Ad Testing Via New Facebook Application

November 14, 2008

The Ad Battle application for Facebook is a new app that’s getting a lot of buzz lately. The Ad Battle app was created by Buddy Media and Jason Culbertson of Atmosphere BBDO. It’s been compared to the popular Hot or Not website by Advertising Age, and it gives Facebook members the ability to compare two randomly displayed ads then vote on which one they think is better. Once a person votes, the voting results to date are displayed to see if he or she voted with the majority or not, and then that person can move on and vote on the next pair of ads. Users can also upload their own ads to add to the voting mix.

Albeit, Ad Battle is far from an exact science, and most users at this early stage are ad industry insiders, but the potential is huge. The basic concept could be applied in so many ways to create a social web buzz, to test ad concepts, to rate ad performance, and more.

Of course, the app is currently only available on Facebook to members who agree to add it to their profiles then take the time to play around with it. That’s a two step opt-in process that narrows the audience significantly. However, imagine if a similar application was used on branded websites where consumers have already prequalified by visiting the site to find specific information in the first place. Offering a similar “game” allowing them to rate ads during the concept testing stage could provide valuable insight. Alternately, what if a similar app launched independent of Facebook and gained as much popularity and traffic as the infamous Hot or Not site?

Bottom-line, the potential is huge not only for information gathering but for creating an online buzz about brands. It will be interesting to see where the Ad Battle application goes from here.

What do you think?

Image: Flickr

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