A recent analysis of thousands of marketing effectiveness case studies from The Institute for Practitioners in Advertising finds that advertisers investing in emotional ads that successfully inspire people to share or talk about them get significantly more for their money.
“Boring ads cost a fortune,” Cumulus Media/Westwood One Audio Active Group Chief Insights Officer Pierre Bouvard says in Westwood One's weekly blog. “Brands must spend significantly more media money on dull ads [that] don’t work very hard, compared to interesting, non-dull ads.”
According to the study, interesting ads generate 6.1 times more share growth for brands than do dull, rational ads. Advertisers would need to spend 2.6 times more on dull vs. interesting ads to achieve the same large market share growth, twice as much to generate large profit growth, and 2.6 times more for large business effects.
Based on advertising creative research firm System1 measuring of emotional response to ads to predict their long- and short-term potential, 50% of the response to AM/FM radio ads is neutral, as in the absence of emotion, while 43% elicit positive emotions of happiness or surprise, with similar results for TV ads. The lack of emotional response is even higher for business-to-business radio ads, at 53% vs. a similar 43% for positive emotions, significantly higher than for TV B2Bs.
Research shows there’s a place for both dull and interesting ads, where the former convert existing demand, and the latter create future demand. “Each approach requires very different creative and media strategies,” Bouvard says. “Converting existing demand targets the [5%] of people who are in-market and ready to buy, [and] requires rational and dull copy using tightly targeted media. Creating future demand targets the 95% not in-market and not thinking about the category, [where] the objective is to create ads that produce positive feelings, especially happiness. If an ad makes people feel good, it’s more memorable and more effective at building positive associations with a brand.”
The blog notes five questions to ask to make more interesting ads – where the more “yes” answers, the less dull the ads – from the founder of ad agency eatbigfish, Adam Morgan: “Are we meeting them [the audience] where they care, and speaking to them in their language? Are we using the real bar to judge what’s interesting, or some invented one of our own? Are we showing real distinctiveness and character? Are we using emotion, drama and storytelling? Are we denying one of their key assumptions, and surprising them?”
To show the positive effect of humor in advertising, System1 tested ads by various levels of humor, based on consumer response, and found the funniest ads drove five times more market share growth than the least funny. Put another way, the funniest ads generated 1.03 points of long-term share increases, vs. the most boring ads' 0.2 points.
“Good advertising tells its a story in an entertaining and emotional way,” Bouvard says. “To be interesting, use showmanship and salesmanship. The greater the humor, the greater the long-term market share growth.”