With all the talk about declines in print readership, we think understanding the quality of ad impressions is more important than ever before. Which reminds us of why you should never open a retail store next to a bank.
A while back, Malcolm Gladwell interviewed retail consultant Paco Underhill, who made the brilliant observation that pedestrians walk at different rates. Just like cars, people have a "human downshift" before they stop moving, and it takes a man or woman about 12 to 25 feet to completely stop from a brisk walk. This is why, Underhill said, you never want to set up retail next to a bank. People speed up as they walk past the bank, since there is nothing to look at, and by the time they slow down they've whipped right past your store.
Too often, media planners don't consider human shift speeds. An impression is usually an impression, advertisers think, and so they focus on CPMs or GRPs to calculate which campaign plan will create the most imprints. Alas, the quality of the impression will vary wildly depending on the viewer's velocity.
Consider -- which impression is stronger, a TV spot in the evening when a consumer is relaxing, or one at 7:30 a.m. when she is rushing out the door? What would break through better, a black-and-white ad in the Pennysaver, where a consumer whips through each page scanning for coupons, or the same ad in a magazine, with the consumer slowly reading editorial next to it?
Just as all retail locations are not created equal, so, too, impressions have variance. In your next media plan, ask yourself -- how fast will the consumer be moving when they see our beloved ad? And are we giving them enough time to slow down?
(Update: Neil Klar, chief of SQAD, has a fresh take on CPM effectiveness in Mediaweek.)
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