If you’ve been following the recent conversation, you’re probably already guessing IQ doesn’t refer to Intelligence Quotient. And thank God for that. When people use the word smart around me it usually includes alec after it.
But in being transparent about how we do our advertising, today is a great day to discuss one more term in Roy William’s Advertising Performance Equation – SoV x IQ x PEF x MPo = Sales.
From before we learned SoV=Share of Voice=Your ad budget and PEF=Personal Experience Factor=How well you exceed customer expectations.
IQ stands for Impact Quotient or how memorable or attention-getting your ad might be. The more memorable, the higher the IQ.
To better understand, answer this question… Where were you when you first heard about the Twin Towers?
You remember the exact moment, who told you, how you reacted. That is off-the-chart high IQ. Sorry, but your ads will never have that high of an IQ.
Now answer this question… What companies’ ads have you heard or seen today that really stood out, that made you pay attention?
Don’t worry if you’re struggling to think of one advertiser today that stood out. Most ads have a very low IQ.
Why?
Because we are conditioned to tune out all advertisements. We are bombarded with thousands and thousands of advertising pitches daily. It’s like aiming a fire hose at a teacup. We can’t possibly absorb them all so our brain learns to filter. If it isn’t relevant, we don’t see it or hear it.
You can read an entire newspaper cover to cover and not remember a single ad because nothing was relevant to you. You can listen to an hour of radio and not remember a single company because they didn’t say anything important or relevant or interesting. In fact, as soon as they came on, you automatically tuned out.
But isn’t that the goal of advertising – to get people to notice you?
Unfortunately, too many companies don’t understand this. They produce lousy ads with low IQ that no one sees or hears. They are told by their ad sales reps that all they have to do is get their name out there and people will notice. Hey ad guys, haven’t you figured it out? We need something other than your name. We’re too busy to notice.
In the equation above, SoV x IQ is a sub-equation. SoV x IQ = Share of Mind, in other words, how much the consumer thinks of you compared to your competitor.
If you have a 10% SoV and run average ads, you have 10% of Share of Mind. If you have 10% SoV and run lousy, invisible ads, you might only get a 5% Share of Mind. Remember, SoV is linked to your ad budget. If your ads are lousy, you need to spend twice as much to get the same Share of your customer’s mind.
However, if you have high impact ads, you can gain a greater Share of your customer’s mind than your budget allows. That’s the power of IQ.
In the next post, I’ll explain how we try to gain your attention in our ads. In the meantime, you can listen for yourself. All of our radio ads are now posted on our website. Go to http://www.toyhouseonline.com/ and click on the Radio icon to hear all of our 2008 ads.
Have an impactful day!
-Phil