Measurable Emotions: How Television Ads Really Work - Patterns of Reactions to Commercials Can Demonstrate Advertising Effectiveness.

Anca Cristina Micu and Joseph T. Plummer

Emotional responses are complex and should be measured against a variety of metrics. Five advertising research companies spanning three physiological (GSR, HRT, and facial EMG), one symbolic (ZMET), and three self-report (verbal, visual, and moment-to-moment) measures tested the effectiveness of the same four television commercials.

Measurable Emotions: How Television Ads Really Work — Patterns of Reactions to Commercials Can Demonstrate Advertising Effectiveness.

Anca Cristina Micu

Welch College of Business, Sacred Heart University

Joseph T. Plummer

Columbia Business School; Olson Zaltman Associates

INTRODUCTION: THREE TYPES OF EMOTIONAL REACTIONS

Both practitioners and academics are convinced affect plays an important part in the processing of brand messages. A rich stream of academic research stresses the importance of emotional reactions to advertising and focuses on the study of the effect of ad-evoked feelings on advertising responses.

Steering away from classic “hierarchy-of-effects” models, more recent studies have...

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