Rob Demars (2:59)

I've never heard of adsam. How. What was their methodology?

Alena Jasper (3:02)

So it's a non verbal visual tool designed to measure emotional responses using a lot in marketing and advertising. So they have access emotion among three bipolar dimensions. Appeal, which indicates how positive or negative a feeling is. Engagement, which reflects level of activity or passivity in the emotional state, and empowerment, which measures a sense of control or submission associated with the emotion. So they use that. They use graphic characters to represent each dimension, allowing response to intuitively indicate their feelings without relying on verbal descriptions. So it minimizes language biases, making it effective across different cultures and demographics, including children and adults. They've said they validated using mri, that confirms effectiveness and accurately measuring emotional responses.

Rob Demars (3:43)

So that sounds amazing. I mean, you're sticking your mom in an MRI machine and seeing if she reacts well to the Pringles ad.

Alena Jasper (3:51)

Well, I think that they're using that to like confirm. I don't know if that's. Everybody gets expensive. Yeah, that's an expensive consumer research tool.

Rob Demars (4:02)

All right, cool. Add Sam.

Alena Jasper (4:04)

So that's interesting. Like you're giving them images to look at. It sounds like instead of like responding. That's so. That's actually so interesting that your brain. Yeah. So it presents you with pictorial representations instead of words or numbers. Oh, that's so cool. I should have looked at this more before I chose it for this. I thought you had probably heard of it, you'd be covering.

Rob Demars (4:25)

I hadn't heard of it. No.

Alena Jasper (4:26)

Bad. No, no, that makes sense because. Yeah, if you have to process your feelings cognitively, it's going to change the results. But with those visuals, you can get those gut reactions. Well, that's cool.

Rob Demars (4:35)

It's very. It's very primal and appropriate for television.

Alena Jasper (4:39)

Right, Perfect. Well, let's talk about what they found. Across nearly every product category and media type, that emotional response dominated over cognition. When predicting cognitive attitudes, AKA things like purchase intent and brand interest. But here's where it gets interesting. Effective attitude or emotion was a stronger predictor of purchase intent than cognitive attitude in 12 out of 13 project categories. So Rob, can you guess what one category that was where emotion was not a predictor of purchase success?

Rob Demars (5:08)

God, I guess the only one I can think of is banking because you know, there's nothing more boring than banking. But hey, if the interest rate is, you know, good or I don't know that you just, that just makes you retreat to your pocketbook, that rational pocketbook.

Alena Jasper (5:25)

So it wasn't banking. But the answer actually made me like, I wouldn't have ever guessed this. I don't want to say it makes me question the study. But okay, what it is is computers, which I know you're going to have a problem with because you're such an Apple. Yeah, you'd think people generally choose their computers based on a brand. But that was the one that the other categories, it was very clear like emotions drove purchase a tent. But the computer category, logical factors like belief in the product capabilities, knowledge about the features, it had a stronger impact. So it's not saying brand has no impact, but it just won out in that one category over, over brand.

Rob Demars (5:59)

But I could see though that in the desktop PC world that there is just so much feature discussion over processor speeds where Apple owners tend to just be more emotion. Like I just want the cool looking computer that I know is supposed to be fast, but that's also such a sliver of the laptop desktop market. So I could see how if you removed Apple as an outlier and just looked at the whole suite of all the different computers brands that are out there, there's that could be the case.

Alena Jasper (6:30)

And I should say I said brand earlier, but it's actually, it's emotional versus cognitive. So they looked at those two different things. A cognitive response, which is what people think about an ad, for example, is this product high quality? Do I believe what they're saying? And the emotional response, which is more how people felt about the ad. So does it make me happy, excited, nostalgic? So you're right, like it, they're not saying that in the computer category, emotion never drives the purchase decision. I think we're thinking, oh, when emotion is more present, you might lean more towards a brand like Apple or even a brand like Microsoft. But in that category in particular, the cognitive side won out a little bit. So they looked at those two and they measured how each of the factors influenced purchase intent. So that was whether someone actually considered buying the product from the advertisement. And what they found were, was that emotions were nearly twice as powerful in predicting whether someone would want to buy something. So that means that that the way an ad made people feel it was almost twice as important as what makes them think when it comes to influencing behavior. To be clear, emotional response explained nearly twice the variance in purchase intent compared to cognitive response. So even in industries where you'd expect logic to reign supreme, emotion still won out. The same pattern held true across advertising formats, whether it was tv, print or even different ad testing methods like finished films versus rough cuts. So Rob, have we found the same thing? Have we found that emotional messaging typically outperforms rational messaging in TV creative?

Rob Demars (7:53)

Yeah, I think this is where you have to be careful and really drill into what do we mean by outperforms. I think absolutely that our emotive commercials drive greater structure. So when we look at things over a six month brand recall like study, we definitely, you see those ads really pop. At the same time, you know, we have a strong opinion about all of our work needing to sing for its supper every time it airs and drive performance. And there are certainly factors that drive immediate performance that aren't seen as emotive. Right. When you think about what you know, is it a compelling offer? What's my reason to act right now can start to fall in the more rational bucket. But I think the magic is when you can combine the two and create truly memorable work that also teases out some aspect of rational thinking that will get someone to respond or address the brand in the moment.

Alena Jasper (8:50)

I think too the research we covered a couple weeks ago on the multiplier effect would totally back that up that the ads that are most powerful, they have that combination of the brand or like the emotion is amplifying more of like the rational cognitive reasons to buy. I would also say that emotion can vary by category. And with. There are some categories, yeah. Where you think like, oh well, humor is going to be the most powerful. It's like, well, for this category it might not be an emotion that you'd, I don't know, automatically think of or it might not appear that strong. But it's like the subtleties of why someone would buy your brand or buy from your category. It doesn't mean you need to be the loudest brand out there. But it's like, are you speaking to the human truth about your brand and your category? So to conclude this study, if a brand, if you're spending all your time just listing facts, no Logical reasons to buy. You're not making people feel something. You're probably leaving money on the table. If you're making ads that are purely logic driven, you know, we're cheaper, we have these five star reviews. You might be missing the bigger picture. People don't buy just based on facts. They buy based on how an ad makes them feel as well. So this study proves that if you can tap into the right emotional triggers, you're way more likely to influence actual behavior. So the next time someone tells you that humor, nostalgia, it's just fluff, hit them with this study. Because if you want people to take action, it's not just what you say, it's how you make them feel. Time for a robgpt. Buying a project is like falling in love. Logic might make a case, but emotions seal the deal. What do you think?

Rob Demars (10:11)

Yeah, no, you know what, it all resonates with me. And I think you and I both are two case studies of, you know, we might come across as well you come across as a rational person. I don't probably, but let's just face it. Our gut drives so much, our emotions drive so much. That's what makes us human and not computers. And so it does make sense at the end of the day. And just a powerful reminder. It's just, it's so easy when you're in a boardroom. You can sit there and analyze the strategy and the rationale and the features and the benefits and all that stuff. But wow, at the end of the day, don't we just all wanna feel good? Don't we all wanna laugh?

Alena Jasper (10:48)

I also think that this is a really good insight for like B2B marketers especially. Cause so many times like B2B brands, I think B2B founders sometimes are so focused on the speeds and feeds. Like you should buy this because it just, it makes more sense. But there is like the power of a brand. And you look at companies like Salesforce that took a long time building their brand, they don't necessarily have the best CRM out there, but they've got branding characters, they're well known like.

Rob Demars (11:11)

Right.

Alena Jasper (11:12)

As much as we don't want that to be part of the decision making process, it is, especially in getting in the consideration set. It's a really big deal.

Rob Demars (11:19)

I think that's such a great point that businesses can really learn something about not trying to look like a business when they're marketing to other businesses. Because everybody shows up in their suit, right? So why show up in a suit? Show up in a clown suit. You'll get noticed.

Alena Jasper (11:36)

In conclusion.

Rob Demars (11:39)

Put on that rubber nose.

Alena Jasper (11:42)

That's it for this episode of the Marketing Architects. We'd like to thank Taylor Delos Reyes for producing the show. You can connect with us on LinkedIn. And if you like the podcast, please leave us a review. Now go forth and build great marketing.

Rob Demars (11:56)

How many media people does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Alena Jasper (12:00)

You know, you used that joke on the previous episode, so no one listening to this might understand what that.

Rob Demars (12:06)

Shoot, Shoot.

Alena Jasper (12:07)

I thought I was.

Rob Demars (12:08)

I thought I was. I thought I was bringing it all around, and I was like, I don't even know the answer to that. Okay, sorry, I'll start over.

Alena Jasper (12:15)

Marketing Architects.