Noise in the system: why advertising research is even harder than we think it is

The hypothesis behind this paper is simple and is as follows. Techniques and systems to help us develop and evaluate advertisements are available from the survey literature and in the services offered by research agencies. As in most areas of life however, there are extraneous factors at work — called, for the purposes of this paper, noise in the system — which we cannot control, and may not always be aware of, which make it dangerous to assume that all is well. Indeed, if these factors are not identified and taken account of in our work, they may make development and evaluation studies at best vulnerable and at worst a waste of time and money.