The field of advertising research continually strives to understand how advertising works. Copy research was born in the US when Daniel Starch began measuring print advertising recognition in the early 1930s. Soon, George Gallup brought in his work on the measurement of print recall. This introduction started one of the earliest of debates between the two methods. Recall was eventually declared the winner, largely on the grounds that recognition was too easy a task. (Recently however, there has been renewed interest in recognition because of its greater ability to measure the visual component of advertising.

Recall Tests
       Recall tests are memory tests based on the assumption that an advertisement leaves a mental residue with the person who has been exposed to it. One way to measure an advertisement's effectiveness is therefore, to contact consumers and find out what they remember about it. Memory tests fall into two major groups - Recall and Recognition.

      Gallup believed in Recall.

      Gallup's and Robinson's In View Service is a recall test designed to show which ads catch the best attention. In a traditional Television Recall Test, a finished commercial is run on network television within a regular prime-time program. The next evening, interviewers in three or four cities make thousands of of random phone calls until they have contacted about 200 people who were watching the program at the exact time the commercial appeared. The interviewer then asks a series of questions :

• Do you remember seeing a commercial for any toothpaste?
• If no, do you remember seeing a commercial for crest toothpaste? (Memory prompt)
• If yes to either of the above, what did the commercial say about the product?
• or, what did the commercial show?
• Or, what ideas were brought out, and so on.

      The first question classifies under Unaided Recall. The particular brand is not mentioned. The second question is an example of Aided Recall, where the specific brand name is mentioned. The answers to the third set of questions are usually written down verbatim.

       Print Recall Tests involve respondents reading a deck of cards, or ads, containing brand names, for instance. The rest of the procedure is the same.

    Gallup along with his partner, Claude Robinson, adapted their print measure into what is known today as day-after-recall for television commercials. This approach was "cloned" shortly thereafter by the Burke Organization at the behest of their patron, Procter and Gamble.

     For more information on the different research organizations, see the European Society for Opinion and Market Research (ESOMAR).