Archive for March 23rd, 2011

Quick: Who to layoff: bad “senior” teachers or good “junior” teachers?

March 23, 2011

Punch line: Teachers’ unions are more interested in protecting their members’ jobs than in the quality of education

According to the WSJ …

The steep deficits that states now face mean that teacher layoffs this year are unavoidable. Parents understandably want the best teachers spared. Yet in 14 states it is illegal for schools to consider anything other than a teacher’s length of service when making layoff decisions.

“If layoffs are based only on seniority, that doesn’t help the kids,” said U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan in a conference call with reporters. “And particularly doesn’t help the kids who need the most help.”

“Fourteen states have quality-blind layoffs rules but about 40% of all teachers work in those states, and they’re the states with the biggest budget deficits.” In addition to New York, the list includes California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin.

The unions that support these laws insist that seniority is the only “fair” way to reduce the teaching work force.

The real problem is the underlying assumption that seniority is a decent proxy for performance.

But, two recent studies on seniority-based layoffs indicate that “only about 20% of the teachers who have the least seniority are also among the least effective teachers in a district. About 80% of the time, there’s a teacher who’s worse that you could have laid off but didn’t because they had more seniority.”

As Secretary Duncan notes, layoffs based on seniority will also remove good teachers from the classrooms where they are most needed.

High-poverty students tend to matriculate at schools where the teachers have less seniority.

While the unions hate school choice for students, they insist on it for teachers.

And senior teachers tend to opt out of high-poverty districts.

The good news is that more and more people now see through the union agenda, even if too many politicians are still on the fence.

In a recent Rasmussen poll, 68% said “teachers’ unions are more interested in protecting their members’ jobs than in the quality of education.”

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I spent $1 million on digital advertising … did it work?

March 23, 2011

TakeAway: With the move to digital, companies are unsure how to ensure their digital marketing dollars are being spent effectively.

Companies are spending more and more on copy testing for digital ads even with the criticism that copy testing kills creativity.  

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Excerpted from AdAge, “Copy Testing Coming to Digital Marketing” by Jack Neff, February 27, 2011

As … marketers are investing more in digital, they’re bringing with them one of their time-honored processes from TV advertising: copy testing.

… despite criticism that copy testing leads to bland ads that avoid risks, and that the storyboards or animatics used in copy tests don’t capture the magic production can create. …

…copy-testing houses have years of research showing copy-test results predict sales impact from ads. But expansion of copy testing to digital adds a new layer of controversy: Some critics believe tests developed for TV won’t work on digital ads.

… people close to P&G say it’s “TV testing” most of its digital ads now — video and other formats alike.

…”A home-page takeover on Yahoo can cost a million dollars a day,… The traditional thing with digital was if it’s not working, we’ll take it down. When you drop a million dollars in a day, you’d better be sure it’s working.” … “even if copy-testing squelches creativity …the world’s largest advertisers see value in doing this.”

…”All of our communications testing is designed to increase the odds of success in market, … We often conduct early learning with prototype production, increasing our ability to produce communication that really resonates with consumers.”…

… believes creative inconsistency has hurt digital ad effectiveness and applauds marketers for seeing they need to test copy. …But…”to try to force fit the old TV pretesting model into digital is kind of idiotic.”

… the context and content of where digital ads run affects how they work, …

Making small digital buys to test creative is no longer tenable for brand marketers because online survey response rates have plunged in recent years. Clicks and conversions in small tests are meaningful for direct-response advertisers, …but not brand marketers, … no links between clicks and offline sales, brand awareness or purchase intent.

…more packaged-goods clients are spending on digital copy testing, though most don’t have specific budgets for it and many are hesitating because of a lack of adequate research options. “Digital is not a single advertising medium, but rather an accumulation of media and should be addressed as such.”

“Once brands and researchers fully understand the digital space digital advertising research will become more actionable.”

 

 

 

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Posted in Internet Marketing - eCommerce -, Mktg - Advertising | Leave a Comment »