GfK Launches eStarch Readership Service
Emphasizing Return on Objectives

-- New Metrics Include Word-of-Mouth and Disposition Toward Brands --

NEW YORK – October 9, 2007 – GfK Starch® Communications, a division of GfK Custom Research North America, today announced the launch of its eStarch Ad Readership service which uses new metrics to measure a print ad’s impact on motivating consumer purchase behavior.

Combining more than 80 years of Starch’s in-person print ad readership surveys with
new online responses from participants who’ve read the test publication, eStarch determines the extent to which each advertisement is remembered, reader involvement with the ad, and if the ad directly influenced the consumer to purchase the product
or service. Leveraging the speed of online surveying, the new database also produces reports at a rate much faster than previously developed.

Starch also introduced new metrics that help companies determine how their ads
shape consumers’ opinions towards their particular brand and also the extent to which
the advertisement drives readers to recommend the product or service.

“Since the dawn of advertising, industry professionals have struggled to determine whether their ad campaigns drove consumers to think positively about their brands
and to open their wallets,” says Philip Sawyer, Senior Vice President of GfK Starch® Communications. “Our new metrics, more completely answer than ever before
the $64,000 ROI question that advertisers have been asking since the first ad was created. We expect the impact on the industry will be significant.”

eStarch weaves together a number of readership metrics. Variables previously utilized
in the company’s in-person studies that have been incorporated into the new database include:

• Noted – The percentage of issue readers who remember having
  previously seen the advertisement in the study issue – a measure of
  stopping power.
• Associated – The percentage of issue readers who not only Noted the
  ad, but also saw or read some part of it that clearly indicated the brand
  or advertiser. A measure of branding.
• Read Some – The percentage of issue readers who read any part of the
  ad’s copy.
• Read Most – The percentage of issue readers who read more than half
  of the written material in the advertisement. A measure of reader
  involvement.

New measures that help lead Starch to determine the relative success of a given ad are:

• Reader Actions Taken – Indicates the number of Noters of an ad who
  took an action as a result of seeing the ad.
• Brand Disposition – Determines the extent to which readers of the
  publication are favorably disposed towards specific advertised brands.
• Advertising Effect on Brand Disposition – Determines whether the
  consumer’s attitudes towards the advertised brand have been enhanced
  by the ad, a particularly important element for products that are
  infrequently purchased and for which recent purchase data is sparse.
• Advertising Influence on Purchases/Purchase Interest; Product
  Recommendations – Provides a relative measure of the sales
  effectiveness of each studied ad by estimating the number of readers,
  per 1,000, of the publication who purchased or plan to buy the
  product/service as a result of seeing the ad.
• Word of Mouth Opportunity (WOMO) – Measures the extent to
  which readers of that publication recommend a product or brand to
  others.
• Noting and Read Most/Engagement – Determines if those who
  display high levels of agreement with a specific engagement question
  also Note and Read Most of the copy of ads in the publication at high
  levels. This represents eStarch’s attempt to determine which
  engagement metrics really correlate with interest in advertising and
  which do not.

For more information about eStarch and other Starch Ad Readership Studies,
please contact GfK Custom Research North America at
or 212-240-5300 and visit the Starch section of this website by clicking here.

About GfK Starch® Communications
GfK Starch® is the leader in print ad readership measurement. Its in-person research methodology has spanned back 80 years and combines a unique blend of proprietary insights with an extensive print ad database, providing clients with a better understanding of their target markets and audiences.

About GfK Custom Research North America
Headquartered in New York, GfK Custom Research North America is part of the GfK Group. With home offices in Nuremberg, Germany, the GfK Group is the No. 5 market research organization worldwide. Its activities cover five business divisions:
Custom Research, Retail and Technology, Consumer Tracking, Media and HealthCare. The Group has 115 operational companies and a current total of 8,400 employees who offer market research services for 90 countries.

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