Moderately surprising sentence structures make ads more persuasive, according to a paper published in the Journal of Marketing.
The authors of the study created a machine learning model that measured the ‘syntactic surprise’ of sentences and then carried out experiments to test whether this variable influenced effectiveness.
They conducted eight experiments in total, and all of them returned the same finding – the relationship between surprising syntax and message effectiveness follows an inverted U-shape.
According to the authors of the study, it comes down to attention and ease of processing. Commonplace syntax is easy to process but more likely to be ignored, while weird syntax is attention-grabbing but too hard to parse. Moderately surprising syntax, however, gets the balance just right.
Across their experiments, the researchers found that ad copy that sat within the ‘ineffective’ range for syntactic surprise got only 80% as many clicks as copy within the ‘optimal’ range.
By itself, this is a neat finding – albeit one that requires more research – but this idea of gently subverting people’s expectations to improve the effectiveness of marketing messages applies to more than just syntax.
In 2020, Jessica Vredenburg published a paper in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing positing that brands that pick slightly unexpected socio-political issues to champion in their marketing can outperform those that choose causes that align with their personality or history.
‘While authentic brand activism resulting from aligned, values-driven messaging and practice is key to the long-term success of an activist brand, theory and rapidly evolving practice shows that pursuing moderate misalignment of brand and cause can strengthen the outcomes of brand activism,’ wrote Vredenburg.
Just like in the surprising syntax study, Vredenburg identifies a sweet spot of ‘optimal incongruence’ for brand activism campaigns that are surprising enough to intrigue people but not so odd that they’re confusing. (Vredenburg highlights other factors that influence people’s response to brand activism, too; we’re simplifying for the sake of brevity.)
Optimal incongruence is not just a satisfying phrase to drop into conversation (honestly, try it: instant gravitas), it’s also a useful concept that earns its keep by pointing out that brands can do well by being different from themselves, not just by being different from everyone else.
This it not to say consistency is any less vital when it comes to building distinctive assets. It most definitely is. But marketers in recent years have become a little bit obsessed with the idea that everything they do must be authentic to the brand and its competences and provenance. We’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve heard marketers describe their new campaign as being true to ‘the DNA of the brand’, and some of us are quite good at counting.
Authenticity is a fine aspiration, but it's limiting, and there is some evidence that people like it, or at least pay attention, when brands go off-brand. So be free and stray from your lane. But do it moderately. Do it optimally.
Campaign of the Week /
Artois Probability
Stella Artois created poster ads pointing out the probability that the subjects of historic works of art were drinking its beer.
Gut, Buenos Aires, created an algorithm that took into account things like the year the painting was produced, its setting, the shape of the glasses in the picture and the colour of the liquid contained within, and then spat out a probability that it was Stella Artois being consumed.
For example, The Peasant Wedding by renaissance painter Pieter Breugel, is captioned with a ‘78% probability of Stella Artois’.
The campaign promotes the heritage of the AB InBev-owned beer, which dates back to 1366, and also provides a form of social proof, while conferring a kind of prestige onto Stella Artois with (probable) associations with great works of art. Read our full analysis of the campaign, here. Contagious.
Sponsor post /
Global: Look Ahead Contest 2023
Global, the Media And Entertainment Group, launched the Look Ahead contest last year with a brief for UK creatives to submit ideas for campaign concepts that would not just show off Transport for London’s ‘digital ribbon’ screens but also send a positive message to audiences during uncertain times.
Dementia therapy startup, The Wayback, won the contest with an idea to turn the digital ribbons that line escalators in select Underground and Elizabeth line stations into windows into the past. As a reward, the Wayback’s idea was made real earlier this month.
Global will again offer UK creatives the chance to turn an uplifting and site-specific advertising concept into a reality when it announces its second Look Ahead contest at Contagious Live in London on 12 July.
To read more about The Wayback’s winning campaign and register your place at Contagious Live, click here. Contagious.
Beware of this /
Google TrueView: not as advertised?
Google has been accused of fobbing off clients with duff ad inventory in a report published by an analytics platform.
Google’s YouTube TrueView ad inventory is sold on the promise that it will appear in stream on either YouTube or trusted third-party sites and be audible – and it will only be charged-for if viewers do not skip the ads before 30 seconds (or at all, if the ad is longer than 30 seconds).
But according to a research paper published by Adalytics, TrueView ads frequently appeared on junk sites in hard-to-view positions and on mute.
Google has published a blog casting doubt on the validity of Adalytics’ research. But various news outlets have now followed up the Wall Street Times’ initial report, including the Guardian and the Financial Times. This article on AdExchanger has some choice quotes, and also additional information about how Google does not allow proper third-party verification of its Google Video Partners ads (the company’s audience network).
Some reports are predicting that Google will have to shell out billions of dollars in refunds to TrueView clients, but whether or not that is the case, this story has already been damaging for the company’s reputation, and the last thing it needs while facing antitrust charges in Europe and the US. Ad Exchanger.
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Most Contagious
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If you're willing to book your place at our London event before you see the lineup, then you can pick up a half-price ticket for just £400.
Feeling a little light on faith? Then put your trust in the Most Contagious attendees from years gone by who’ve given us a Net Promoter Score of 9, and called the event ‘Absolutely unmissable, inspirational and educational’ and ‘priceless’.
So, join us at London's Business Design Centre on 7 December for a day of insights into the best campaigns of the year, need-to-know trends and much more. Contagious.
Read this /
Episodic ads on Netflix
Netflix executives met with brands and agencies in Cannes last month to tout the platform’s targeting capabilities, according to a report in the Financial Times.
According to the report, Netflix is building its own ad-tech, which it will unleash after its partnership with Microsoft comes to an end, and it is promising advertisers that they will be able to use its data (in a privacy-compliant way, of course) to better tailor ads to viewers.
One example given by an ad boss interviewed by the FT was that Netflix will know which ads subscribers have already seen, opening up the possibility for advertisers to create a series of ads and show them to people episodically.
Netflix introduced its ad-supported subscription tier in November 2022. In May, Netflix’s president of worldwide advertising, Jeremi Gorman, said that the platform reached 5 million global monthly active users through the ad tier. In total, Netflix claims to have 231 million subscribers worldwide. Gizmodo.
Use this /
Meta's Twitter killer
Meta looks set to release a Twitter clone called Threads on Thursday. The social media company put a preview of its new app on the App Store on Monday, with images that suggest it will be built around text-based posts and conversations, much like Twitter.
Threads, which Meta has branded 'an Instagram app', arrives as Twitter continues to struggle under the leadership of Elon Musk, and the platform's status as the 'town square of the internet' looks vulnerable.
Several new social media platforms have been created with an eye to stealing Twitter's crown, as well as its remarkably sticky. But even though Meta has its own problems, its scale makes it a far more dangerous competitor than any of the upstarts. Guardian.
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Learn about the business challenges and briefs that inspired Grand Prix-winning campaigns for British Airways, Samsung and more. Contagious.
Watch this /
Fiat renounces grey
Fiat CEO Olivier François promises that his company will no longer produce grey cars in a social media film that marketing professor Mark Ritson described as ‘fabulous work’.
The near two-minute film features François sitting inside a 600e-model car as it’s dunked into a giant tin of orange paint – because Fiat is the brand of colours from the land of colours, and as such it will no longer cater to people who want grey vehicles.
That’s no small sacrifice for a car manufacturer. A little over a quarter (25.7%) of new cars in the UK are grey, and the country is by no means an outlier. But strategy is about sacrifice, and Fiat’s stand against ashen automobiles is everything great marketing should be: attention grabbing, distinctive and memorable. And if it turns out the company miscalculated, it could always bring out a line of ‘non-metallic silver’ cars, to save face.
The ad was created by Leo Burnett, Turin, and was first posted on Fiat’s social media channels on 26 June. YouTube.
