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Emotion beats information

Creativity and emotion are what makes advertising successful, not the message it is trying to get over, according to new research. Dr Robert Heath, from the University of Bath’s School of Management, found that advertisements with high levels of emotional content enhanced how people felt about brands, even when there was no real message.

However, advertisements which were low on emotional content had no effect on how favourable the public were towards brands, even if the ad was high in news and information. Dr Heath, working with the research company OTX, tested 23 TV ads that were on air at the time in the USA and 20 that were on air in the UK, for their levels of emotional and rational content.

They then asked a second sample of 200 people in each country how favourable they were towards the brands in the advertisements. Those who had been exposed to ads with high emotional content showed a positive shift in their favourability towards the brand. But those who had seen ads with low emotional content showed no real shift in favourability, even when they had a high level of news and information.

Dr Heath, who has worked in advertising and marketing for 30 years, said: “It appears to be the case that it’s not what you say, but the way that you say it, that gets results.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .