BBC StoryWorks reveals a link between emotions and campaign metrics

According to the study, emotions can enhance the success of content-led marketing campaigns

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | March 3, 2017

The second instalment of BBC StoryWorks' award-winning study 'Science of Engagement' says no emotion is a bad emotion when it comes to creating content-led marketing campaigns. Building on the findings from the initial report published in January 2016, the focus of this latest research was to explore the connection between emotions and campaign metrics.

Working alongside CrowdEmotion once again, the study applied a combination of traditional research metrics with facial coding techniques, to measure consumer engagement from an emotional perspective.

Nine BBC StoryWorks campaigns, featured on BBC.com, formed the case studies for the research. The campaigns comprised a mix of video, written and one infographic created for a range of clients from HSBC, Huawei, AIG, to Cathay Pacific, Mazda, Hainan and Dassault Systemes. Apart from analysing the emotional impact of these campaigns, the research team also took into consideration the length of the content, number of social media referrals coupled with statistical techniques such as correlation analysis to identify the key drivers to each campaign's success. The study involved five markets – Hong Kong, Australia, Germany, the US and Singapore – and 9,136 participants.

The research explored which emotions drove engagement among the nine campaigns. Key findings included that when you trigger serious emotions – puzzlement, fear and sadness – a deeper subconscious relationship with the brand occurs. The theory was particularly well demonstrated by 'Emerging from the Darkness', a video produced with Huawei, featuring artist John Brambitt who discusses how he paints without being able to see. The content led to a 50 per cent increase in subconscious positivity towards Huawei among audiences who had viewed it. The research also showed that triggering serious emotions can help support campaign objectives such as ad awareness, positivity, brand image and consideration. When applied to HSBC's 'Going the Distance' campaign, an article focused on the difficulty of maintaining long distance relationships, ad awareness saw a 217 per cent increase.

Lighter emotions such as happiness and surprise also played a key role in consumers making purchase decisions, and in driving feelings in relation to brand image and consideration for the brand. For example, Cathay Pacific's light-hearted video on the evolution of in-flight dining received a 57 per cent increase for both brand image and brand consideration.

The research also highlighted how effective content-led marketing campaigns on BBC.com are proving to be, with the average campaign delivering a 30 per cent increase in subconscious positivity, 49 per cent increase in average brand image, 56 per cent increase in recommendation and 50 per cent increase in consideration.

Richard Pattinson

“Emotions drive people's engagement with brands, both in their desire to be associated with those brands but also in the wish to purchase products or services. Providing a clearer understanding of which emotions should be considered can help drive the brand metrics which are critical to the success of content-led campaigns. Our latest research not only offers guidance on how to best influence audiences but highlights the success BBC Advertising is having with content-led marketing campaigns on BBC.com. A number of the campaigns included in the research received industry accolades, and they also resonate with the audience for BBC.com, which celebrated a record year in 2016 attracting 98 million browsers per month,” said Richard Pattinson, SVP, Content, BBC Advertising and Head of BBC StoryWorks.

Some of the other key takeaways from the study were that triggering serious emotions like puzzlement, fear and sadness equalled subconscious positivity. But the aim should be to intrigue and not confuse because the study found that the right level of puzzlement will drive recommendation and consideration, too much will deter audiences.

The study also found that lighter emotions like happiness and surprise increased desire to purchase, supporting brand image and consideration.

The study also showed that content marketing had a powerful impact for less well known brands and clearly label one's brand added credibility to the content. It also showed that showcasing the right emotions will drive social media referrals. 55 per cent of consumers who express happiness, puzzlement and fear are likely to share content.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com