Figure 14.1. Three Months after Launch!

“Cool ad! But did it work?”

That’s the million dollar question (or often even more). Advertising serves many roles, from building awareness of a new acid jazz group to informing us of an asthma drug’s side effects. But at the end of the day, advertising is a call to action: it can be pretty, funny, sexy, or cute—but if an ad doesn’t sell the client’s product or service, or create the behavioral change a nonprofit hopes to achieve, it’s nothing more than an entry on an art director’s “reel” that may land him another juicy assignment.

SS+K is keenly aware of the need to show results. Its client msnbc.com is counting on the new brand-building campaign to start to move the brand building, awareness, and traffic needle. Did the agency succeed in this quest? Let’s find out.

Video Spotlight

Amit Nizan and Michelle Rowley

Amit Nizan and Michelle Rowley discuss the results of the campaign, and some outside influences that affected the results.