WINNER:
Agency: Rainey Kelly Campbell, Roalfe/Y&R and DUCKFoOT Research & Development
Client: Virgin Trains

SPONSOR

The ISBA Award is given to the submission which best indicates how research increases understanding of how advertising works. In the preparation of a new communications strategy for Virgin Trains, advertising agency Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R ecognised a number of profound challenges, in particular the public’s negative perception of the rail industry. DUCKFoOT Research & Development set out to discover the true emotional impact of the proposed advertising which aimed to instil onfidence both in rail travel and the brand’s promise. Adopting a radical new approach to pre-testing, it isolated the effect the advertising had on people’s feelings from what they were aware the brand was telling them to think. This innovative methodology provided an understanding of how creative advertising works by assessing what has been retained in implicit memory.

What the judges said: "The entry describes the application of a new qualitiative tool to advertising, giving fascinating insight, which could have a much wider application."

FINALISTS:

• David Penn, Conquest Research