1. Evaluation of Advertising Effectiveness Using Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation Junwei Cao Department of Computer Science University of Warwick

2. Outline l Advertising Research l Advertising Effectiveness l Agent-Based Modeling Approach l Consumer Agent l Simulation Environment for Advertising (SEA) l Web Advertising l Banner Advertising Modeling and Simulation: A Case Study l Future Works

3. Advertising Research l The advertisements we see and hear are end products of a series of investigations, strategic plans, tactical decisions, and executions that all together comprise the total advertising process. l Information technology and advertising. l Computer-based advertising infrastructure. Research Consumer Research Product Analysis Market Analysis Strategic Planning Objectives Appropriation Media Strategy Creative Strategy Tactical Decisions Budgeting and Control Media Selection Scheduling Advertisement Construction Copywriting Art and Layout Production

4. Advertising Effectiveness l Broadly speaking, the advertising effectiveness is achieved through the interactions of the actors: Consumer, Advertisement, Product/Service, Medium, and Environment. l Traditional techniques for advertising effectiveness measurement. l This work introduces an agent-based modeling and simulation approach, which can be used to develop a unified computer modeling and simulation environment to assist the advertising effectiveness research to solve different kinds of problems and make advertising research and practises much cheaper, faster and easier.

5. Agent-Based Modeling l Five actors mentioned can be mapped into five kinds of agents. l They negotiate with each other in the multi-agent system to simulate the interactions of the actors in the real world. l Each agent is composed with attributes and operations, which can be used to describe the agent’s states and processes dynamically. The agents also need to retrieve model data from the databases.

6. Consumer Agent l Information-Exchanging Process l Psychological Process l Decision-Making Process l Advertising effectiveness sometimes can only be evaluated at psychological layer and there can be no explicit effects on the decision and behaviour of the consumers. (b) Rational-Emotional Agent Decision-Making Process Psychological Process Negotiation Information-Exchanging Process Negotiation (a) Rational Agent Negotiation Information-Exchanging Process Negotiation Decision-Making Process

7. Simulation Environment for Advertising (SEA) l A web-based system structure l Modeling tools l Simulation engine l Information filter Web Client User Interface Web Server Modeling Tools Information Filter Simulation Engine Start Data Control Communication Visualization

8. Web Advertising l The web advertising effectiveness is new for advertising research. However, it is the most suitable to be studied using computer simulation technology. l More requirements l Fewer factors l Easier data collection l Easier characterised l Easier validated l There are many kinds of advertising on the Internet, such as banner, applet, screensaver and push broadcasting.

9. Banner Advertising Modeling and Simulation l A banner advertisement is usually a rectangular graphic set at the top or bottom of a web page. l The elements of the banner that can influence the effectiveness include type, size, colour, contrast, position, and content. l A demo and some simple simulation results are given only to show the idea of using agent-based methodology to evaluate advertising effectiveness.

10. Future Works l Psychology research l Algorithms design and implementation l Database construction l System design and implementation l Performance validation l Advertising scheduling l more  Junwei Cao junwei@dcs.warwick.ac.uk http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~junwei/ SEA/