What matters most in advertising campaigns?

Three main factors determine the effect of advertising campaigns: message content strategy, advertising expenditure and previous consumer behaviour. This study investigatesthe relative strength of each of these influences. Four possible campaign targets are takeninto account: campaign recall, campaign likeability, brand recall and intention to purchasethe advertised brand. A study of 40 advertising campaigns, evaluated on average by 1200consumers, shows that, after controlling for the effect of previous purchase behaviour, the effect of message content strategy is generally larger than the effect of advertising expenditure. Nevertheless, more media expenditure positively influences campaign recall and influences brand recall and purchase intention of small brands. The most effectivemessage content strategy differs per campaign target, but overall awareness and likeabilitystrategies are most effective. For purchase intention only, the emotions strategy can be advised. The information strategy is best avoided.