Mastering Digital Emotion Part 1: Video ads generate the highest emotional response, and emotion drives purchase

On Device Research has released new analysis from its database of over 330 brand impact studies to reveal that advertisers seeking to harness the power of emotional response in their digital creative should look to video as a key driver.

On Device Research has released new analysis from its database of over 330 brand impact studies to reveal that advertisers seeking to harness the power of emotional response in their digital creative should look to video as a key driver.

Sales can be built overnight but brands are built over time. It’s a long-held belief in the marketing world that is well supported by Byron Sharp’s theories on how brands grow and Daniel Kahneman’s analysis on the relative benefits of rational versus emotional creative messaging. The link between emotion and hard, rational purchase activity is therefore key to an understanding of how to maximise ad impact, and insight in to how emotion is generated digitally is therefore crucial.

An analysis of over 330 digital campaigns in the On Device Research digital ad effectiveness database has revealed that video formats on average outperform both interstitials and banners in terms of driving emotion. Net positive emotion is measured by subtracting negative consumer response to an ad from positive response, and on average video has resulted in a net positive emotion score of 59.3%.

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While the route to unlocking positive emotional response will obviously to a large extent be the responsibility of creative design, digital format has a crucial role to play.

The reason why the formats that drive emotion are such an important consideration for planners is abundantly clear when you consider the strong link between a consumer’s emotional response to digital ads and purchase intent uplift. Further analysis of the On Device Research database reveals that the top 25% of campaigns ranked on emotional response drive an average purchase intent delta uplift of 5.1% on average. The bottom 25% on the other hand have no positive impact on purchase.

For more information on the metrics that you should be using to measure and benchmark digital campaign impact, download the On Device Research Brand Advertisers’ Guide to Digital Effectiveness here, and look out for our next blog in which we reveal which industry categories are making the most out of the opportunity to drive emotional response in the digital space.

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