Neuro study finds iconic triggers will optimise TVCs in out-of-home advertising

One of Australia’s leading out-of-home advertising providers claims Australian advertisers can significantly improve the efficacy of their campaigns by applying neuroscience to their creative digital strategies.

The first global ‘Iconic Trigger’ study from oOh! Media found that by identifying the most powerful or iconic moment in a TVC or video pre-roll, and applying it to out-of-home environments, advertisers could increase a respondent’s long-term memory measure by an average of 42 per cent.

The results came after Ooh! Media tested 60 commercials with consumers over a two-year period to identify a TVC’s iconic triggers, followed by neural testing to measure the consumers’ long-term memory of those triggers.

“Our Neuro Iconic Triggers tool removes much of the creative guesswork and gives clients the brain power to more accurately engage and influence growing audiences in out-of-home environments,” CEO of oOh!media, Brendon Cook, claimed.

“It works by using the iconic image from the TVC or video pre roll on a billboard or shopping centre ad panel. The image effectively acts as the ‘replay button’ – re-triggering those memories that have been previously stored when originally watching the TVC or video pre roll.”

One of the ads used in the testing was Carlton United’s ‘The Great Beer Chase’. The TVC can not only be analysed to understand what the iconic moments are within the campaign, but also to demonstrate how to utilise these moments in outdoor signage to increase the effectiveness of the campaign

Cook said results showed out-of-home campaigns that used iconic triggers in their creative strategy had greater impact by tapping into consumers’ long-term memory, which is linked to enhancing the overall ROI of a campaign.

“This research provides advertisers with an actionable tool that identifies moments from their TVC or video pre roll, most strongly held in the long-term memory, which we know has a positive impact on ROI,” Cook said. "This process has really been about providing capability for clients and creative agencies to have confidence in a process to develop their outdoor campaigns, knowing that doing it this way would ensure they improve long-term memory and coding, which leads to sales."

Cook is looking to boost client confidence in developing a strategic ad campaign around the iconic trigger.

“We see the benefits going two ways,” he told CMO. “It makes it easier for clients to feel confident and comfortable to buy out-of-home advertising, knowing that the process works. It also gives them the choice of either understanding the theory and the practice better - or if they wish, to run their TVC through the campaign to determine exactly which iconic triggers they should be creatively working with.”

According to Neuro-Insight director, Peter Pynta, the study empowers advertisers to optimise integration between TVCs and video pre-rolls with OOH!’s media capabilities.

“This approach is grounded in decades of neuroscience evidence on the way the brain stores and retrieves experiences - with the recent addition of some very specific TV and out-of-home advertising campaigns,” he said.

The ‘Iconic Trigger’ study follows earlier research powered by The Leading Edge ‘Out-of-home Effectiveness’, which also found advertising using TV and out-of-home strategies together delivered 15 per cent increases in ROI.

The Neuro Iconic Trigger research findings from the last two years will be released in a whitepaper in coming weeks.

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