Why, When, and How Much to Entertain Consumers in Advertisements? A Web-Based Facial Tracking Field Study
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Picard_Why, when and how.pdf
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Author(s)
Teixeira, Thales
el Kaliouby, Rana
Picard, Rosalind W.
Date Issued
May 2014
Journal
Marketing Science
Publisher
Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)
Citation
Teixeira, Thales, Rosalind Picard, and Rana el Kaliouby. “Why, When, and How Much to Entertain Consumers in Advertisements? A Web-Based Facial Tracking Field Study.” Marketing Science 33, no. 6 (November 2014): 809–827.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
The presence of positive entertainment (e.g., visual imagery, upbeat music, humor) in TV advertisements can make them more attractive and persuasive. However, little is known about the downside of too much entertainment. This research focuses on why, when, and how much to entertain consumers in TV advertisements. We collected data in a large scale field study using 82 ads with various levels of entertainment shown to 178 consumers in their homes and workplaces. Using a novel web-based face tracking system, we continuously measure consumers' smile responses, viewing interest, and purchase intent. A simultaneous Bayesian hierarchical model is estimated to assess how different levels of entertainment affect purchases by endogenizing viewing interest. We find that entertainment has an inverted U-shape relationship to purchase intent. Importantly, we separate entertainment into that which comes before the brand versus that which comes after, and find that the latter is positively associated with purchase intent while the former is not.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Media Laboratory
Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2014.0854
