Mindshare Poland
AXE - WHAT'S YOUR MAGIC?
Awards: Social Media (Bronze)
Campaign summary
We listened to our consumers who, in response to the Axe Find Your Magic campaign, said they want to show the world what THEIR magic is about. We gave them a chance to do that. We created a local campaign, during which we showed ordinary men with some extraordinary hobbies. Materials created as part of the “What's your magic?” campaign were watched over 13 million times. At the same time, the materials created by the vloggers from ABSTRA TV, which are popular among our target group, reached around 5 million views.
1. Objectives and Strategy
Axe defined attractiveness as great look and popularity among women. In 2015 the market share reached only 5.2% - consumers rejected AXE as they stopped to believe in it.
In 2016 started new Find Your Magic communication: to convince boys that everyone has some special & attractive talents and AXE just emphasize it. We targeted men aged 17-35 who want to show their magic to the world, who appreciate authentic content.
They hate marketing bullshit. They carefully build their social image, rarely like, comment or share content. They are incredibly hard to attract adblockers (IR Center 2016: in the 15-24 age: 36%, and in the 25-34: 26%).
The idea was to create branded but credible content. KPIs: 16,000 interactions and 400,000 organic material views. Finally to change the brand image on the modern/up to date attributes (KPI: +2 points in each of the age segments : M16-24 and M25-35).
2. Execution and Media
Young men value brands that speak their language. They wrote to us with suggestions to create videos about their hobbies. We responded and announced the competition. Sokół encouraged to take part in it, which was a distinguishing feature of previous communication. In addition, our narrator was great at social media and we treated his channels as an additional carrier of the created content.
Based on the entries, we recorded 3 materials with stories told with Sokół voice - showing that the passion is sexy. Our characters don’t look like models - still became our heroes as men are attractive when they have a passion that excites them.
From media POV we used potential of remarketing, precise targeting, adapting the target groups to the subject of the video (on demographic and behavioural data) and finally optimizing advertising support in nearly real time with solutions that helped to achieve KPIs.
3. Creative
We made short videos - the most popular content watched by our TG. The first video concerned Sokół, who was the narrator in subsequent materials. The other characters were: Konrad and Maciek - they made the fastest two-engined car in the world by themselves, Krzysiek - became the Polish Champion in the tricks on fingerboard, the Siekaj brothers - who deal with professional quad riding.
We withdrew from intrusive branding, but considered best practices in video content. We put our logo in the first seconds of each creation to reach skippers and added subtitles to reach people watching without sound.
We focused on the quality of production, thus we retained our consumers.
4. Innovation
In the opposition to the deodorants category approach we supported AXE campaign “What's Your Magic?” in 100% in digital. We knew men use Adblock, so we promoted on channels difficult to block: Facebook, Instagram and Youtube (94% of the budget), and Spotify (6% of the budget).
Content on Youtube is the best way to reach men! Facebook and Instagram enabled precise targeting, Spotify gave the opportunity to build the connotations with Sokół and to apply the mechanism valued by the Millennials, i.e. sponsored session - advertising with a reward (half an hour of music without ads after watching the video).
5. Results
During the campaign, the materials were displayed as many as 13 million times. Our content went viral in social media. On Facebook, we generated more than 1.2 million views organically (while on other posts we did not generate more than 20,000 views). The men not only watched (high YT views rate - 38% vs. benchmark 32% in the body care category), but they also liked, commented and shared (33k interactions - 206% of KPI implementation). In addition, we recorded an increase in the modern/up to date index among our TG (M16-24 +3pts, M25-34 +8pts).
Despite the non-obstructive branding we built the brand awareness - 67% increase on AdRecall - twice as much as the average result in the category - 33%. The spots were long (1-2 minutes), and yet we had an average of 23% of full views (benchmark 20% in the category of body care for video +31 seconds).
C-Section
#ThisFoodIsOnMe
Awards: Social Media (Bronze)
Campaign summary
Turkey is home to the biggest stray animal population in Europe. A myriad of animal lovers volunteer for the animals’ wellbeing, only to fall short of meeting the needs. Therefore, we wanted to make feeding stray animals as easy as sending a tweet. This way, people would help stray animals without leaving their homes but also promote the cause.
1. Objectives and Strategy
As was the case with many operators, Vodafone was challenged in social media with regard to positive mentions. Users were mostly mentioning the brand to share their problems.
So, in order to boost our positive buzz, we decided to gather all who want to help stray animals under a single conversation with Vodafone. We aimed to bring this idea into action with Coding Tomorrow, a coding training initiative for children by Vodafone Turkey Foundation, and to gain more public recognition for the foundation.
2. Execution and Media
We set up tweet-operated food bowls in front of 11 Vodafone shops. Every tweet with the #BuMamaBenden (#ThisFoodIsOnMe) hashtag queued food to be dropped into the bowl which would be refilled automatically with each tweet. We uploaded a video, which explained how children who learned coding developed this project, to all of our social media accounts including YouTube. This video has become viral with no ad spending at all. We also posted updates to let the tweeters follow up on what happens at the food dispensers.
3. Creative
We posted a video on all our social media accounts. The video showed the experience of the children who coded the Tweet-operated Food Dispenser, after a training by Coding Tomorrow, an initiative that teaches children how to code. In this video that aimed to promote the hashtag and increase popularity of the Vodafone Turkey Foundation, children called people who want to help stray animals for tweeting.
4. Innovation
The Code-operated Food Dispenser is a machine that enables users to help stray animals without leaving their homes. Every tweet with the #ThisFoodIsOnMe hashtag triggered 12 dispensers, which were set up in front of Vodafone shops, to drop food. If a bowl was full, the tweet would be held in queue. This way, users tweeted not only to provide unlimited support but also encouraged others to feed stray animals.
5. Results
The hashtag campaign produced 612,000 tweets, a record in Turkey. The #ThisFoodIsOnMe hashtag, mentioned in 175,831 tweets in one day, were posted by over 300 celebrities and influencers, and that without any ad budget allocated. The campaign thus spread very quickly. Vodafone’s positive mentions in social media spearheaded from 6 to 47 percent in November, and to 64 later on. Organically, #ThisFoodIsOnMe has transcended Vodafone and the dispensers, becoming “the” hashtag for everyone who wanted to support stray animals.
Mindshare
Cornetto Mobile İn Love
Awards: Video Advertising (Bronze)
Campaign summary
In 2018, a Wattpad story series became a top hit amonst youngsters, generated anormous talkability and the story was adapted to a movie, 4N1K. As Cornetto, we have partnered with 4N1K project starting from the script-writing process and created an integrated strategy that will cover all channels, will introduce first-ever user experiences and generate high levels of interaction and talkability around our branded contents throughout the season.
Creative focus was to enrich user experience at every medium with integration of new formats, media firsts and exclusive contents. We knew youth brands was gonna have integrations in 4N1K and our strategy was to be the by far top-of-mind brand that was associated with 4N1K above all.
Campaign results over-achieved initial targets in terms of the time spent interacting with our branded content, reaching first ever levels of view time, organic view rates, social interactions and positive mentions, shared in detail in the results.
5. Results
Cornetto reached 14 million unique users with the integrated brand experience designed across various content platforms of 4N1K covering TV, digital channels and cinema.
3 webisodes reached a 74% organic view rate, a rate no branded content has achieved before in Turkey. All 3 videos were listed in the top 5 most organically spreaded videos list. Total view time of the webisodes reached 41 million minutes, with a 5-minute average view time per video, which became a CPG industry record level.
Cornetto Youtube channel gained 35k new subscribers, becoming the second most followed CPG brand in Turkey.
Viewers interacted with the leading character’s phone content, the second screen mobile platform, for 147.000 minutes.
During the project timeline, social media interactions mentioning Cornetto doubled, while the ratio of positive mentions increased to 93%.
Spotify
Spotify for Brands Virtual Reality House Tour
Awards: Virtual and Augmented Reality (Silver)
Campaign summary
Spotify Business Marketing is responsible for driving demand for Spotify’s advertising business and keeping Spotify top-of-mind with media buyers and brands through experiential, digital and social campaigns. Spotify operates a freemium model with more than 116 million people globally enjoying advertisements on the free, ad-supported tier; however, many media buyers and brand marketers are Spotify Premium subscribers and do not regularly engage with the Spotify ad experience. Common feedback from the ad sales team was that buyers didn’t understand the basics about how ads are shown on the platform and what the opportunities are for targeting. Verbally explaining the look and feel of ad formats can be a dry experience. Spotify Business Marketing needed to find a differentiated, impressive, creatively inspiring way to showcase our ad products. VR was the answer.
VR allowed us to create a portable, immersive experience.This house only needed to be built once, but could be adapted to the user and then explored by anyone, anywhere wearing a headset.
The global Business Marketing team are able to use the VR CMS to adapt the tool to their local languages and cultures, as well as change the ads and facts displayed within the house. Local teams take the VR headsets to meetings with clients and create opportunities to experience the VR tool at roadshow sessions and tentpole events like Cannes and CES.
Spotify approached several experiential and VR agencies in the UK to develop this tool, before eventually deciding to work with Manzalab, an agency based in Paris. Manzalab visited Spotify’s London and Paris offices to take inspiration for the design from the interior decoration of our offices and worked closely with our internal design and brand teams to ensure the House was consistent with the Spotify brand identity.
The development of the CMS for the tool was especially significant as it allowed all global teams to quickly and efficiently change elements of the House without additional cost or delays. Further, the CMS makes the tool extremely flexible. For example, at Dmexco 2018, we were able to offer English and German versions of the tool to booth visitors.
5. Results
Nearly 1,000 Spotify for Brands prospects and clients have experienced the VR tool since launch. By tracking VR tool use in Salesforce, we are able to directly attribute the use of the tool to several hundreds of thousands in additional advertising revenue for the business by noting who has used the tool and who is subsequently marked as a contact on revenue bookings. Use of the tool is ongoing and resulting revenue continues to increase. So far, we’ve seen at least a 5x return on investment in the tool’s development.
In addition to direct impact on revenues, feedback from clients and prospects has been very positive, with most noting how the tool had advanced their understanding of the Spotify ad offering, as well as being fun and entertaining to use.
Saatchi&Saatchi Ukraine
Sprite: DRONE PAINTER - Ugly or Contemporary Artist
Awards: Virtual and Augmented Reality (Bronze)
Controlled by an AI-based algorithm, Saatchi&Saatchi Ukraine worked with Sprite to create ‘Drone Painter’ – a drone that paints iconic murals, without the need for human involvement. They allowed hundreds of people to design their own unique mural online, with the best mural chosen to be painted by the drone.
GONG
Tymbark – Funbot
Awards: Virtual and Augmented Reality (Bronze)
Campaign summary
Market Context: Young people love spending summer holidays with their friends. And snapping photos together. Many photos. Tymbark, a popular fruit drink manufacturer, sought to be a part of their holiday experience. There was one hurdle to clear, however—getting youths to share their pictures with the brand. Funbot is an original, custom-designed AI-powered solution, which uses a highly advanced image recognition and analysis algorithms to facilitate interaction between brand and consumer. The innovative service boosted customer engagement among younger demographics, driving them to share over 300,000 photos and continue to interact with the brand as far as twelve months after campaign conclusion.
1. Objectives and Strategy
The 15-24yo demographic makes up up the biggest group among on-the-go drink consumers. Tymbark, a market leader in the industry, faces specific challenges in this particular area—its market share is vulnerable to both typically youth-oriented brands (Frugo, Roko), and established brands with international reach (Cola, Fanta, Sprite). To maintain the market leader position, a brand needs to be perceived as a trendsetter and early adopter of innovative solutions that boost engagement among the younger consumers. For the 15-24 demographic, the summer holidays are a perfect opportunity to spend some time with friends. And snap photos together. Hundreds of photos. The challenge was to design a digital activation campaign that would encourage younger consumers to share their holiday memories, in the form of pictures, with the brand.
KPI: 50,000 photos within the activation
KPI2: At least 2 pictures shared per user
CoreTG: younger consumers (15-24yo).
2. Execution and Media
To have Funbot caption a picture, a user has to take a photo using their smartphone or upload it from their computer, IG, or FB account. The application will analyze the picture within seconds and come up with five fitting captions. The user will then pick one and receive a branded picture with the caption written down inside the trademark Tymbark bottlecap.
Funbot became an integral part of Tymbark’s Messenger chatbot. The app was also deployed on a mobile website, developed according to RWD principles, which did not require the installation of any additional software.
Social media – 18%
Video – 25%
Display – 56%
Search – 1%
The main thrust of the media efforts was pursued over six summer holiday weeks and focused on SM.
Promotional efforts in mobile channels turned out to be highly successful.
3. Creative
Funbot is an app—based around Bottlecap—that adds personalized captions to submitted photos on the fly. Funbot is based on AI-powered image recognition and analysis solutions. Using a handful of image recognition and analysis algorithms, we designed an original platform.
A user has to take a photo using their smartphone or upload it from their computer, or IG or FB account. The application analyzes the picture within seconds and comes up with five fitting captions. The user receives a branded picture with the caption written inside the trademark Tymbark bottle cap, they can share on SM.
We taught Funbot to recognize popular popcultural elements, including celebrities, movie stills, famous paintings, even logotypes.
4. Innovation
Using a handful of image recognition and analysis algorithms, we designed an original, high-efficiency solution. After processing the image, the algorithm then produces a couple, sometimes even a couple dozen, keyword that describe elements present in the image—it’s capable of identifying objects, structures, weather, vacation situations, celebrities, logotypes of other brands, even emotions of people in the pictures.
Then, the algorithms were fed thousands of typical vacation pictures to have them learn to identify their most commonly occurring elements. This resulted in a dictionary holding a couple of thousand phrases and their combinations, which we managed to assemble into over 3,000 creative captions. With each analyzed photo, the algorithm “learned” the best answers, and optimized relevant weights in the dictionary. It’s safe to say that Funbot is currently the most advanced tool for identifying vacation situations in photos.
5. Results
Together, innovative algorithms, unparalleled precision, and thousands of witty captions produced the desired results. Young people went crazy about Funbot and began flooding the app with photos, not just vacation pics, in order to try and beat the app at its own game. Powered by AI, the Tymbark Bottlecap managed to encourage young people to share their photos in numbers heretofore unseen. Everyone who engaged with Funbot submitted five photos on average (2.5 times the KPI) during the activation campaign.
Throughout the six summer weeks of the campaign, we received nearly 100,000 photos (2 times the KPI2).
Six months after concluding the campaign, the number of submitted pictures passed 300,000, with an average of around 1,000 new photos coming in every day.
Annalect
Coop Agile Marketing Mix Modelling
Awards: Advertising Solutions (Winner) and Best Use of Research Budget (Highly Commended)
Project summary
Annalect has developed an agile MMM setup for supermarket retailer Coop in Denmark. Marketing Mix Modelling requires data collection from a wide range of sources, often making the data collection phase more time consuming than the actual statistical modelling phase.
Each month Coop can review complete updates of modelled sales data that is less than two weeks old, with digital media split into nine channels. The setup enables analysis on effects created from different digital executions, i.e. always-on vs campaign bursts or tactical messages vs. branding messages
A process that previously would take 8-10 weeks to complete and would usually only be done once a year on an aggregated level.
The research setup for Coop spans four different retail chains and utilises different digital technologies to create a seamless data flow, updating all data sources continuously. We have created a state-of-the-art modelling setup with high levels of automation in all steps from the data extraction, transformation and loading (ETL process) through the modelling phase to end visualisation.
This solution rests upon us as researchers being able to innovate not only within applied statistics but also within new tech solutions and software development to bring answers faster and more often.
1. Objective(s)
Coop’s objective was to create a dynamic learning environment to optimise campaign execution on a regular trial-and-error basis. Marketing mix modelling was well known to Coop but only provided top level strategic insights once or twice a year, making it difficult to use in the fast-paced retail market, where campaign concepts, digital channels and executions are constantly being changed and experimented with. Faster reaction times were needed to create competitive advantage and the objective was also to gain a more granulated understanding of the many digital channels and opportunities.
2. Methodology
As cloud computing gives us more processing power, new techniques such as machine learning come into play. We use serverless methodologies and auto scaling to spin-up desired number of compute engines.
Modelling of numerous digital channels has meant moving from spread sheet regression analysis to coding in programs such as R.
We use state-of-the-art optimisation techniques to find optimal solutions at a faster pace.
In order to estimate the parameters, we use around 1.000.000 regression calculations every time we optimise a model.
As cloud-engine we use the AWS platform and the optimised computing services like Lambda, EMR, EC2 and AutoScaling.
3. Key results
The base modelling provides the usual vital MMM learnings such as media channel ROI, effects from own media, effects from initiatives such as store openings, seasonal effects and competitor impact.
Furthermore, the detailed media data not only supplies results on channel level – including nine digital channels – but also on creative type, concepts, messages and targeting. All updated on a monthly basis.
This agile approach means more results more frequently. Thus, the setup enables results in many different areas. These results include detailed Facebook analysis on post types, response curves for leaflet circulation and spot length evaluation.
4. Impact and Application
The key point is the sheer volume and usage of results, that is a direct effect of the automated data and modelling process, i.e. the agile setup.
Because the models need to run automatically, data coding is extremely detailed. This also adds a new dimension of detail to campaign results, giving us the opportunity to analyse many different executions e.g. media channel effects on different creative concepts.
Results are published immediately in a user-friendly dashboard, forcing stakeholders to keep up-to-date with results from every campaign. Never have we experienced a client utilising results in this way. Furthermore, results have touched many different client stakeholders. From the social team looking into detailed Facebook activities to top executives eager to find savings in large cost areas such as leaflet production and circulation (leaflets are central to retailers in Denmark).
Already within six months of the release, budgets have been moved to the most efficient channels, creative concepts have been reviewed and campaign timing has been optimised. All based on the results. The overall leaflet strategy has been revised for two of the four chains, with more changes to be made in 2019. Circulation is being cut and budgets are invested in new targeted digital channels.
From a research point-of-view, we have seen the competitive advantage that can be created from faster reaction times and moving results closer to the client. A test-and-learn environment is created because we can get results immediately, adjust and run new tests. This is also changing the data science competencies we need in the future.
CMO at Coop, Pia Niemann, says:
“Day by day, we become better at investing our media money and will be able to deliver increased sales effects with the same investment. Hopefully, this also allows room for media experiments on a more informed basis.”
5. Significance
The detailed coding of digital data has allowed for previously unseen depth. Digital channels are highly specialised and have previously delivered uneven results. Now, not only do we report on nine different digital channels (programmatic, takeovers, social etc.) but within these categories we can differentiate effects created from different execution strategies.
An example is Facebook, where results for the continuous ‘always-on’ tracks can be compared to the one-off campaign posts and again compared to organic versus paid activities.
Decisions based on these insights have increased effects, resulting in digital channels creating three quarters of the growth in media driven sales.
Click here to view research project
Outdoor Ad Impact Forecaster
MeMo²
Awards: Grand Prix, Best Use of Research Budget (Winner), Brand Advertising Effectiveness (Highly Commended) and Research and Data Innovation (Winner)
Project summary
MeMo² observed an important transformation within the domain of marketing analytics, namely: the transformation from ‘Descriptive Analytics (What happened?) to ‘Prescriptive Analytics’ (How to shape the future?). This transformation has become a motivation for the start of an innovative big data & machine learning project.
Since 2014, Exterion Media has invested significantly in offering advertisers data and learnings regarding their outdoor campaigns. Post-campaign results concerning the realised Impact and uplift in Awareness and Purchase Intent were shared with more than 275 advertisers. The market however, shows a strong desire to receive insights before their campaign starts.
This was the starting point to develop a powerful online tool to predict the quality and impact of (Digital)Outdoor campaigns. Based on machine learning and the underlying results of over 300 studies conducted since 2014, which included 68.000 respondents and a variety of brands and industries, MeMo² has created a state-of-the-art and easy-to-use tool to forecast the impact of (Digital)Outdoor campaigns.
After validation in 2017, the Outdoor Ad Impact Forecaster was launched in 2018, and successfully used for more than 100 cases. In May 2018 the tool was awarded with a prestigious AMMA Research Award. Tool is currently public for jury only (https://exteriontool.memo2.nl/ login:MeMo2 pass:Abrit00l2018)
1. Objective(s)
In MeMo² & Exterion Media started an unique collaboration with the VU University Amsterdam, 300 studies (N=68.000) showed the strongest drivers of Brand Lift realised via Outdoor advertising (see Whitepaper). This journey proved to be a solid start for a new and innovative approach to predict and improve outcomes of Digital Outdoor campaigns. MeMo² and Exterion Media started an extensive modelling and machine learning project. Main goal was to develop a powerful online tool that supports advertisers with Digital Outdoor campaign optimization. The tool needs to deliver useful and reliable predictions and recommendations before the start of an (Digital)Outdoor campaign.
2. Methodology
Input for the forecasts are Creative, Brand and Media characteristics.
Important methodology steps undertaken:
- Coding and controlling the research data.
- Data enrichment with campaign information, e.g. impressions, number of panels, timings and audience.
- Detect and select strongest predictors with a Python image processing script.
- Built an Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) predicting model
- Development of an interactive tool in which users can upload their 'own' ad and fill in their campaign characteristics. Based on this input, the model forecasts the effects of the campaign (realtime) and provides the user with recommendations.
3. Key results
The predictive validity of the tool is tested by calculating the correlation coefficient between the prediction of the Forecaster and the factual results measured post-campaign. The conducted verification showed a high correlation (0.75) between the forecast output of the Outdoor Ad Impact Forecaster™ and the results generated via control measurements. This test confirmed the power and predictive value of the tool’s output. In other words, the tool proved to be a solid and thorough instrument to successfully predict the impact of (digital)outdoor ads.
Important outcome: impact of (digital)outdoor is for 40% attributable to Creation, 30% Brand and 30% Media.
4. Impact and Application
• Exterion Media and MeMo² succeeded in developing and launching an intelligent and user friendly tool, that is able to predict the impact of an (Digital) Outdoor campaign. The Outdoor Ad Impact Forecaster™ is an online machine learning tool, that offers powerful validated predictions, taking into account the most important variables that could influence the effect of (Digital)Outdoor advertising.
• Currently the Outdoor Ad Impact Forecaster™ is implemented within the research products offered by Exterion Media. Since 2018 the tool is used for the (Digital)Outdoor campaigns of more than 100 advertisers. Digital Out-of-Home Experts of Exterion Media use the tool to provide clients with actionable, trustworthy and independent recommendations, before campaigns run.
• Forecasts and recommendations coming from the tool are highly appreciated by Media and Research experts working at launching partners and key clients such as Coca-Cola, Takeaway.com, Tele2 and ING.
• The Outdoor Ad Impact Forecaster™ is awarded for an AMMA Research Award in May 2018. Jury: “…The jury appreciates the cooperation between the different disciplines, the combination of research methodologies, the implementation of brand, campaign and creative data in order to predict campaign effects. Besides this, the jury admires the manner how the results are shared with the market, via a free accessible and use friendly online tool that delivers on-demand insights and recommendations.“ https://www.mwg.nl/foto/normaal-Hans%20du.jpg
• Independent global agency MeMo² stopped offering its 'traditional' Outdoor pretesting methodology and has become a frequent user of the Outdoor Ad Impact Forecaster since the launch.
• 48h delivery promise. After filling in an online form (https://www.outdooradimpact.com/home) and uploading the (D)OOH ads, forecasts and recommendations are delivered within 48 hours. This quick response offers marketeers a data solution for short-term optimization of their DOOH campaign strategy.
5. Significance
Locally and globally, there are lot of words and publications about Big Data Analytics and Machine Learning. However the number of successful initiatives within the domain of digital media are limited. MeMo² and Exterion Media experience that only a small number of initiatives or scientific publications focus on the factual Brand Lift of (Digital)Outdoor Advertising. MeMo² and Exterion Media started something new. This tool is called a 'game changing analytics solution'. The Outdoor Ad Impact Forecaster is a perfect example of how research and data can contribute to ‘Prescriptive Analytics’ that are useful for professionals working in Digital Marketing.
Click here to view research project
Text-mining as methodological approach to influencers evaluation
Havas Media
Awards: Brand Advertising Effectiveness (Winner)
Havas Media aimed to find a way to evaluate the marketing potential of influencers in a fast and inexpensive way. The tool they created meant they were able to optimise effects, costs and total effectiveness of influencer marketing activations, without additional research costs and on a daily basis.
Emotional response to ads on different platforms
Annalect
Awards: Consumer Attitudes and Behaviour (Highly Commended)
Project summary
In a world of constant stimuli and attention span decreasing, we believe more than ever, it is essential that our communication reach and leave a mark on the consumer. Not just in
memory but on a more subconscious level.
Inspired from Byron Sharp’s theory about Emotional Impact, we included biosensors when testing three ads with different creative expressions. The theory concerns the importance of brands creating positive emotional responses to make brands grow. Since we believe platforms interfere with the emotional response, the ads were tested on Facebook, YouTube and TV-on-demand.
To create a realistic ad-exposing setting as possible, we developed interface-mockups and combined it with observation and in-depth-interviews.
We concluded that the ads awoke different emotional responses. But more importantly we discovered that the same ad performed differently on the platforms indicating diverse ‘platform-mindset’ and therefore diverse ‘emotional matches’ between creative expressions and platforms. This created evidence-based knowledge instead of assumption about differences in platform performance.
Furthermore, we nuanced the way to look at performance, as best performance normally would be based on respondents’ answers and time spent watching an ad, but by adding emotional measurement tools, we brought attention to the importance of choosing and adjusting to platforms.
The analytical framework was testing Byron Sharp’s theory about the importance of Emotional Impact. Byron Sharp has through evidential studies proved, that decisions are made with an emotional filter. This means, that besides having easily recognizable brand assets, it is important that brands create positive emotional responses in communication to make their brand grow.
Therefore, we tested three different creative expressions from three different industries on three different visual platforms. This create insights about both creatives and platforms combined and separately.
• Eye-tracking of the visual attention patterns in eyes including time spent and order in focus areas and navigation.
• Emotional arousal/physiological intensity through skin-conductance (SCR) such as sweat reactions.
• Facial expressiveness/response and emotional valence.
This method combination ensured physical and psychological reactions combined with self-reflection on own behavior. Furthermore, the test environment was fixed, realistic and controlled along with ad and platform rotation meaning less interference from other elements ensuring higher validation and reliability.
This means, although TV-on-demand performed best regarding time spent across platforms and ads, we discovered positive ‘emotional matches’ between ads and platforms:
• Ad-1 emotionally matched TV-on-demand because a person is talking all the way through the ad and it is essential to hear the entire speech.
• Ad-2 matched YouTube due to the humorous and “self-challenging” universe in the ad.
• Ad-3 matched Facebook as the ad expression is dreamlike and works without sound.
Normally we would conclude TV-on-demand to give the best performance based on respondents spending the longest time watching the ads on this platform. But is that the right way to measure best performance? By adding the emotional measurement tools, we discovered very different emotional responses to the same ad on three platforms meaning different emotional matches. This is a nuanced insight which is very essential when developing media strategy along with analyzing creative performance. Furthermore, this brings attention to the importance of choosing and adjusting our creative to the platform if possible.
Following the completion of this research, we have been more precise and nuanced in our consulting, as we have evidence about the platforms performing differently to certain creative expressions. Becoming aware that it is possible to measure eye tracking and nuanced emotional impact, we have extended our product portfolio.
Besides offering our clients the possibilities to test their ads’ emotional responses, we have developed emotional impact and eye-tracking solutions for instore-environments relevant for e.g. the FMCG category. The methods are very valuable in observation studies where we want to know and understand which placements and brand assets catch the consumers’ eyes.
In general, we believe it is essential to combine different methods – including methods that can complement survey and interview data – as this creates a more valuable analysis. Introducing methods that monitor both psychical and psychological responses creates a more holistic analysis.
5. Significance
Firstly, the study showed the importance of choosing the right platform for your creative expression as there is a difference in ‘platform-mindset’ which will result in different emotional responses to the same ad. Furthermore, this proves the importance of adjusting creatives to the platforms.
The analytical ad-exposing setup with interface-mockups also brings attention to the pitfalls of traditional pretests based on a survey questionnaire and interviews. This type of test is far from reality – meaning the ads are not shown in a realistic framework, where the respondents are watching content and then being presented to ads.
Making 6 Seconds Count
Teads
Awards: Digital Advertising Formats (Winner)
Project summary
Two thirds of digital media effectiveness is driven by the quality of content (Nielsen Catalina, 2017). At Teads, we are committed to helping brands evaluate their creatives for digital devices before they invest in media. We have partnered with Realeyes to develop Teads ‘Creative Lab’ to assess the performance of creatives and optimize them before the start of their advertising campaigns.
Teads Creative Lab has traditionally focused on longer form content (15-30 second adverts) but as more and more brands are using 6 second content as part of their media plans, Teads decided to commission a study with Realeyes to measure their impact and explore the relatively new area of 6 second content.
“The explosion of short form content caused by the emergence of mobile and erosion of consumer attention have changed the rules of the game. We have to learn how to tell brand stories in shorter formats, and get ready for even shorter formats in the near future” (Mars)
We were able to create some key creative take outs and best practices that our advertisers can use to ensure they are building emotionally engaging short adverts.
1. Objective(s)
The challenge with 6 second adverts is to tell a compelling story in a very short time frame.
The questions we wanted to answer with our study are: How 6 second adverts are performing and how we could make them work harder at driving emotional engagement and impact? We could then use these insights to provide best practices for our advertisers. We wanted an innovative research project that would ensure we provide our advertisers with expertise in this area, and to also benefit consumers of digital video adverts.
2. Methodology
As we wanted to assess the emotional impact of 6 second adverts on mobile specifically, we needed to ensure we had a robust study and to be the first of its kind to be done large scale on this topic. Therefore, we tested;
● 166 creatives
● 75 brands
● 10 countries
We asked our advertisers to submit their most engaging 6 second adverts, ensuring all our key business verticals were represented.
The measurement methodology was a facial coding test followed by self-reported questionnaire delivered to the Realeyes online panel. Our sample was Adults aged 16+, N=12,000 respondents
3. Key results
If you specifically design your creative with the 6 second format in mind (as opposed to just using a cut down version of a TV advert) and build a story in this time frame, we found it can still be engaging
• Adding packshot enhances impact and desire to know more
• Captions drive higher emotional response with sound off
• Funny ads drive better engagement
• Music isn’t necessarily a winning strategy
6 second advert formats require concision and discipline, and they need to be kept simple - all components must be there for a reason and play well together, to drive impact.
4. Impact and Application
Realeyes measures emotion through facial coding, their technology captures the micro-movements of the face through the webcam of a user watching an advert and uses computer vision and machine learning to analyse them, focusing on expressions of happiness, surprise, confusion, disgust, engagement, and behaviours such as how and when people move their head.
There are four emotion metrics they use when testing creative;
● Attraction (gets attention)
● Retention (holds attention)
● Engagement (elicits momentum through any emotional expression)
● Impact (leaves a lasting positive impression)
Realeyes provide an EmotionAll® score which is an over-arching 1 to 10 performance indicator combining all four metrics, relative to Realeyes database of over 16,000 videos.
At Teads we’ve already tested over 210 creatives globally with an average score 3 out of 10. This clearly calls for more content pre-testing to help optimise creative assets and to inform media investment decision.
As a result of testing 166 creatives across 10 markets we were able to create some key creative take outs and best practices that our advertisers can use to ensure they are building emotionally engaging short adverts. From a global perspective, 6 seconds is also a perfect time frame to create adverts that can transcend markets if the narrative allows for it.
From our findings, we are briefing our advertisers, creative and media agencies with how they can ensure their 6 second adverts work harder at driving emotional engagement.
5. Significance
We have been able to influence the way our advertisers think about their digital advertising and provide them with best practices to ensure that the digital advertising business is as effective as it can be. We want to ensure that in our premium environment users get the best experience, and therefore this research has enabled this – it allows us to provide expertise to our advertisers, while also ensuring users of our publishers benefit from better digital adverts.
Click here to view research project
Redefining the value of native advertising
Verizon Media, Sparkler
Awards: Digital Advertising Formats (Highly Commended)
In partnership with Sparkler, Verizon Media designed an innovative and robust research study to explore the true value of native advertising. It analysed data from over 6,000 people in the UK, Germany and France, 60+ hours of interactions with digital ads across website prototypes in premium and non-premium environments accumulating in 500k subconscious responses and more than 1.5 million data points.
