There's no doubt campaigns which win big at Cannes are steeped in creativity. But how are they received by consumers? AdNews and Neuro-Insight bring you a series of neuroscience-based analyses of Cannes campaigns, starting with 'Dumb Ways to Die'.
From Neuro-Insight:
First, an explanation. In each ad report, we’ve always used Memory Detail (red) & Memory Global (blue). Both are important in determining the specific elements that viewers take out of the video or TV commercial. Memory Encoding is the key link in determining the effectiveness of the creative. This link has been independently validated in numberous projects & peer-reviewed journals around the world.
'Dumb Ways to Die'
The 'Dumb Ways to Die' video concept is a novel four-minute video execution, which won numerous accolades at Cannes in 2013.
The video had a significantly different impact on males versus females – In fact, it was 24% more effective on females than males. Females engaged at much higher levels on average and tended to take out certain elements much more effectively. The chart below shows the average Memory Encoding (effectiveness) data across the whole four-minute video.
Looking at the video more closely, we can start to understand which elements resonated between males and females.
The Neuro time-series analysis below highlights the top four most effectively communicated moments with females. You’ll note the peaks in Memory Encoding are very high (top 2% on our Peak Memory benchmarks!). Note: Not wanting to stereotype… but, the clothes dryer scene is one of the highest points. The brain doesn’t lie!
Apart from the explicit message during the final frame (“be safe around trains”), females responded much better to the implicit ‘train saftey’ scenarios towards the conclusion of the video as well. Message take out was certainly much higher / more effective on females!
Males on the other hand responded much lower overall and to very different scenes – this is not an uncommon finding (between genders).
One interesting contrast between men and women was how well males connected with the Atom Bomb scene (after the Red Button was pressed). Females instantly dis-engaged here, whereas males tended to remain engaged and we see an ever higher levels of memory encoding at this point! The implicit ‘train safety’ themes / messaging during the final stages of the song were however only deemed to be effective on females.
Final message effectiveness:
This video again highlights that, irrespective of how long consumers may (or may not) be engaged, only a few scenes and images are effectively encoded into long-term memory (the key criteria for future behaviour change). As long as these scenes are ‘the right’ scenes (typically messaging & branding), then the job has been done and the communication will be effective.
More specifically, the final message delivery of ‘be safe around trains’ was effectively delivered, albeit much more with females than males! If this one moment hadn’t performed this strongly, then the four minutes would have been a very expensive exercise. Under this scenario, the video would have to exclusively rely on its talkability and shareability. Fortunately, while the camapign had these two virtues, it also had strong intrinsic effectiveness as well. A great result!
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.
Have something to say? Send us your comments using the form below or contact the writer at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.