Run Emotional Ads in Traditional Markets

Customers ignore familiar ads.

That’s why emotional appeals can be more effective:

In older markets, consumers may have gained knowledge, reducing their motivation to engage in extensive ad processing. As such, factors that increase their personal involvement in the ad — like the use of emotion-focused appeals and positively framed messages — may be particularly likely to create a behavioral response (Chandy et al., 2001, p. 411)

How to Apply

• Use Negative Ads to Grab Attention. Humans are built to avoid pain, so they notice negative stimuli more easily. Negative ads pull more eye fixations and trigger immediate behaviors like impulse buys (Shiv et al., 1997).

• Use Positive Ads to Be Remembered. Emphasize positive aspects about your brand when you want the message to stick. A negative political ad should perform better if the candidate is struggling to get attention, but a positive ad should perform better if the candidate already has sufficient attention (Bolls et al., 2001).

• Bolls, P. D., Lang, A., & Potter, R. F. (2001). The effects of message valence and listener arousal on attention, memory, and facial muscular responses to radio advertisements. Communication research, 28(5), 627-651.
• Chandy, R. K., Tellis, G. J., MacInnis, D. J., & Thaivanich, P. (2001). What to say when: Advertising appeals in evolving markets. Journal of marketing Research, 38(4), 399-414.