Video advertising at face value

Blog Rick Wolff, University of Groningen & Mark Vroegrijk, Senior Methodologist

Following decades of digitisation and the emergence of the internet and social media, the possibilities for companies to target potential and existing customers skyrocketed. Where businesses could traditionally only reach people through billboards, displays, radio and television, they can now reach individuals through desktops, smartphones, and tablets. Whenever, wherever: browsing the internet, using mobile apps or scrolling through their feeds. This development led to a dramatic increase in advertisements that the average person observes each day. On the contrary, we can avoid advertisements with relative ease, for example by skipping a commercial preceding online video content. Given these developments, it is more important than ever for marketers to stand out from the competition by designing advertisements that are as effective as possible.

Increasing effectiveness

To help marketers increase the effectiveness of their campaigns, the University of Groningen and DVJ Insights conducted an extensive analysis. The study focused on how the depiction of human faces and their specific facial expressions, affect the effectiveness of an advertisement.

The study used two datasets from DVJ’s benchmark study on the effectiveness of video commercials. The first dataset shows how 20,478 unique individuals from 22 countries, both European and non-European, respond to watching a sequence of eight different video commercials. The second dataset contains measures for each video commercial on the extent to which human faces are prevalent and the extent to which specific facial expressions are displayed on those faces. These measures are obtained by utilising machine learning classification techniques on each video commercial to assess frame by frame how many faces are depicted and which emotion those faces display. The machine learning procedures were performed by Dr Jochen Hartmann, a marketing researcher for the University of Groningen.

assessing at face value

To assess the effectiveness of the commercials, we identified three dimensions:

1. Behavioural viewer responses: what is the likelihood of a viewer zapping while watching?
2. Cognitive viewer responses: what is the likelihood of a viewer remembering the brand and message after watching?
3. Affective viewer responses: to which extent does the viewer experience positive emotions after watching?

Next, the faces and their facial expressions were divided into two groups. The first group contains the expressions that are related to signalling the existence of a threat; being angry, disgusted, or fearful. The second group contains the expressions that are not related to signalling the existence of a threat; being happy, sad, or surprised.

zapping away

The study reveals some interesting insights into zapping behaviour. For videos in which a lot of human faces are depicted, more facial expressions that are non-threat related (being happy, sad, or surprised) substantially increases the likelihood of zapping (from 33% to 46%). This effect is not found for expressions related to signalling a threat.

recalling the brand

When looking at brand and message remembrance, the results indicate that the mere depiction of human faces can serve as a tool to significantly improve remembrance, without viewers having to watch a larger part of the video. Increasing the prevalence of human faces can increase the probability of recognising the brand (from 64% to 69%), increase the probability of (spontaneously) recalling the brand (from 35% to 38%), and increase the probability of recalling the message (from 50% to 55%).

However, when a viewer is exposed to a lot of faces that specifically display a non-threat related expression, he or she becomes less likely to recognise the brand, recall the brand and recall the message of the video commercial. A similar story holds for facial expressions that are related to a threat. When the viewer is exposed to a lot of faces that display a threat-related expression, he or she becomes less likely to recall the brand and the message of the video commercial. In other words, when a commercial includes many human faces, neutral expression tend to work best when it comes to fostering brand and message recall.

positive feelings

Finally, the study assessed how the depiction of happy and sad faces affect the extent to which viewers experience positive emotions after watching the video commercial. Increasing the prevalence of happy faces can increase the number of positive thoughts, feelings, and associations invoked by the ad among its viewers by 6.12%. Moreover, increasing the depiction of happy faces increases the probability that the viewer states that the video gave him or her a positive feeling. The exact opposite effect is observed for an increase in the depiction of sad faces.

Balance is key

In conclusion, the study reveals some interesting insights into the use of faces and facial expressions in video commercials. Concerning zapping behaviour, practitioners should beware of displaying a lot of faces with facial expressions that are not related to a threat, as this may increase the chance of viewers zapping away before watching the full commercial. When it comes to recognition and recall, showing more faces in the commercial alone can lead to better brand and message remembrance. However, marketers should proceed with caution when displaying a lot of faces with either threat or non-threat related facial expressions, as this may impair the remembrance of the brand and message elements in the viewers. Lastly, increasing the depiction of happy faces, while keeping the prevalence of sad faces low, may significantly improve the overall affective response of the viewer base. It is important to note that balance here is key. Producing a video commercial with a lot of happy faces may improve its effectiveness in terms of affective responses. However, it is not advised to increase the overall depiction of human faces too dramatically to ensure that viewers do not become more likely to zap and prevent the viewers from remembering the brand and message less well.

picking & choosing

Moving forward, marketers may face challenges using faces and facial expressions in their video commercials. As stated previously, balance is crucial. Based on the objective of their advertisement, marketers are best off picking and choosing where and how to implement faces and facial expressions. In an already saturated media landscape, increasing the effectiveness of advertising will only become more important. It will be fundamental for marketers to keep up with developments and continue to improve their efforts.