Advertising best practice, evidence and insights

What we know about new ad testing methods

Article • WARC Best Practice, January 2019

This article summarises key insights from a series of papers on new ad testing methods which are driven by advances in technology and neuroscience and must focus on consumers' rational and emotional drivers.

What we know about neuromarketing

Article • WARC Best Practice, December 2018

This article explores the emerging use of neuroscience in market research, a discipline capable of exposing the underlying motivations behind consumer decision making.

How to use neuroscience to improve your advertising

Article • Heather Andrew, WARC Best Practice, December 2018

This paper addresses the implications of this changing research landscape and, in particular, how neuroscience principles can help marketers and advertisers to:.

Addressable TV ad viewers are more engaged

News • 16 August 2019

The UK addressable TV market is growing, with 40% of homes now addressable, and a new report from Sky AdSmart claims this channel delivers higher engagement and clear business results for advertisers.

Why Video Advertising Works and How it Works

Research Paper • Guido MoWroriridenbach and Gerald Neumueller, ARF Experiential Learning, AUDIENCExSCIENCE, April 2019

SevenOne Media, the audio-visual and digital marketer, measured the attentional and emotional condition of recipients in Germany while they watch editorial content and advertising on different video platforms in their homes.

Teads: Making 6 Seconds Count

Research Paper • IAB Europe Research Awards, Winner, Digital Advertising Formats, 2019

Teads, the global media platform, tested the performance of 6-second ads across 10 countries and established how they can work harder at driving emotional engagement and impact.

Annalect: Emotional response to ads on different platforms

Research Paper • IAB Europe Research Awards, Highly Commended, Consumer Attitudes and Behaviour, 2019

Annalect, Omnicom Media Group's digital-buying and data hub, tested the emotional responses elicited on different creative platforms.

“I know what you’re going to ask me” Why respondents don’t read survey questions

Research Paper • Kylie Brosnan, Nazila Babakhani and Sara Dolnicar, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 61, No. 4, 2019, pp. 366-379

Tracking respondents' eyes while they complete a survey reveals that (a) they do not read instructions, survey questions, and answer options carefully enough, investing only as little as 32% of the required time; (b) their attention diminishes over the course of the survey; and (c) their self-reports of the survey experience do not reflect actual survey completion behavior.

Straight to the heart of your target audience: Personalized advertising systems - Based on wearable technology and heart-rate variability

Article • Davide C. Orazi and Greg Nyilasy, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 59, No. 2, 2019, pp. 137-141

This article examines how wearable technology can help marketers match message content with the audience’s personal dispositions or emotional states.

How do consumers choose sellers in e-marketplaces? The role of display price and sellers' review volume

Research Paper • Saravana Jaikumar, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 59, No. 2, 2019, pp. 232-241

In e-marketplaces, consumers often have to choose a seller from which to purchase a product. The author argues that seller choice depends on both evaluations of the display price of the product, related to anchoring, and sellers’ review volume, related to assimilation-contrast.

Redefining Active Listening: Integrating consumers’ verbal and non-verbal cues with active listening

Research Paper • Mannon Wong, Roland Leung and Mary Li, ESOMAR, Asia Pacific, 2019

An experiment used emotion recognition in qualitative in-depth interviews to gauge participants' responses to seasonal promotion ideas for two theme parks.

Timberland: Unspeakable Truths – Neuro-science and AI enable better identification of the emotions conveyed by advertising

Research Paper • Whitney Xi, Rupam Borthakur, Mike Underhill, Tarun Menon, Bruce Bogle, Natalie Ho and Subba Kumari, ESOMAR, Asia Pacific, 2019

Timberland, the shoe brand, tested the role emotions played in its ads in China, and revealed that ads which make audiences smile – while keeping frowns and disgust to a minimum – amplify potential success.

Please Don’t Make Me Think About Thinking! Use of neuro-physiological indices reveal deeper insights into the emotional responses of consumer for flavour evaluation

Research Paper • Siew Hoong Chan and Nasrin Shafeghat, ESOMAR, Asia Pacific, 2019

Takasago International (Singapore) collaborated with Macromill and Centan in a neuro-physiological study evaluating consumers’ flavour preferences in Indonesia.

How Initial tackled washroom disgust

News • 17 May 2019

Smells (and bad smells especially) are an emotive subject for consumers – and nowhere is that more evident than in washrooms, an often neglected part of the user experience in retail outlets.

Why the first half-second of a mobile ad is a must-win moment

Article • Geoffrey Precourt, Event Reports, MMA Impact, March 2019

Research led by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), the industry body, found that ads typically have less than a second to engage consumers on mobile.

Mining emotions via voice and smell with Johnson & Johnson and Initial

Article • Brian Carruthers, Event Reports, MRS Impact, March 2019

Two examples of how brands are using an innovative approach to understand consumer emotions.

Expert Blindness: the silent threat to success

Opinion • Dr Carl Marci, May 2019

Too much knowledge can be a dangerous thing, as it skews how you see the world. Nielsen’s Carl Marci explores a study that his organization undertook with Honda and RPA, which shed light on the topic.

A neuroscientific method for assessing effectiveness of digital vs. print ads: using biometric techniques to measure cross-media ad experience and recall

Research Paper • Andrea Ciceri, Vincenzo Russo, Giulia Songa, Giorgio Gabrielli, and Jesper Clement, Journal of Advertising Research, Digital First, April 2019

Marketers can choose among various media to convey advertising, ranging from printed advertising on paper to websites through the Internet and mobile through smartphones and tablets.

Applying neuroscience techniques to improve ad creative

Article • Emily Barley, WARC Exclusive, April 2019

Summarises a webinar hosted by Nielsen, which presents a series of six advertising case studies – all improved by neuroscience techniques.

How Facial Coding helps to Optimize Communication: Emotions as strong predictors of communication effectiveness for FMCG

Research Paper • Massimo Sarcina, Esperanza Vallejo, Catalina Bonnet and Joaquín Tapia, ESOMAR, Latin America, 2019

Alicorp, the consumer goods company, used the brain theories System 1 and 2, and facial coding tests to understand how to make their ads more effective in Peru.

In-Store Shopper Analytics: Understanding hair care preferences through visual attention

Research Paper • Mariana Monge and Bárbara Lecaros, ESOMAR, Latin America, 2019

ELVIVE, the haircare brand, analyzed shoppers' behavior during its purchase intention processes to refine its marketing strategy in Peru.

Formula One taps biometrics to inform viewing experience

News • 29 March 2019

The Formula One circus moves to Bahrain this weekend, where the TV viewing experience is being informed by an innovative research method that captures the real-time emotional arousal of fans watching the action on screen.

How Formula One is refining its viewing experience

Article • Brian Carruthers, Event Reports, IIeX Conference, February 2019

Since taking over Formula One, Liberty Media has invested in a research team that is exploring ways of exploiting what it believes is the untapped potential of the motorsport.

The Interactive Ad Effect: CTAs in Mobile Video Shoppable Ads

Research Paper • IAB, October, 2018

Exploring shoppable mobile video ads and how consumers in the US interacted with them, focusing on video-based interactive ads in a mobile web environment with the goal of understanding what initial calls to action work best.

How biometrics can track attention to TV ads

News • 01 March 2019

Biometric methods like eye tracking and skin conductance are a powerful resource for measuring the attention received by television advertising, according to a new study in the Journal of Advertising Research (JAR).

Neuroscience