Carl D. Marci

Super Bowl advertisements have become almost as famous as the game itself. Between production costs and the price of air time, companies who advertise in the Super Bowl do so at considerable expense. Return on investment for Super Bowl advertisements is strengthened by wide viewership, pregame media chatter, and postgame buzz among consumers. Not all advertisements, however, generate the same degree of buzz. Recent models of advertising effectiveness have emphasized the importance of emotions, suggesting that advertisements that engage consumers on emotional levels will be most effective. This study examines how emotional engagement with Super Bowl advertisements relates to an important area of consumer response: online buzz. A biologically-based measure of audience engagement was used to monitor a sample of adults (N = 30) as they viewed Super Bowl XLII live. Advertising scores derived from biometric response ratings for Super Bowl advertisements were highly correlated with online buzz (i.e., the number of times an advertisement was commented on and the number of times it was viewed online). Results of the study are discussed with regard to the role of emotions in advertising and the utility of biometric measures for assessing consumers9 emotional engagement with advertising content.

Despite increased research focusing on the impact of digital video recorder (DVR) use, there continues to be a notable lack of data on viewers’ direct experience of time-shifted television ads. The current study was designed to increase understanding of information processing among DVR users by directly examining viewers’ biometric responses, eyegaze patterns and memory for ads viewed entirely in fast-forward (FF) mode compared with viewers who watched the same ads in real time. The results indicate that, compared with a control group of viewers of real-time advertising, viewers recalled the same ads viewed in FF at significantly higher rates than expected given the speed with which they were viewed. Notably, prior exposure to an ad increased the likelihood of that ad being recalled in FF mode. Eye-tracking data show that viewers in the DVR group spent significantly more time with their eyes on screen, more time looking at the centre of the screen, and also showed a substantial amount of visual processing activity during FF viewing. Finally, there were significantly higher levels of biometric response, an indicator of emotional processing, suggesting that viewers are in a ‘hyper-alert’ state during FF viewing. The biometric results, when combined with indications of visual processing and increased screen time, help explain the higher than expected next-day recall of ads in the DVR group.

The present study presents a biologically based measure of audience engagement. The measure is based on a neuroscience informed combination of signal processing methods that yield a continuous time-locked index of synchrony plus intensity leading to engagement from four noninvasive wireless biosensors. The study compared two television commercials in several different contexts. The results suggest that levels of engagement were significantly different depending on the context of the presentation. The results highlight the importance of context in study design and support the use of a biologically based measure of audience engagement.