How Consumer psychology and AI Insights explain why some Xmas adverts are successful
Every holiday season, brands release heartwarming, festive adverts to capture the spirit of Christmas and connect with their audience. But what makes one ad resonate more than another?
Using our consumer psychology expertise and our AI eye tracking tool, we compared two Christmas adverts from last year: one that was a hit, and another that missed the mark.
Setting Up the Comparison
For this analysis, we used NEOAI to assess both adverts. This AI-powered tool draws on neuroscience principles to predict how viewers will respond to visual content. It generates insights by using AI simulated eye-tracking data, cognitive demand simulations and engagement scores based on AI representations of human neural processing. With this we can show where a viewer's attention is captured but more importantly how engaging and easy it is to process and whether important brand elements, like logos or messages, are seen effectively.
Here’s what we found:
What the “Good” Advert Did Right
This print ad by Tesco was a strong contender and had excellent engagement scores in the competitive world of FMCGs. However, our AI analysis did find the scene was quite complex and difficult for people to process all of it in the usual five seconds people give to print ads. Psychologists at IB conferred and suggested reducing the number of desserts presented down to 3-4 but increase their size to still fill the print ad. Additionally visually appealing images like Christmas trees and lights could be increased to help draw the eye to the advert.
A full analysis for your company would provide information on how people would view your advert, where focus is drawn, how demanding it is for people to view and simulations of how engaging prospectives customers will find your advert.
Where the “Bad” Advert Fell Short
This Christmas themed print ad for a gentleman’s suit company presents an interesting concept but falls short in the execution.
The attention heatmaps generated by NEOAI show too much focus is on the suit but not on the brand. This will hurt conversion and the relative sizing of the brand name should be increased to help cement it in the minds of future consumers.
The ad is also quite simplistic making it too easy for the brain to process. Cognitive demand can be good for adverts and when managed right entices us to look closer and process the advert more deeply resulting in better retention and effect on consumers.
The Benefits of Using NEOAI for Ad Campaigns
NEO AI provides a powerful advantage for marketers by giving data-driven insights on how viewers interact with their ads. The ability to see not only where attention is focused - that other eye tracking tools can do – but more importantly to understand cognitive demand and emotional engagement allows brands to optimize their content before it goes live and enhance the overall impact of a campaign. In short, using these insights ensures your advert hits the right emotional and visual notes for maximum success.
With tools like NEOAI, brands can refine their adverts to be both memorable and effective, ensuring every holiday campaign is a hit!