VISTA 101
What is VISTA?
The VISTA Print Effectiveness Rating Service is an accountability tool that measures the advertising effectiveness, reader engagement, and editorial readership of the leading consumer and business publications on an ongoing basis.
What Publications does VISTA Measure?
The top 50 publications based on annual reported PIB ad revenue are automatically included with the VISTA Service. Business Week, Forbes, Fortune, Inc., Fast Company and Harvard Business Review are the only business titles included in the study. All titles are measured a minimum of four times a year: March, June, September and December
Which Advertisements does VISTA Measure?
All national ads of 1/3 page or larger are measured. Regional and House ads are not included in the study.
How does a VISTA Study work?
VISTA Print Effectiveness Rating studies are fielded online among Affinity’s database of 2 million opt-in consumer email addresses. Each respondent entering the VISTA survey is exposed to 2 ad banks containing up to 10 advertisements and 1 editorial feature. Respondents are asked the following questions:
- Have you read or looked into this specific issue of Inc.?
- Do you recall seeing this ad in this issue?
- When you saw the ad were you aware that it was an ad for…?
- Did you take, or do you plan to take, any of the following actions as a direct result of
seeing this ad for…?
Differences between VISTA and Starch
- As opposed to VISTA’s emphasis on Recall and Actions Taken figures, Starch focuses
more on creative diagnostics and measurements relating to ad engagement (such as
Read Some or Most of ad copy).
- VISTA is solely online. Starch employs a combination of online, in-person and
mail methodologies.
- Brand Association is calculated differently in the two studies. VISTA calculates brand
association on a base of respondents’ recalling the ad; Starch calculates Brand Association
on a base of all respondents.
- Starch does not include “Consider Purchasing” as an option for Actions Taken.
- Starch measures attitudes toward the brand by respondents, as well as the extent to which
a product is likely to be discussed in any given month.
- As opposed to using a proprietary reader panel, Starch uses a sample provided by Survey
Sampling Inc. or a sample directly from the publication being measured.
