My Heart aches

That moment when you remember an advert but forget whose brand it was advertising. That.

We all create content that is designed to inform and entertain. And, depending on the audience, we can ramp up the levels of each accordingly. But have you ever thought about taking it too far?

We’ve all been conditioned to think that emotional advertising is a good thing:

“… attracting attention in a relevant way, then imparting pleasant information and making a soft sell, all in a mixed atmosphere of relaxation and integrity.” (Herold, 1963, p. 1)

But is this an antiquated theory?

What happens if you make content too emotional?

Mitchell and Olsen (1981) argue that if your viewer is paying too close attention to being entertained, this may detract from them processing the brand. And Sternthal and Craig (1973) believe that entertainment can overcrowd the message of the product.

Does it really matter?

If someone sees your brand and associates it with a certain feeling (I’m looking at you, Cadbury’s), or shares the video on Facebook, then surely that’s a good thing? In most cases … it’s not. A study by Teixeira et al. (2014) found that too much entertainment directly detracts the viewer from buying the product.

Let me entertain you …

In Teixeira et al.’s study, participants’ facial responses to 82 different adverts were measured using facial emotion analysis software. Facial reactions such as grins, smiles, and laughter were recorded – using the theory that it is tough to maintain these reactions when not being entertained.

The researchers defined entertainment based on the emotional gratification that viewers experienced.

They primarily asked two questions:

• “Is there such a thing as too much positive entertainment in ads?”
• How much entertainment content should be used?

(Teixeira et al., 2014, p. 2)

Their results suggest that 25% of the TV adverts they used in the study exceeded the optimal level of entertainment content. Which backs a previous study by Janiszewski and Warlop who believed that:

“Capturing attention is not sufficient to motivate selection of a brand.” (Janiszewski & Warlop, 1993, p. 185)

I’m so happy … I won’t buy

Viewing interest, entertainment levels, and purchase intent were recorded:

• Interest was measured based on whether the consumer chose to view the video or press the skip button.
• Entertainment level was assessed using facial tracking.
• Purchase intent was registered by asking the participant, “How likely are you to purchase this brand?”

The result? Although viewing interest rose throughout an advert, purchase intent has an inverted U-shaped relationship to entertainment – it effectively rose then fell, “showing that a medium level of positive entertainment leads to a higher intent to purchase the advertised brand than low or high levels” (Teixeira et al., 2014, p. 11).

This puts us, as content creators, in a position of potentially producing a piece that exists to entertain but not sell. Too much emotional advertising is detrimental to the brand.

Solutions not problems

Luckily, Teixeira et al. didn’t leave us hanging. They asked a coder to find the first moment the brand appeared clearly. They then recorded participants’ positive feelings before and after this point.

What they found was that the viewer is less likely to buy if they are entertained before being made aware of the brand, and more likely to buy if they are entertained after seeing the brand. (Teixeira et al., 2014, p. 2)

During the study, it was noted that most adverts placed the mention of the brand in the middle (23 out of 40 seconds).

The takeaway

It’s not a case of asking, “Is it too emotional?” It’s more a question of when to introduce the brand.

If you intend to increase sales and know that viewers will watch the whole advert, then an early placement of the brand followed by entertainment should be adequate.

If the advert is there to create awareness for a new product, then place the brand later in the piece with the entertainment going first.

And if you want to do both, then – balance them.

Whatever you do, remember to consider that introducing the brand too early can also increase ad avoidance, so take that into account too!