• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, February 23, 2017

Nielsen Consumer Neuroscience partnered with Nielsen Social and TV Brand Effect to look at the relationship between engagement metrics and the most- and least-Tweeted ads that aired during the 2016 Super Bowl. The study focused on 14 Super Bowl ads, which were analyzed using EEG, facial coding and self-reported recall and brand linkage measures.

With 30-second spots going for around $5 million, says the report, and with more than 100 million viewers tuning in, advertisers and marketers need to know what strikes an emotional chord and what drives engagement across social media to further amplify their message and optimize the value of their creative.

Top-Tweeted ads, compared with those that generated the least number of Tweets, showed a pattern of EEG that suggested they were easier to process (particularly in the first moments), had strong memory activation during final branding, and generated more smiles overall, says the report.

Top Tweeted Ad Easy To Understand With Smiles

People smiled 3X more in response to the top v. bottom Super Bowl ads

• Top 6 ads: 18.3% Positive; 2.2% Negative
• Bottom 8 ads: 5.9% positive; 5.4% negative

Read as: 18.3% is the average percent of time during the top six ads that this audience meets the smile threshold (when the majority of the audience has a high probability of smiling)

Source: Nielsen, Consumer Neuroscience and Nielsen Social

Viewers also were able to recall the top-Tweeted ads more, and were more likely to link them correctly to the brand than the least-Tweeted ads after the game, says the report. In contrast, low-Tweeted ads showed a pattern consistent with confusion early on, suggesting the ads were more complex to process and had fewer intuitive moments than those with high Twitter activity and had significantly lower recall and brand linkage scores.

In looking at the study data, the results suggest that the ads that were most successful at generating Twitter activity:

• Were more effortless to watch in the beginning;
• Engaged the viewer emotionally early on;
• Ended with a strong memory association to clear branding; and
• Generated more smiles.

Average Memory Activation During Final Branding

• Avg Branding and tagline length 2.7 seconds
• Bottom ads 7.6%; Top ads 9.0%

Read as: Avg EEG memory activation during the final branding moments was significantly higher for the top six as compared to the bottom ads.

Source: Nielsen, Consumer Neuroscience and Nielsen Social

Concluding, the report says “…these methods of ad testing can be used well before game time to help mitigate the risk of placing such a big bet on big events… by pre-testing ads… possible to know what’s going to resonate with viewers and what’s not… making every second count and ensuring the ad scores big…”

For more information from Nielsen, please visit here.