mentioned a TV advert from the past to a friend and been met with blank stares? That’s because what we remember and interact with in advertising varies from person to person. What one person remembers seeing, another may have brushed over. As brands may use several messages on a single audience, they need to understand whether they made an impact and which ones were memorable – if at all.

Using ad recall, brands can gauge a better understanding of their marketing and its effectiveness. Let’s explore it in more detail…

What is ad recall?

Ad recall is a metric used for advertising and marketing campaigns where brands can find out the impact of campaign messaging on their chosen target audience. The metric has been used in physical focus groups in the past, where participants are physically shown the ad and asked to respond to questions about it.

Today, ad recall is used in a much less traditional sense (though outdoor ad recall was up 51% during lockdown). Channels such as Facebook and YouTube heavily push ‘ad recall’ surveys, where the user is disrupted in their feed or on a video and asked about what they have seen in relation to an ad for a particular product or service. Usually, the brand can use this data to decide whether the advert:

• Had the effect it was hoping for
• Had a powerful enough creative
• Is being promoted on the right channel 

How is ad recall measured? 

At its most basic level, you could argue that ad recall is measured by the percentage of people who saw or interacted with your brand. But that data alone isn’t enough to make any informed decisions. Ultimately, the way it’s calculated will depend on the method used. Many big traditional media placement agencies will run physical ad recall groups, or approach people on the street. But ad recall is mostly used nowadays on Facebook and YouTube.

The way these two tech giants measure the effectiveness of ads differs. Here’s a short summary of each: 

How Facebook measures ad recall

Facebook uses an estimated recall rate to calculate how memorable your adverts are. If engagement and views are your primary objective, this data will help you determine if your campaign has been successful within the confines of your goal.

A tool called the estimated ad recall lift metric will tell advertisers how many people they can expect to remember their advert if they were questioned within 48 hours of seeing it. This estimate is calculated based on the number of people you reach with your ads and how likely the person is to recall what they saw. Facebook then recalibrates this estimate by introducing ad recall lift surveys.

You may be wondering how Facebook could possibly estimate how likely an individual is to recall what they see. Well they have a lot of data to help them. Their algorithm considers likely thousands of factors, but could be calculated based on a scoring system across items such as:

• Does the user like or interact with your business page already? 
• Does the user regularly interact with adverts? 
• How often does the user spend on Facebook every day?
• Is the user less likely to interact with content if it is sponsored? 

As previously mentioned, this estimate is further strengthened by running polls to a random selection of users. 

How YouTube measures ad recall

While Facebook and YouTube have distinct algorithms for measuring ad recall, how they do it is similar. YouTube will also calculate a number of metrics that would assess a user’s consideration, purchase intent and awareness. Their use of surveys targets two particular groups: one who hasn’t been served the advert and one who has. They look at the differences between these answers to determine whether your ad was memorable.

YouTube also has a tool called Brand Lift which will go further than traditional ad recall metrics. They can monitor organic searches of your brand on Google and YouTube to see whether your campaign is making waves elsewhere. They perform this test on two control groups once again – one that hasn’t seen the ad and one that has. From this data, they’re able to compare the behaviour of both groups.

If you’re interested in YouTube’s Brand Lift, it’s worth noting that the service is only available for specific types of video campaigns.   

What factors influence how a user interacts with your advert

There are many ways a person’s response to your advert can be influenced. Some of them are tangible and within your control, others aren’t possible to change.

Factors within your control…

• Where they see the advert
• The advert creative and messaging
• The call-to-action and the incentive to interact with it
• How much the advert stands out on their feed/within a video/on the street
• The creative’s readability across different formats and devices 

Factors (sometimes) outside of your control…

• Whether they already have a relationship with the brand 
• If they have an emotional connection to the brand 
• If the brand colours used in the advert are a preference of theirs
• Whether a friend or family member has mentioned the brand to them before
• If they have read reviews on your product or service before
• If they have made an in-store purchase with you before
• Whether they have had a bad experience with your brand in the past 

Steps you can take to improve your recall rate in future

#1 Ensure your adverts are designed to be viewed well on desktop, mobile and tablets. Research has shown that people are twice as likely to recall your ad if they have seen it on multiple devices. 

#2 Before your advert goes live, ensure you set it up in situ as a preview – then view it across multiple devices. This will give you a better understanding of how the viewer will see it outside of a generic artboard or video editor. Likewise with outdoor or printed advertising, mockup a to-scale example of how this might look. For large formats such as billboards, you can do this on a smaller scale, or print off a few letters and hold them at a distance.

#3 Test multiple messages and different types of creatives where you can. Some people respond better to video, others to text or picture-based adverts. 

#4 Ensure your advert stands out. If it’s a static message, consider whether you could say it in a different way or whether the design is lacking something. If it’s a video, experiment with different lengths and ensure the first few seconds are the most engaging. 

#5 Don’t deviate off-brand. It can be tempting to stand out by doing something wholly unlike your brand, but this could end up doing more harm than good. If you are considering an alternative route, consider running a small focus group to test the water first. 

Ad recall is one of the hardest metrics to measure…

But as algorithms learn, the better the digital ad recall effectiveness will be. Ultimately if your campaign spans many channels and formats, the best way to make sure your advert is memorable is to embrace it at every touchpoint. Consider your email marketing, website banners, in-store promotions – if you’re pushing a message heavily, it needs to be seen across the board.

If you’re looking for an easy way to adapt digital and print creatives, Papirfly’s all-in-one brand management platform allows anyone to create new assets and make changes quickly, without professional support and while remaining on brand.

It’s safe to say that many of us will look back un-fondly on 2020 in a few years time. We have experienced some of the most tumultuous events that will ever happen in our lifetimes. But what has it taught us? What positives can we take away? And how have these positives helped shape marketing and the way brands interact with consumers? 

Admittedly, there is a lot of COVID fatigue and many tenuous links between ‘these times’ and the marketing world, but it’s something we need to be talking about as an industry. We’ve had a forced shift in attitudes and behaviours, and everything brands had deduced up until this year has been turned on its head. Everyone had been talking about brands breeding ‘real change’ and ‘authenticity’ for years, and this year more than ever, it has come to fruition. 

How has the global response to COVID-19 reshaped a year in marketing?

#1 Homeworking and lockdowns

What happened?

Unless you live under a rock, you have likely been subject to some kind of lockdown this year, or find yourself working remotely. This was unlike anything anyone had ever experienced, and made us act in ways we were unfamiliar with. There was, and is still, a heavy reliance on technology and video conferencing tools. Remote communication was a barrier we have had to embrace as we’re faced with an array of different emotions each day. 

How did it affect brand marketing?

Some brands had to pull campaigns that could have been considered insensitive, completely rethink messaging and find new ways to engage with audiences that were feeling less than themselves. There was less of a focus on selling and more on connecting with audiences, showing genuine empathy and sharing messages and stories of hope. Any fabricated attempts were quickly shot down.

Getting this right is a delicate balance. Back in May, Marketing Week UK found “brands that avoid generic messages about staying at home, togetherness or looking to the future with optimism are more likely to resonate with consumers during the pandemic”. By offering clear, helpful advice when people were concerned about new rules, this campaign by Tesco featured highly in their round-up of the best ads in early lockdown.

However, there have been exceptions from brands who’ve had to completely rethink campaigns due to restrictions. With sporting events cancelled, there wasn’t much to bet on this year. But Paddy Power still managed to find a way to stay in the lives of their audience with the usual sense of humour we’ve come to expect.

Like Paddy Power, Nike found a way to reach consumers without joining the sea of same in ‘these uncertain times ‘. Instead, they stayed true to their existing brand purpose to help encourage social distancing.

All three are great examples of brands keeping their cool in a crisis, without claiming to be the solution.

#2 Community spirit

What happened?

While COVID can be blamed for keeping everyone physically apart, it’s also responsible for bringing us closer than ever before (figuratively speaking, of course).   

Many issues were catapulted into the spotlight, that has otherwise been left unaddressed in the past. In many parts of the world, a sense of community was reignited and people called upon big brands and corporations to help those in need. 

How did it affect brand marketing? 

Purpose is now much more than a buzzword, it’s an action and something every brand must embrace. If your purpose wasn’t established or front-and-centre prior to the pandemic, it can be difficult to launch it without seeming disingenuous. The best thing you can do in this situation is to hold a workshop with your teams to establish exactly what it is you stand for — if your purpose has come directly from your people, there’s nothing inauthentic about it.

Data analytics and research company, Kantar, put together a COVID-19 Barometer to explore how people have been feeling and acting throughout the pandemic, and what that means for marketing and comms.

A key finding is that consumers are expecting big brands and corporations to help; “top three comms strategies among consumers include talking about how the brand is helpful in the new everyday, keeping them informed about the brand’s reaction to the new situation, offering a reassuring tone ”

Craft beer brand, Brewdog, have always been excellent at reacting to current events and were among the first to repurpose their production lines to supply the NHS, charities and people in need with hand sanitiser made at one of their distilleries.

Dyson also made a huge impact by using their engineering capabilities to manufacture ventilators and help tackle the nationwide shortage.

Building life-saving equipment isn’t a viable option for every brand, but even finding simple ways to make a difference to those most affected by the Coronavirus will affect long-term trust and opinion in a big way.

#3 Teams getting smaller

What happened?

The pandemic left many marketing team members furloughed or made redundant. There were also company-wide hiring freezes and freelance help put on hold or cancelled altogether. 

Those still in the office had to quickly adapt to working from home — with smaller teams, no face-to-face meetings and the added pressure on mental health and wellbeing from the pandemic.

How did it affect brand marketing? 

It’s been vital for companies to restructure their approach and support their teams working remotely.

Marketing teams around the world have had to face  problems head-on by:

• Embracing digital productivity tools and instant messaging services.
• Promoting empathy and clear communication between teams.
• Providing more mental health and well-being initiatives.
• Creating support networks for furloughed employees, people who’ve been made redundant, and freelancers worried about the future.

The way companies act now will have lasting effects on the success of their marketing teams. A robust remote hiring and onboarding process and empathetic work environments that offer extra support for parents and caregivers will be among the most important factors.

#4 Brands weighing-in on important issues

What happened

With global brands under a brighter spotlight to use their influence responsibly, they have been taking to various platforms to offer clarity among the chaos, encourage their audiences to do the right thing and call out those who aren’t.  

There is the increasing realisation that if a brand is putting profit over people during the COVID-19 crisis, they will lose consumer trust forever.

How did it affect brand marketing? 

Countless brands focussed on sharing social distancing reminders and information, or finding a link to certain aspects of life during the pandemic. What’s proved more important, is the ability to show empathy on a personal level, being useful and being part of a community.

Heinz maintained brand awareness through their partnership with Magic Breakfast — a UK non-profit providing healthy school breakfasts to children at risk of hunger. When schools closed nationwide, Heinz committed to providing 12 million free breakfasts for children who would usually benefit from breakfast club programmes.

As the UK’s first lockdown eased and the government encouraged people back into the office, Dettol misjudged many people’s concerns about returning to normality a little too soon. 

The ads at Euston underground station went viral for all the wrong reasons (with Twitter taking particular anguish at the thought of ‘putting on a tie’ and ‘proper bants’). 

We can learn from both examples when it comes to how people react to brands using a sensitive issue to promote themselves. If it’s genuine, helpful and well-thought-out, the brand will come across as a warm and positive influence in their lives. If a campaign wrongly assumes how people are feeling, then the opposite is true.

The events of this year are no longer a temporary disruption to the marketing norm, brands are now seriously rethinking their purpose, strategies and overall marketing direction. These moves are no longer considered to be simply adapting to a temporary situation, but wholesale mindset changes that will affect the way we interact for the foreseeable future. 

It’s already becoming clear that the way marketing teams react to current events and adapt to change — and how fast they do it — will have a huge long-term impact on their consumer perception and success post-COVID.