Commercial broadcast channel ITV has revealed the five secrets behind impactful TV adverts that achieve short-term sales success.
The report – created in partnership with creative effectiveness platform System1 – measures the sales effect of an advert over the 8 – 10 week period after it has aired, going on to outline how brands can achieve the key elements needed to perform well.
The ITV research is based upon System1’s Spike Rating – a predictive score that indicates short-term sales effect over the 8-10 weeks after an advert has aired. It is based upon two factors: speed of branding and intensity of emotional response.
“Achieving short-term sales success is a tricky tightrope to walk and is reliant on brands utilising both right and left-brained features,” said System1’s chief customer officer Jon Evans.
“Employment of fluent devices and distinctive assets, generating emotional intensity through familiarity and other tactics such as humour can – when combined and consistently employed – help brands achieve a strong spike rating, and therefore boost the short-term impact of their ads.”
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System1 mapped 20,000 UK ads to assess their ‘spike rating’, before looking specifically at adverts doing well in one area but not the other, well on both or poorly on both. Some 50 ads from each of the four categories were then analysed in more detail to see what they had in common.
ITV’s research found that adverts with strong speed of branding but low emotional intensity tend to lean into performance and activation, using left-brained features to strengthen product focus, while ads that generate high emotional intensity but low speed of branding tended to use right-brained features and employed familiarity, including a strong sense of place and familiar cultural references.
Adverts that achieved both intense emotions and fast branding offered a consistent narrative and messaging, embedded brand cues into humorous narratives and brought fluent devices to life. Previous System1 research has revealed these elements are also highly beneficial for longer-term brand building.
The ITV research went on to provide five industry best practices needed to achieve high emotional intensity and high speed of branding, and therefore a high spike rating.
- Employ fluent devices, recurring and recognisable characters and scenarios, as they serve to both drive emotional intensity and brand awareness.
- Utilise distinctive assets, which are particularly effective for a right-brained narrative.
- Promote right-brained features (such as sense of place, humour and hummable music) which drive emotional intensity and help support long-term ad effectiveness.
- Be consistent – distinctive assets and fluent devices should be used regularly and consistently across different campaigns.
- Employ multiple features – features that drive spike don’t work in isolation, and the most effective spike ads incorporate more than one feature.
Adverts that have effectively employed these tactics and achieved high spike ratings include Aldi’s Kevin the Carrot advert for Christmas 2022 (1.69), Cadbury’s “Mum’s Birthday” (1.67) and Compare the Market’s meerkats (1.50).
