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The Best Ads Finish Strong

You never get a second chance to make a lasting impression, and an ad’s lasting impression can lead to higher consumer engagement. 

A recent evaluation of this year’s Super Bowl ads by Ipsos ASI, the Ipsos Neuro & Behavioral Science Center, and Realeyes finds that engagement of an ad’s final five seconds correlates with its overall engagement and provides the strongest emotional payoff among consumers at a time when the brand is making its most overt push.

“You want to leave consumers with a positive emotional impression,” Elissa Moses, Ipsos EVP and head of the Neuro & Behavioral Science Center, tells Marketing Daily. “More importantly, the key branding message happens at the end of the ad, and you want to have the maximum engagement at that time.”

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Using Realeyes’ Facial Coding technology to measure second-by-second unconscious emotional responses of more than 1,400 consumers, the study demonstrates how important telling a complete story — with a real emotional payoff at the end — helps a brand’s engagement, Moses says. 

“We found, in general, that ads that had high engagement at the end also had high engagement overall,” she says. “If people say, ‘Did you see that great ad with the dog?’ but can’t tell you what it’s for, it’s missing engagement. If that engagement doesn’t take place, it’s wasted money.”

Among the spots that were best at generating emotional engagement in the last five seconds as well as high engagement overall were: Doritos’ crowd-sourced “Middle Seat” spot (in which an airline passenger dissuades people from sitting next to him with obnoxious behavior only to find the attractive woman he spots getting on has a baby with her), which scored at the top of engagement in the last five seconds, and had 81% overall engagement; Nationwide’s spot featuring Mindy Kaling, who thought she was invisible until caught inhaling the scent of Matt Damon (No. 6 in the last five seconds, 86% overall engagement), and the McDonald’s commercial introducing the brand’s “Pay with lovin’” idea (No. 4 in the last five seconds; 89% overall engagement).

“They [all] have aspects of very good storytelling. Very good storytelling makes you want to know what’s going to happen next,” Moses says of the two ads. “High-performing ads hook [the consumer] early and take a roller coaster ride of positive and negative emotion. And they end powerfully, which is probably the most critical thing.”

For the 2015 Super Bowl, not only did the best ads provide great entertainment and for some, a few good laughs, but they were also able to engage the audience early, sustain that engagement and end on an emotional high note, supporting the ultimate brand impression. There are many criteria by which the industry judges each year’s Super Bowl ads, ranging from personal opinion to various data schemes. But according to Ipsos ASI, to be able to grab the audience’s attention and especially to heighten that attention for the most defining final brand shot in those crucial last five seconds is a sure way for a client to know they got their Super Bowl money’s worth.

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