Kantar, the world's leading marketing data and analytics company, today introduces LINK+, the most powerful creative testing solution for advertising. Available exclusively on Kantar Marketplace, LINK+ integrates Kantar's market-leading ad testing capabilities into one solution to help advertisers drive greater impact from their ad campaigns. LINK+ joins Link AI and BrandNow as part of a new generation of AI-enabled products designed to address the increasing demands placed on marketers.
Kantar has reimagined its creative effectiveness testing suite to create LINK+. Introducing a new level of flexibility, it gives advertisers the power to choose from a variety of diagnostic features to build exactly the creative testing they need. Thanks to simpler set-up and reduced testing time, LINK+ results are available in as little as six hours. LINK+ supports advertisers throughout the creative development journey and now includes early-stage storyboard testing, meaning advertisers can apply Kantar’s validated sales generation and brand-building metrics even earlier in the creative process.
LINK+’s evaluative and diagnostic metrics include:
- Four core components – Engagement, Associations, Short-Term Sales Impact, and Long-Term Brand Equity Contribution.
- Six optional diagnostics for elements including branding, executional response and persuasion.
- Two optional neuroscience features – facial coding and intuitive associations
Built using the largest scientifically-based normative creative database in the world, LINK+ provides tailored creative insights and validated creative effectiveness metrics, giving advertisers confidence that their creative will deliver the desired business outcomes. Other features include:
- AI-enabled facial coding and intuitive association capabilities that allow advertisers to understand viewers' instinctive responses, providing the most comprehensive understanding of ad success.
- A highly visual data interface designed to provide intuitive, story-led insights.
- From storyboard to final executions, LINK+ offers end-to-end creative evaluation that will soon consistently evaluate all ad formats – including digital video and display on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and TV, OOH, POS, print and audio.
Commenting on the importance of creative testing to Heineken's success, Sander Bosch, Global Head of Brand & Communication Insights, The HEINEKEN Company, said: "At Heineken, we need actionable advertising insights we can trust – and fast – to help us maximise the impact our advertising has on our brands. We have been working closely with Kantar for years to evaluate, diagnose and optimise our early-stage and finished film ads. Their validated metrics allow us to move through the creative development process with confidence. We are excited about the new flexibility which Kantar has added with LINK+ to give us even greater ability to customise tests to meet our needs while maintaining speed."
"We know that one size doesn't fit all. LINK+ offers the speed and flexibility all creative executives need to bulletproof ad effectiveness every step of the way, including at storyboard stage," said Ted Prince, Chief Product Officer, Kantar. "With the introduction of Link AI we brought creative testing within the reach of smaller production budgets. With LINK+, we now deliver the flexibility that means all kinds of adverts, designed for any platform, can be consistently tested against the advertiser’s priorities. In this challenging economic environment, achieving a high level of ad effectiveness is even more important. Our recent collaboration with WARC proved that ads with high creative quality scores deliver more than four times the return on marketing investment, so it pays to get your creative right."
LINK+ includes TV and storyboard testing capabilities and will incorporate Kantar's latest digital testing solutions to offer the market's most powerful ad effectiveness measurement. LINK+ is initially available in 30+ countries, with a rollout to even more markets in July. More information is available at LINK+ on Kantar Marketplace.