London, April 2002. The Implicit Association Test (IAT), developed in the USA, is a great new development for advertising and brand research.  It measures the sub-conscious effects of advertising. The IAT is based on the principle that each advertisement builds up both implicit and explicit knowledge in the target audience. The recipients can give oral feedback on explicit information, and work done with Recall & Recognition tests provides information about conscious reactions to the advertising media.  The IAT however taps implicit knowledge by measuring reaction times and is marking a trend in advertising research, which goes beyond the limits of Recall/Recognition theory. In the future, the implicit advertising response will assume an even greater role when evaluating the performance of a given advertising medium.  Implicit knowledge is anchored in the subconscious, is processed faster and has longer-lasting impact than explicit knowledge. It is not impinged on by consciousness and is relatively free from rational control.  Dr. Christian Stamov Rossnagel, Director of Advertising Effectiveness Studies at SKOPOS, stresses, however, that implicit tests are an ideal supplement for the conventional methods: “Advertising effectiveness is based on implicit and explicit knowledge.  Effectiveness research must, therefore, always take both fields into account.” The SKOPOS Institute for Marketing and Communication Research is one of the first institutes in the world to offer the IAT for online as well as offline applications.

Research to date on implicit processes was based on in-depth interviews and processes, which could only be measured subjectively. This made it inappropriate for online research.  The IAT provides data, which transcends the mere “Click Rate” measurement.  The test makes use of the fact that advertising on the Internet is primarily brand building and clarifies which media really generates interest and how it influences the brand image.  This provides, amongst other things, new calculation models for online advertising. Dr. Christian Stamov Rossnagel: “Advertising doesn’t need your undivided attention in order to be successful. Specific aspects of advertising effectiveness are not even accessible to the conscious mind.  We can only appraise these aspects with new methods.”

Even offline, IAT is a very interesting proposition. It takes only a maximum of 10 minutes and is extremely sensitive.  This means that only a small group size is needed.  This saves costs, speeds up the studies and allows research to be conducted into much more complex topics than currently possible and all this with significantly less effort. An important application is the field of experimental brand research, which depends on data about the brand image, which is extremely precise, and as authentic as possible.