Ameritest
Creative Testing

Evaluate & optimize advertising
to drive measurable performance

Creative quality is the single most powerful driver of advertising effectiveness, outperforming media spend, targeting, and placement—yet in a world where consumers are exposed to thousands of ads each day, only a few break through to create emotional impact and lasting branded memories that shape perception and influence purchase decisions.

Creative Testing with Vista Grande and the Ameritest® System provides a clear, objective way to determine whether your ideas are strong enough to succeed before launch, using proven in-market predictive metrics to identify what works, optimize what doesn’t, and invest with confidence.

From Early-Stage Concept Testing to Finished Ad Evaluation

Ameritest lets you:

Predict real-world ad performance

Optimize creative for stronger engagement and recall

Reduce risk before media investment

Build more effective, memory-driving advertising

Creative Testing That Reduces Risk & Improves Results

Does your idea have the strength to become a campaign, not just a single execution?

Will the creative deliver against your key performance indicators and drive measurable sales impact?

Does it connect with your target audience on both an emotional and cognitive level?

How can your full-funnel creative be optimized to drive awareness, consideration, and conversion?

We help you answer the questions that matter most.

At any stage of development, creative testing provides actionable insight into how consumers truly experience your advertising.

By identifying creative strengths, weaknesses, and optimization opportunities early, creative research reduces risk, improves efficiency, and increases the likelihood that your campaign creates lasting brand impact, not just impressions.

Test smarter.
Optimize faster.
Launch with confidence.

How Creative Performance Is Measured and Improved

Creative testing reveals the brand-building power of advertising in ways impressions, clicks, and short-term sales metrics never can.

At its core, creative effectiveness comes down to two critical questions:

Retailer in-store from shopper perspective

‍Does the advertisement capture attention?‍

Will the advertisement be remembered?‍

‍Vista Grande goes beyond surface-level metrics to answer both questions and, more importantly, to explain why an ad works or does not.

We combine validated performance measures with deep diagnostic analysis to evaluate how your campaign’s storytelling, visual language, and messaging work together to create branded memories. These memories are the mental structures that shape future behavior and drive long-term brand growth.

This approach does more than score creative performance. It delivers clear guidance on what to optimize, what to refine, and what to amplify to improve results.

Why Memory Matters in Creative Testing

Because What Is Remembered Drives Choice

Memory is the mechanism through which advertising creates long-term impact.

Vista Grande focuses on memory because it shapes consumer decision-making long after an ad ends. We measure how effectively your advertising creates lasting memories of your brand and message, the kind that influence consideration, preference, and purchase.

Most creative testing focuses on what consumers see, such as viewability, eye movement, or moment-by-moment attention. These metrics are useful, but they are not enough to predict real-world effectiveness.

We go further.

Vista Grande evaluates both what consumers see and what they remember. Advertising does not succeed simply by being watched. It succeeds by earning a lasting place in the mind.

Memory-Focused Attention Measurement

Our approach connects attention to outcomes by measuring:

‍Message communication is the intended message understood and retained?

Brand attribution is the memory clearly linked to your brand?

Motivation does the advertisement create desire, relevance, or intent?
‍

Together, these define memory-focused attention, a stronger predictor of whether your advertising will measurably influence your target audience.

Survey-Based, Decision-Grade Intelligence

Our survey-based creative testing methodology is designed for scale, consistency, and reliable comparison across campaigns.

Measure and compare all media types using a unified evaluation framework

Apply consistent, decision-grade metrics across executions and channels

Leverage verbal and visual diagnostics to identify what drives impact
‍

The result is fast, actionable insight across your entire campaign ecosystem, enabling smarter creative decisions both before and after launch.

‍From insight to optimization, without guesswork.

Your Offering

Does your product and packaging deliver a compelling and differentiated experience?

•Product design and features
•Quality and performance
•Packaging design
•Brand image

Your Value

What should your everyday pricing be?
‍
•Price awareness
•Price perception
•Price elasticity
•Price value

Your Location

Where should your product be placed, or how should the shelf be organized?

•Shelf placement
•Secondary placement
•Planogram arrangement
•Channel sales

Your Targeting

How should you promote it?

•Traditional media
•Digital
•In-Store promotions
•And more!

The Vista Grande Ameritest advantage:

Memory-Driven Measurement
We focus on what truly matters: branded memories that endure, influence choice, and drive long-term brand growth.
Beyond the Scorecard
‍Standard metrics are only the starting point. Our analysis uncovers the drivers of attention, meaning, and impact, so insights are actionable, not academic.
Visual Diagnostics for Optimization
‍Proprietary visual diagnostics reveal which moments, cues, and creative elements are driving performance and which ones need refinement.

Relevant, Current Benchmarks
‍Your creative is evaluated against recent, category-relevant benchmarks that reflect today’s evolving media environment.
Standardized for Speed, Flexible for Scale
Our methodology balances rigor and efficiency, enabling consistent measurement across channels, markets, and media types.
Expert-Led Research
‍Every project is designed, conducted, and interpreted by experienced advertising research professionals, ensuring insight quality that goes beyond automated outputs.

The Ameritest Story

Ameritest is a leading brand and advertising research consultancy with more than 30 years of experience advancing the science of creative effectiveness.

Since its founding, Ameritest has pioneered the use of imagery-based research to measure branded memory and evaluate how advertising creates lasting impact. Through an integrated system of proprietary methodologies, including Picture Sorts, Copy Sorts, Flash Tests, and Memory Maps, Ameritest helps brands strengthen image, optimize creative executions, and improve advertising performance over time.

Ameritest maintains one of the most extensive advertising research databases in the industry, spanning categories such as automotive, restaurants, consumer packaged goods, retail, and financial services. An eight-time winner of the ARF David Ogilvy Award, Ameritest enables creative teams to see their work through the eyes of their target audience.

Ameritest was founded in 1990 by Chuck Young, the inventor of these methodologies and the author of The Advertising Research Handbook, Branded Memory, and Making Memories.

A Complete Ecosystem of Decision Solutions

The combined strength of Vista Grande, GameChanger, and Ameritest delivers a holistic solution designed to drive measurable business success.

Together, these capabilities give you access to a complete spectrum of insight, from understanding category and shopper dynamics, to measuring the power of creative to drive business outcomes, to validating strategies in real retail environments.

The result is a connected approach that links strategy, creative performance, and in-market validation, helping you make smarter decisions with greater confidence at every stage of growth.

Get In Touch To Learn More

AmeritestCreative Testing

Evaluate & optimize advertising to drive measurable performance