People increasingly more often expect brands to change the world. To help save the planet and make our lives more harmonious. Brands may try to achieve that, but are still viewed worse and worse. There is good news for brand managers however. New research tools allow better advertising message design in these times of constant distraction.
Subsequent editions of global studies that have been conducted for about a dozen years show that brand trust is declining across the board. Why is that so? According to one of the answers, when more brands take on trending subjects and promise to change the world, the bigger the expectations they generate. The disappointment that comes later on fuels consumer distrust.
But there is a simpler explanation. Many campaigns and promises are not seen by the consumers amidst the flood of communication. Attention paid to advertising is not a zero-one game. That attention changes in leaps, and may switch from active to passive or disappear completely every couple of seconds. It also disappears when the watched creatives are poorly constructed, or fail to evoke any emotions. Sometimes they are also wrongly attributed to different brands.
The case study focusing on analysis of advert engagement and emotions conducted with Eye Tracking and Face Tracking can be downloaded here: Download the case study from the communication study Eye Tracking + Face Tracking – Open Research Agencja Badania Rynku i Opinii
Briefs indicating that the campaign is intended to evoke specific emotions don’t help creative agencies at all
There are many different ways in which emotions can be evoked. However, this does not mean that the consumers will automatically connect these emotions to the brand and that this will manifest in their shopping decisions.
The Cadbury chocolate “Gorilla” advert has been one of the best-known and rewarded advertisements for years. The brief’s intention was to “rediscover joy”, which is why a spot was made with a gorilla playing drums to the sound of Phil Collin’s “In the Air Tonight”. The video sparked so much joy that it was viewed by millions of people around the world.
Cadbury executives, encouraged by the success, immediately commissioned another campaign. Based on the same strategy, the same brief, with the same agency, the same budget and director. The effect should have been the same as well, right? Only it wasn’t. The campaign brought no increase in sales. This happened despite the fact that in declared research, consumers associated the ad with adventure and excitement, and the previous “Gorilla” ad was associated with pleasure and safety. What went wrong? The new ad’s potential was not researched in the context of the brand.
This is a situation experienced by many marketing departments and agencies in Poland. Some ads evoke emotions and spark interest from the first second, others don’t, for some reason. Or even if they do evoke emotions – this fails to translate into sales or brand indicators. Without reliable data, nobody knows why that is the case. The Open Research tool, based on Affectiva technology, may provide the answers.
From Darwin to Emotion
It took years for marketers and creative agencies to learn how to improve creatives. One example that was educational for example, was the “Krolewskie” beer campaign from 2001-2003. The ads are remembered to this day and still labelled cult-classics. They showed a group of married men living in the same neighborhood, sneaking out of home to drink beer together. The spots were indeed funny… to everyone but the people who really bought the brand. These consumers would rather not identify with such heroes.
The case study focusing on analysis of advert engagement and emotions conducted with Eye Tracking and Face Tracking can be downloaded here: Download the case study from the communication study Eye Tracking + Face Tracking – Open Research Agencja Badania Rynku i Opinii
The emergence of behavior research technology reduced the frequency of such mishaps. For example, one advertisement that was tested was the classic Sony Bravia ad, “Bouncing Balls”. It was the one with 25 thousand balls bouncing on the sloped streets of San Francisco, with Jon Gonzalez “Heartbeats” playing in the background. The scenes with the colorful balls were really impressive. And yet, the first non-declarative test of the creative showed that viewer indicators would spike most when the ad showed… a frog leaping out of a drainpipe. Learning this would be impossible with declarative research alone.
Making such learnings is even easier today. Emotion collects and analyses non-declarative data, which is rooted in the implicit, subconscious level. It is comprised of two technologies:
Studying human facial expressions is challenging, despite its long tradition
Charles Darwin broke down facial expressions in his book “On the expressions of emotions in animal and man”. He stated that quick transmission of emotions was essential for the survival of the species, and at that moment, the face became a “billboard for the heart”. Since the 1950s, Paul Ekman worked on a method for objective coding of facial expressions, which he called the Facial Action Coding System. He identified 6 basic emotions: happiness, anger, sadness, disgust, surprise and fear. Among others, he described the so-called Pan Am smile – the smile of a flight attendant trying to be polite. She raises the corners of her lips using the Zygomaticus major muscle, with the rest of the face remaining still, thus making the smile appear insincere. Now, 60 years later, Ekman’s collection of facial expressions remains the basis for modern emotion research systems.
In the context of advertising, being limited to only facial expressions would distort the findings. This is why Emotion uses both technologies: analysis of facial expressions and eyeball movement.
The tool enables testing:
Ad potential
Results of the ads in reference to Polish and foreign benchmarks
Advertisement impact on brand response
Impact of information context on the response to the ad
Advertising in streaming services
Ad visibility
Response to show trailers
Disappearing on the mothers’ side
Let us compare the test results for two advertising creatives:
https://openplus.home.pl/dokumenty/Nurofen%20po%20stronie%20mam%20-%20Aggregate%20enage.mp4 (Nurofen)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_9IA-PdsGw (Nurofen)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-grPXT8-F8 (Lidl)
These spots were tested in July 2022, on a Poland-wide sample of around one hundred people aged 18-59, who were regular TV viewers. Respondents watched six spots, one of which was the video for the tested brand. The advertisements in the reel were shown in rotated order. Results for the Facial Expression Analysis indicated positive, negative and neutral emotions – meaning there was emotional engagement in every second of the spot.
The case study focusing on analysis of advert engagement and emotions conducted with Eye Tracking and Face Tracking can be downloaded here: Download the case study from the communication study Eye Tracking + Face Tracking – Open Research Agencja Badania Rynku i Opinii
Lidl spot
The study revealed that the ad has relatively low potential. Respondents’ engagement was low in the first seconds, growing slowly as the video went on. However, a couple of more seconds into the ad, engagement would decrease.
In subsequent seconds of the spot, various objects disappear, and the viewers’ engagement grows. However, there are negative emotions showing on their faces, such as: fear, confusion, contempt.
Eyetracking revealed that only 14% respondents looked at the logo in the upper left corner all throughout its presence in the spot. The study also showed:
Eyetracking and Facial Action Coding studies are enriched with a response time measure: the faster a response takes place, the more certain it is. Lidl’s advertisement was considered funny. On the declared level, persuasiveness is high, although limited. Only one in five respondents is certain that they want to visit the brand’s store.
Now let us examine the Nurofen brand spot
The OTC medicine category is widely considered easy to advertise. In most cases, the ad follows the same template: the main character talks about how they solved their problem, by using the advertised product, even though “other products” have failed before. However, a study with the Emotion AI tool shows that the creative has some room for improvement.
The spot keeps the viewer engaged; there are nearly no moments when engagement would suddenly drop. It declines only close to the end. This happens during a scene typical for the product category: the legally required disclaimer about consulting the doctor or pharmacist.
As many as 95% respondents looked at the logo during the whole spot. This translated into higher memorability of the logo in the spot and better response to the ad as far as declarations are concerned.
An improved creative has a higher chance to evoke emotions that would remind about the brand and impact behaviors not of the viewer, but the buyer. At the same time, the ad must not be pushy. It should not tell people how they are going to feel – instead, it should evoke these emotions. Two advertisements can evoke the same emotions, i.e. joy, but they may impact the brand completely differently. Declarative studies alone will not identify these differences.
The Emotion advertising material researching tool enables using complex research techniques in a very short amount of time. It makes it possible to improve the creative. And the creative has much bigger impact on end success than any other campaign variable. Especially in times when there is such fierce competition over the consumers’ attention.
The case study focusing on analysis of advert engagement and emotions conducted with Eye Tracking and Face Tracking can be downloaded here: Download the case study from the communication study Eye Tracking + Face Tracking – Open Research Agencja Badania Rynku i Opinii
