What makes your ad memorable?
Since the entire human race has started living a digital life alongside the physical one, advertisers now have twice the landscape and mediums to reach their audience. To begin with, this was a welcome change but as ads become more interruptive and ubiquitous, people have started ignoring them. According to KOL, 92% of online ads go unnoticed because of a phenomenon called ad blindness wherein people, intentionally or unintentionally, ignore the ads on the websites.?
Apart from going unnoticed, ads are also being blocked by an increasing number of viewers. Over 27% of viewers use ad blockers and this number is increasing year on year basis.?
Both the problems are indirect outcomes of how people perceive ads. Over 64% of people find ads annoying. In a very recent development, Google is testing 5 unskippable ads for YouTube as compared to the current norm of 2 unskippable ads. While it can be speculated that this is Google’s attempt to earn more revenue, it could easily increase people’s annoyance towards ads.?
So, when all the odds are stacking up against you, how do you ensure your ads are, first, perceived right and are also remembered? What does it actually take to make an ad memorable??
The Making of Memorable Ads?
Since memory is a complicated concept in itself, there are no hard and fast rules about what makes an ad memorable. Having said that, there are a few fundamental principles of memorability in context of ads that define the way forward. For example, memorability remains consistent throughout viewer groups meaning what is memorable to one group will be memorable for the other group as well.
Apart from overarching fundamentals of memorability, there are specific ways and factors, when taken care of, can positively impact the memorability of ads.?
Context is the King?
As mentioned above, interruptive ads usually don’t get noticed and cause an annoyance among viewers. But when delivered in the right context, ads can perform really well in terms of garnering attention and engagement. For example, placing an Ikea ad right across a local furniture shop – such an ad will be viewed by people looking to furnish their house garnering high quality attention from target audience.?
According to a study conducted by GumGum, contextual ads generate 2.2 times ad recall and 43% more neural engagement. Further, GumGum’s CEO Phil Schraeder added that they know that contextual targeting done right delivers the reliable results that brands need, especially as the industry searches for solutions in the wake of the cookies’ demise.?
Moreover, viewers are 23% more likely to remember an ad when it matches the content or context of hosting website. IAS also suggests that the content on high quality websites is 30% more likely to convert short-term memory to long-term memory and hence offering a conducive environment for brand recall.?
Advanced technologies like artificial intelligence are being used to add context to creation, placement, and targeting of ads to attract more trust from the viewers.?
Attention Paid is Money?
When the internet was invented, we were living in the information age as the availability of information was democratized in comparison to it being consolidated in libraries and encyclopedias. But it is not the information age anymore.??
We are slowly transitioning to the attention age wherein the returns are directly proportional to the amount of attention paid. For example, according to a study, any ad viewed for 3 seconds gets converted to sales on 50% of the occasions.??
Emotional Advertising?
As much as humans want to be rational, most of the time our decisions, including purchasing decisions, are driven by our emotions. They act as nudges and triggers that help us access information from our memory, making them crucial drivers of memorability.?
Emotional ads are 40% more memorable than traditional ones when delivered with relevant content and context. But do all emotions generate recall??
Well, according to a recent study by HubSpot, the top three elements of an ad creative driving memorability are humor, information, and happiness in that sequence. Adding humor, right information, and displaying positive emotions can just be the trifecta your ad creative needs to stand out among the rest of the herd to generate higher ad recall.?
Ad Format and Delivery Matter?
While the ad creative is crucial to memorability, its format and placement also contribute significantly. According to a study conducted to understand this very impact, Instagram and long-form in-article mobile ads gathered the highest viewability and ad recall in comparison to desktop ads, in-app ads, and mobile pinned ads.??
But what makes Instagram and long form in-article mobile ads more memorable than the others? When further investigated, even though these ads didn’t have the highest viewability, the platforms were adding context to the ad, thereby delivering higher ad recall. It is also important to note that the platforms can only ad context when they are aligned with the ad creative and brand messaging.?
Sound is a powerful nudge?
While most brand managers keep asking to make the logos bigger and visible, they are losing the opportunity to generate higher recall by not paying attention to the sound.?
Based on the evaluation of brand assets against ad effectiveness, sonic brand cues accounted for the highest impact followed by characters. Additionally, a study by digital branding trends suggests that 41% of consumers consider music as one of the key elements of communication.??
Big brands like Netflix, Intel, Disney have been using sonic cues to generate brand recall for decades now. Similarly, sonic cues like sounds, music, tones, etc. when used in alignment with the visuals can generate higher recall for ads.?
Work backwards from attention?
Instead of placing your important elements like product images, ad copy, etc. randomly in the ad and hoping that your viewers take notice, work backwards and put them in the attention hot spots or use the design elements smartly to drive attention on them.?\
Place the product and copies where the focus lands. In most cases, elements like pointing, animation, lighting, and human faces draw the highest amount of attention and can be used to make your essentials like products more visible and hence directly impacting how an ad is remembered.?
Show the ad 7 times at least?
Ads become more memorable and impact the purchase intent of the viewer in a positive manner after viewers have encountered it at least 7 times.?
Similar to muscle memory which gets better & better with practice, retargeting can create durable memories of the brand / ad campaign. But it is a double-edged sword as you will be walking a thin line between memorability and annoyance. It is best to cap the number of times your ad is shown to your target audience across platforms – so for example, if they have not taken any action after 5th encounter, it is best to save face than to retarget them further.??
If you are primarily catering to high net-worth individuals or affluent classes, then showing the ad lesser times would work better.?
It is straightforward, but not really?
Every marketer is gunning for the same 5 secs of attention, hoping to leave a lasting impression in the minds of their target audience. When you have such a small window of opportunity, it is best to go with a strategy backed by empirical, data-based findings rather than on a gut-based decision.?