TNS Mercury collects data on TV ad performance

TNS Global has launched Mercury, an ad early-warning product that tests television ads as they launch, enabling clients to take action quickly on their own campaigns, as well as competitors'.

Mercury is said to bridge the gap between ad pre-testing and tracking, and TNS said it expects the product to change the way brands and businesses use research to align their communications to today's markets.

The tool works on the principle that clients buy into the data that the system collects on the performance of both client and competitor ads.

Clients subscribe for a period of time, during which all ads that debut in a given sector or competitor group are automatically tested.

Results are 'banked' for other subscribers to purchase, enabling comparisons with named ads and brands - for intelligent, time-relevant norms for benchmarking.

Mercury uses a media intelligence system to alert the team the day after an ad launches on air.

The ad is immediately put into test with TNS's 130,000-strong online panel.

Panellists are assigned ads at random during a seven-day interviewing period, enabling TNS to analyse the ad's effectiveness in the 'real world'.

Key research measures of recognition, message take-out, branding and viewer involvement are supported by TNS's own measures of motivation and emotional positioning - developed through the Adeval and Needscope products.

Back to top