Knowing how your magazine ads work

"Accountability" and "ROI" have been words or phrases buzzing around the magazine advertising business for some time, though nobody was quite sure how measuring the effectiveness of magazine advertising would be accomplished.

Magazines Canada, in cooperation with Starch Research, is trying to remedy that. They have luanched a new program called magWorks that will allow advertisers to better understand ad effectiveness, their own ads and those of their competitors.

An online survey methodology checks out overall ad impact, communication value, visual focal points, purchase intent and more. But it does it at a relatively modest price -- as little as $1,200 per ad -- because costs are shared by the subscribers. Omnibus survey results are also available to subscribers on a category basis.

"magWorks is about helping magazine advertisers succeed," says Gary Garland, Magazines Canada's Executive Director of Advertising Services. "We want to help advertisers wring every last percentage of performance from every ad so that they achieve maximum results from their magazine buy."

"Few advertisers regularly test magazine creative. However, our experience in creative testing has taught us that we can help advertisers and their agencies improve their magazine communication," adds Brian Hickey, President, Starch Research. "magWorks helps to strengthen that all-important connection between advertiser and consumer."

Details about magWorks may be found at http://www.magworks.ca/. For additional information, please contact Brian Hickey at Starch Research, brian.hickey@starchresearch.com or Gary Garland at Magazines Canada, ggarland@magazinescanada.ca.