CASE STUDY
Optimizing emotional impact of ads for a technology services company
Objectives
- Identify which of several ad concepts elicits the strongest emotionally positive response
- Determine which ads most influence likelihood to purchase and perceptions of the brand
- Fine-tune ads to optimize emotional and behavioral impact
Research Design
- Phase 1: Focus groups narrowed down to the most promising creative concepts for quantitative testing
- Phase 2: Quantitative online survey of n=1,000 (n=200 per cell), tested four versions of the winning concept and a control (current on-air creative). Each version was tested for emotional intensity, emotional significance, and on traditional ad metrics
Results
- Two-phase approach allowed for a broad investigation of creative ideas while also selecting and optimizing the strongest concept
- Approach balances optimizing emotional and behavioral response
- Approach identifies which specific parts of the ad are most engaging; which to dial up or down
- The winning ad was a significant departure from previous messaging, and resulted in huge gains in market share and revenue