EMOTIONAL

MESSAGING
 OVERVIEW
OVERVIEW
There’s a lot of great academic research around messaging.
This deck hopes to shine a line on some of those findings.

Enjoy,
Julian Cole

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 CREATED BY

JULIAN COLE CHRIS HUEBNER DAVIS BALLARD

is a strategy consultant is the assistant director of is a LA-based freelance
who works with brands and marketing communications strategist who moonlights
agencies to create world at the University of South as a music man at
class integrated Carolina. Rainbow Jeremy FM and
campaigns. Parang Recordings.
EVOLVING MESSAGES INCREASE EFFECTIVENESS

Instead of focusing on
multiple ads with
similarly framed
messages, the authors
posit that evolving the
message type
throughout the entire
path to purchase can
be more effective.

Source: Burton, J. L., Gollins, J., McNeely, L. E. and Walls, D. M. 2019. Revisiting the Relationship Between Ad Frequency and Purchase Intention.
Journal of Advertising Research. 59 (3).
 ADDITIONAL FINDINGS
PHASE ONE: ATTENTION

● 1–2 Ad Exposures: Seek to gain attention through emotional drivers using

category benefits

PHASE TWO: PURCHASE CONSIDERATION AND EVALUATION

● 3–10 Ad Exposures: Focus messages on benefits of brand, position of brand or

reasons to believe brand claims

PHASE THREE: ACTION

● 10+ Ad Exposures: Use emotional benefits to reinforce consumers’ belief about

brand or help rationalize attitudes/behaviors toward brand
EMOTION HAS STRONG IMPACT ON YOUNGER AUDIENCES

Emotion had a stronger

impact on younger audiences,
while informational appeal
had a stronger effect on
mature audiences, especially
when moving the consumer
into consideration set.

Source: Teichert, T., Hardeck, D., Liu, Y. and Trivedi, R. 2018. Emotional Appeals in Print Advertisements: A Framework for Choosing Ad Appeals
Based on Advertisers’ Objectives and Targeted Demographics. Journal of Advertising Research. 58 (3): 363-379.
 ADDITIONAL FINDINGS
● Emotion had a stronger impact on males.

● Emotion was seen to be more effective in top- and middle-funnel stages when
consumer is less likely to be engaged in comparing brands. This is in line with
hierarchy-of-effects model, which posits rational learning works best when
consumer is highly involved with category and product differentiation is
relatively high.
RATIONAL MESSAGING DRIVES CONSIDERATION IN CONVENIENCE CATEGORY

In the context of the convenience

product category, where brands
have little differentiation, rational
appeal advertising was more
effective in print and OOH
executions when consumer was in
conative stage or process. The
conative stage is when behavior
or action takes place (lower
funnel).

Source: Grigaliunaite, V. and Pileliene, L. 2016. “Emotional or Rational? The Determination of the Influence of Advertising Appeal on
Advertising Effectiveness. Scientific Annals of Economics and Business. 63(3): 391-414.
 ADDITIONAL FINDINGS
● Implicit as well as explicit attitude toward emotional appeal advertisements of
convenience product category is more positive than to the rational appeal
advertisements. However, more positive attitude does not necessarily lead to the
increased level of purchase intentions.
EMOTION GAINS ATTENTION, ATTENTION DRIVES SALES

Ads that elicit a stronger emotional reaction get more attention, and in turn, generate
greater sales impact.

Source: ThinkTV. 2017. The Benchmark Series: Does Emotional Advertising Aid Advertising Effectiveness.
ENGAGEMENT CAN OCCUR WITHOUT ACTIVE ATTENTION

Researcher described level of attention and level of engagement as:

● Level of engagement: the amount of subconscious “feeling” going on when an ad is being

processed
● Level of attention: the amount of conscious “thinking” going on when an ad is being processed

Neither necessarily overlap. Advertising can achieve high levels of attention, but not engage much
feeling; it can engage strong feelings, but not get much attention.

Television was seen to rarely achieve high levels of attention, but was still able to “engage”
consumers. Thus, it was argued that in high-engagement, low-attention media environments,
emotional “metacommunication” can be an effective communication strategy to brand build.

Source: Heath, R. 2009. Emotional Engagement: How Television Builds Big Brands At Low Attention. Journal of Advertising Research 49(1):
62-73.
 ADDITIONAL FINDINGS
● Engagement depends on emotional communication, not rational communication
IMAGES THAT ELICIT EMOTIONAL APPEALS INCREASE PURCHASE INTENTIONS

Visual images associated with

emotional and physiological
appeals led to increased
purchase intentions. Rational
appeals suppressed the positive
association of emotional and
physiological appeals on
purchase intention.

Source: Young, C. Gillespie, B. and Otto, C. 2019. The Impact of Rational, Emotional, And Physiological Advertising Images On Purchase
Intention: How TV Ads Influence Brand Memory. Journal of Advertising. 329-341.
TELEVISION IS BEST FOR EMOTIONAL PRIMING

According to biometric measures,

emotional engagement with unfamiliar
brands was higher when first seen on
television than online. Similarly, the online
environment was far less able to invoke
nonconscious emotional connections.

Additional Findings:
Online was shown to be more impactful
when it reinforced prior emotional
engagement generated by television

Source: Steele, A., Jacobs, D. Siefert, C., Rule, R., Levine, B. and Marci, C. D. 2013. Leveraging Synergy and Emotion in a Multi-Platform World: A
Neuroscience-Informed Model of Engagement. 417-430.
EMOTION AS AN OUTPUT, IS THE STRONGEST PREDICTOR OF AD EFFECTIVENESS

Using the IPA Effectiveness Awards databank,

researcher showed that emotional response to an
advertisement is more predictive of effectiveness than
band linkage, persuasion or message delivery.

Emotion-into-action Score, created by researcher,

outperformed each traditional pre-testing measure.
Study also reinforced past research that indicates the
more message-driven the advertisement is, the less
effective the ad performed.

Source: Wood, O. 2012. How Emotion Tugs Trump Rational Pushes: The Time Has Come to Abandon a 100-year-old Advertising Model. Journal
of Advertising Research. 52(1). 31-39.
NEGATIVE EMOTIONS CAN PRODUCE POSITIVE BUSINESS RESULTS

Eliciting negative emotions,

framed as sadness/bleakness, are
shown to produce both intention
to donate and larger donations.

Source: Burt, C. and Strongman, K. 2005. “Use of Images in Charity Advertising: Improving Donations and Compliance Rates.” International
Journal of Organizational Behavior. 8(8): 571-508.
RATIONAL MESSAGES ARE REMEMBERED BUT ARE LESS EFFECTIVE ONLINE

Consumers tend to remember rational

messages more than emotional messages
because emotional messages are processed
at an almost subconscious level. However,
rational messaging may be less effective in
online environments due to clutter and a
reliance on conscious consumption.

Source: Health, R. and Nairn, A. 2005. “Measuring Emotive Advertising-Implications of Low Attention Processing on Recall. Journal of
Advertising Research. 45(2). 269-281.
EMOTIONAL APPEALS DON’T REQUIRE ACTIVE ATTENTION TO BUILD BRANDS

Emotion can build strong brand through

low-involvement processing, meaning
emotional content is most effective the less
attention it is paid. The less aware
consumers are aware of the overt
emotional elements of an ad, the less likely
they are to rationally evaluate and weaken
the message.

Source: Health, R. and Nairn, A. 2005. “Measuring Emotive Advertising-Implications of Low Attention Processing on Recall. Journal of
Advertising Research. 45(2). 269-281.
 ADDITIONAL FINDINGS
● Doesn’t rule out information-based messaging as an effective strategy. However,
the media environment must be conducive to high levels of attention

Source: Heath, R., Brandt, D. and Nairn, A. 2006. Brand Relationships: Strengthened by emotion, Weakened by Attention. Journal of
Advertising Research. 410-419.
FEMALES ARE MORE LIKELY TO RESPOND TO EMOTIONAL APPEALS IN PRINT ADVERTISING

As it relates to print advertising,

researchers found that emotional
stimuli and ad memory are positively
correlated. The study found this
relationship stronger in females.
Researcher posits that males have a
higher threshold of stimulus
advertisement must achieve to
produce a result.

Source: Baird, T. R., Wahlers, R. G. and Coope, C. K. 2007. “Non-recognition of Print Advertising: Emotional Advertising and Gender Effects.”
Journal of Marketing Communications. 13(1). 39-57.
POSITIVE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMOTIONAL RESPONSE AND BRAND
ATTITUDE DECREASE AS EXPOSURE TO AD INCREASES.

Researchers found that affect-transfer -

transfer of response from ad to brand - was
strongest during the first exposure. As
repeated exposure occurred, this positive
relationship decreased.

Additional Findings:
Researchers posit that this effect may be
more prevalent in low-involvement
conditions or when complex emotional
feelings aren’t used in the ad.

Source: Machleit, K. A. and Wilson, R. D.” Emotional Feelings and Attitude Toward the Advertisement: The Roles of Brand Familiarity and
Repetition.” Journal of Advertising. 17(3). 27-35.
EMOTIONAL APPEALS ARE MORE EFFECTIVE WHEN THE PRODUCT AND THE
CONSUMER'S SELF-CONCEPT ALIGN

Researchers found that a more

emotional (value-expressive) appeal
should be used for a value-expressive
product and a more rational (utilitarian)
appeal should be used for a utilitarian
products.

Source: Machleit, K. A. and Wilson, R. D.” Emotional Feelings and Attitude Toward the Advertisement: The Roles of Brand Familiarity and
Repetition.” Journal of Advertising. 17(3). 27-35.
 ADDITIONAL FINDINGS
Researchers theorize that value-expressive (emotional) advertising appeals may be more effective when:

● the product is not usually differentiated from the competition

● the product is scarce or sold to a select few
● the product is conspicuously consumed
● the consumer is not highly involved with the product
● the consumer is not highly knowledgeable about the product

Researchers theorize that utilitarian (rational) advertising appeals may be more effective when:

● the product is highly differentiated from its competition

● the product is not scarce or commonly used by the majority of consumers
● the product is low or moderate in conspicuousness
● the consumer is highly involved with the product
● the consumer is highly knowledgeable about the product

Source: Johar, J.S. and Sirgy, M.J. (1991), “Value-expressive versus utilitarian advertising appeals:when and why to use which appeal”, Journal
of Advertising,Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 23-33.
END