Robert G. Heath

Brand Relationships: Strengthened by Emotion, Weakened by Attention

ABSTRACT This article explores the way in which advertising builds brand relationships. Behavioral research by Watzlawick, Bavelas, and Jackson (1967) suggests it is the emotional not the rational content in communication that drives relationships. This assertion is tested using a new research copy-testing system—the CEP™Test—and the results confirm that favorability toward brands is strongly correlated with emotional content in advertising, but not with factual content. However, learning from psychology indicates that high attention weakens the effect of emotional content, so the implications are that advertising aimed at building strong brand relationships might be more effective if processed at lower levels of attention.

Emotional Engagement: How Television Builds Big Brands At Low Attention

ABSTRACT This article proposes a new definition for engagement that is independent of attention. Engagement is defined as “the amount of subconscious ‘feeling’ going on when an advertisement is being processed.” An “emotional engagement” model is developed that shows how strong brands can be built without the need for the high levels of attention that advertising usually demands. Finally, empirical evidence is presented demonstrating that, although TV advertising excels at building strong brands, on-air commercials get less than half the attention of print advertising. This confirms TV advertising is a high engagement, low attention medium.

Measuring Affective Advertising: Implications of Low Attention Processing on Recall

ABSTRACT This article is about affective advertising, defined as that which works more on our emotions and feelings than on our knowledge and beliefs. This sort of advertising can be processed effectively at relatively low levels of attention and as a result does not always perform well on recall measures. We compare the most popular recall-based metric—claimed advertising awareness—against an approach that deduces effectiveness from recognition and find claimed advertising awareness seriously underestimates the effectiveness of the advertising tested.

Fifty years using the wrong model of advertising

This paper investigates the dominance of the information processing model in TV advertising. Despite theoretical and empirical evidence that supports the importance of factors such as emotional content and creativity, the authors show that a rational information-based persuasion model, which pre-dates the development of formal marketing, persists in its domination of almost all TV advertising development and evaluation. It is postulated that this persistence derives from a sociological desire to maintain a positivist worldview of simplistic, well-ordered value systems operated by rational and predictable consumers. The authors suggest that both advertisers and researchers need to adopt a Critical Realism perspective in order to move beyond the philosophical straitjacket of this information processing model, and they summarise the implications that this has for current research practice.

How effective is creativity? Emotive content in TV advertising does not increase attention

Emotive creativity is generally believed to facilitate communication by increasing attention. However, during relaxed TV viewing, psychology suggests we may pay less not more attention to emotive ads. An experiment conducted in a realistic viewing environment found that ads that were high in emotive content correlated with a 20 percent lower level of attention and that attention toward these ads was unlikely to decline on repeat viewing. This supports the idea that TV advertising is not systematically processed but is automatically processed in response to the stimuli presented. We speculate that emotive creativity may benefit brand TV advertising by lowering attention and inhibiting counter-argument.ABSTRACT Emotive creativity is generally believed to facilitate communication by increasing attention. However, during relaxed TV viewing, psychology suggests we may pay less not more attention to emotive ads. An experiment conducted in a realistic viewing environment found that ads that were high in emotive content correlated with a 20 percent lower level of attention and that attention toward these ads was unlikely to decline on repeat viewing. This supports the idea that TV advertising is not systematically processed but is automatically processed in response to the stimuli presented. We speculate that emotive creativity may benefit brand TV advertising by lowering attention and inhibiting counter-argument.

The secret of television's success: emotional content or rational information? After fifty years the debate continues

ABSTRACT The Journal of Advertising Research has been instrumental in supporting new ideas about how advertising works, no matter how unpopular their implications. In 1971, Herb Krugman presented evidence that television watching was low involvement compared to print. Three years later, Andrew Ehrenberg postulated that repetition—not persuasion—was how advertising influenced most people. Received wisdom, however, still holds that television advertising works persuasively and works best at high attention levels. This article critically examines this assumption, concluding that the continued success of television advertising in building strong brands most likely will depend not on its ability to persuade but on how well it is able to influence emotions at low levels of attention.ABSTRACT The Journal of Advertising Research has been instrumental in supporting new ideas about how advertising works, no matter how unpopular their implications. In 1971, Herb Krugman presented evidence that television watching was low involvement compared to print. Three years later, Andrew Ehrenberg postulated that repetition—not persuasion—was how advertising influenced most people. Received wisdom, however, still holds that television advertising works persuasively and works best at high attention levels. This article critically examines this assumption, concluding that the continued success of television advertising in building strong brands most likely will depend not on its ability to persuade but on how well it is able to influence emotions at low levels of attention.

The impact of televised tobacco control advertising content on campaign recall: Evidence from the International Tobacco Control (ITC) United Kingdom Survey

BackgroundAlthough there is some evidence to support an association between exposure to televised tobacco control campaigns and recall among youth, little research has been conducted among adults. In addition, no previous work has directly compared the impact of different types of emotive campaign content. The present study examined the impact of increased exposure to tobacco control advertising with different types of emotive content on rates and durations of self-reported recall.MethodsData on recall of televised campaigns from 1,968 adult smokers residing in England through four waves of the International Tobacco Control (ITC) United Kingdom Survey from 2005 to 2009 were merged with estimates of per capita exposure to government-run televised tobacco control advertising (measured in GRPs, or Gross Rating Points), which were categorised as either “positive” or “negative” according to their emotional content.ResultsIncreased overall campaign exposure was found to significantly increase probability of recall. For every additional 1,000 GRPs of per capita exposure to negative emotive campaigns in the six months prior to survey, there was a 41% increase in likelihood of recall (OR = 1.41, 95% CI: 1.24–1.61), while positive campaigns had no significant effect. Increased exposure to negative campaigns in both the 1–3 months and 4–6 month periods before survey was positively associated with recall.ConclusionsIncreased per capita exposure to negative emotive campaigns had a greater effect on campaign recall than positive campaigns, and was positively associated with increased recall even when the exposure had occurred more than three months previously.

How Emotive is Creativity

Emotive creativity is generally believed to facilitate communication by increasing attention. However, during relaxed TV viewing, psychology suggests we may pay less not more attention to emotive ads. An experiment conducted in a realistic viewing environment found that ads that were high in emotive content correlated with a 20 percent lower level of attention and that attention toward these ads was unlikely to decline on repeat viewing. This supports the idea that TV advertising is not systematically processed but is automatically processed in response to the stimuli presented. We speculate that emotive creativity may benefit brand TV advertising by lowering attention and inhibiting counter-argument.ABSTRACT Emotive creativity is generally believed to facilitate communication by increasing attention. However, during relaxed TV viewing, psychology suggests we may pay less not more attention to emotive ads. An experiment conducted in a realistic viewing environment found that ads that were high in emotive content correlated with a 20 percent lower level of attention and that attention toward these ads was unlikely to decline on repeat viewing. This supports the idea that TV advertising is not systematically processed but is automatically processed in response to the stimuli presented. We speculate that emotive creativity may benefit brand TV advertising by lowering attention and inhibiting counter-argument.

How Emotive is Creativity: Attention Levels and TV Advertising

Emotive creativity is generally believed to facilitate communication by increasing attention. However, during relaxed TV viewing, psychology suggests we may pay less not more attention to emotive ads. An experiment conducted in a realistic viewing environment found that ads that were high in emotive content correlated with a 20 percent lower level of attention and that attention toward these ads was unlikely to decline on repeat viewing. This supports the idea that TV advertising is not systematically processed but is automatically processed in response to the stimuli presented. We speculate that emotive creativity may benefit brand TV advertising by lowering attention and inhibiting counter-argument.ABSTRACT Emotive creativity is generally believed to facilitate communication by increasing attention. However, during relaxed TV viewing, psychology suggests we may pay less not more attention to emotive ads. An experiment conducted in a realistic viewing environment found that ads that were high in emotive content correlated with a 20 percent lower level of attention and that attention toward these ads was unlikely to decline on repeat viewing. This supports the idea that TV advertising is not systematically processed but is automatically processed in response to the stimuli presented. We speculate that emotive creativity may benefit brand TV advertising by lowering attention and inhibiting counter-argument.