Most advertisers ignore official survey

20/June/2001

The 5% response rate is all the more shameful when it is considered that this was not any old survey but the latest wave in a serious and important biennial tracking study of attitudes to advertising effectiveness carried out by the IPA since 1994.

The response rate has gone down at an accelerating rate ever since 1994, when 131 people filled in the questionnaire. In 1996 the number fell to 115, in 1998 to 84 and at the end of last year to the said 50. Presumably in 2002 nobody will respond at all.

And yet the questionnaire was sent out with a covering note from the ISBA's Director General and contained such interesting questions as (for the first time) Does the Marketing Director of your organisation have a seat on the Board?

Stoutly ignoring the smallness of the response, Hamish Pringle, Director General Designate of the IPA, has gone on record as being "delighted that 64% of our ISBA respondents answered yes to this question, and this confirms the seniority of our sample.

"Last year, in association with CIA MediaLab, the IPA commissioned a survey of finance directors and found that only one-fifth of top UK companies had a marketing director on their main boards. As a result of that survey, the marketing community got together to urge chief executives of major PLCs to recognise the vital importance of the marketing function."

One problem may well have been the number of questions asked. There were 27, including classification questions about company size and advertising expenditure. Several of them were clearly calculated to focus attention on the IPA's Advertising Effectiveness Awards.

Surprisingly 14% of the sample, i.e. seven people, had never heard of the awards. This despite the fact that 76% of them, i.e. 38 people, worked for companies spending between 5 million and 100 million pounds annually on advertising.

Mind you, only 86% of the sample said they were personally responsible for adspend, leaving 14% who were not - possibly the same seven people who had never heard of the awards.

ISBA Director General Malcolm Earnshaw has declared: "The results of this study emphasise that the industry has done much good work over the past few years to underline the fundamental role that advertising has to play in successful business practice...

"Whilst a lot has been achieved already, the study suggests that there remains work to do to develop the tools which can help achieve this."

It also suggests, though Earnshaw did not say so, that ISBA has a lot of work to do to persuade its members to take part in useful research.

The IPA's Research Director, Lynne Robinson, may also wish to consider how surveys directed at marketing managers can be trimmed in such a way as not to frighten them away.

Though the size of the sample robs the survey of much of its significance, some of the tables in the IPA's report are interesting.

Increase

No Change

Decrease

Don’t Know

Increase

No Change

Decrease

Don’t Know