Persuasive Advertising - J. Scott Armstrong [188]
10.1.2. Emphasize the product or message
There are many ways to emphasize the product or message. These include lighting, zoom-ins, and placement. In addition, hold them on screen.
Focus the lighting on key features of the product such as weight, shine, or size. This would seem especially important for products that are purchased for their color, such as clothing, or where color is an indicator of quality, such as for food.
If you hold some information constant, such as the brand name or product, viewers can at least see what the ad is about even if they are not paying close attention, or if they are scanning though ads that were recorded. If it is relevant to their needs (e.g., perhaps they are shopping for a car and a Toyota ad appears), they might then view the ad at the normal speed. Also, keep in mind that people pay attention to commercials only about half the time when they are presumably watching TV (Anderson 1985).
This principle is widely used. Products were on-screen in about 95 percent of the over 1,500 tested 30-second TV commercials from Ipsos ASI (Walker 2008).
Evidence on the effects of emphasis on the product
Walker’s (2008) analyses of 30-second TV commercials found the following results, where 100 represents the average for the sample of 1,513 commercials. Thus, for example, when the product was on-screen for 19 or more of the 30 seconds, recall was 113, or 13 percent higher than average:
He obtained similar results for the legibility of the product and label on-screen.
TV commercials in which the product was on the screen for a longer time had higher recall and were more persuasive than the typical ad in their sample (Stewart and Furse 1986). Stanton and Burke (1998) found much higher persuasiveness for products on the screen for at least six seconds, especially for short (15-second) ads.
Messaris (1997) reviewed two studies and concluded that close-up shots increased viewer attention and involvement.
10.1.3. If believability is important, show the spokesperson on-screen
To enhance believability, show the spokesperson on the screen rather than using voice-overs. Customers will feel better when they see the person who is talking to them, such as when the owner, Dave Thomas, talked to customers in Wendy’s restaurant commercials.
On the other side of this issue, commercials with only voice-overs are cheaper than using a spokesperson, and they are easier to adapt to other languages. In addition, voice-overs can allow for more emphasis on the product. Therefore, if believability is not critical, voice-overs will work. This seems to be typical; an analysis of over 1,500 tested TV commercials from Ipsos ASI found voice-overs were used in 87 percent of the ads.
In most cases, the spokesperson is near the center. However, following received wisdom, if the spokesperson is addressing someone else on-screen or where discussing a product, place the spokesperson about one-third of the distance from the edge of the screen, facing the two-thirds section of the screen. This adds balance.
Should the spokesperson look at the product, the viewer, or at another person? If believability is an objective, the spokesperson should look at the audience. Richard Nixon damaged his appeal to voters because he often failed to look at the audience in his TV debates with John Kennedy. Those who heard Nixon on radio had a higher opinion of him than did those watching TV.
Evidence on the effects of an on-screen spokesperson
Evidence from five lab experiments