"70% of marketing activity has low arousal"
So says Karen Nelson-Field of Ehrenberg-Bass Institute and Phil Townsend of Unruly Media, just after their presentation at the Festival of Media Global 2013. They had spoken at the event on what makes great branded video content. So I thought I would grab them and ask them a few more questions.
Putting aside Phil's big plug of Unruly Media's tools for analysing branded content (though why not!), I was fascinated by the results of their research on what are the triggers for the sharing of great branded content. Which is where the 'arousal' factor came in. Their research found that getting lots of people to view the content does not necessarily foster higher incidence of sharing of that content. Boring ads don't get shared, which is not surprising. But neither do mildly amusing bits of content. A small smile on the face of the viewer won't be enough to encourage them to share.
Karen and Phil suggested that high arousal in people will get the sharing button pushed. Before you start defining what 'high arousal' could mean, let me help. According to their research, there are 4 levels of emotion (Positive High, Positive Low, Negative High, Negative Low) across 4 emotional descriptors (Humour, Motivation, Temperament, Awe). In the Positive High Arousal state, we find Hilarity, Inspiration, Astonishment and Exhilaration. So if your branded content is not hitting any of those states, then you will struggle to have the content shared.
Here is their research if you want to go beyond my interview with them.
Of course, this is only part of the story. Brand created content will always sit side by side with, and often out-shone by, user-generated content. And as comscore showcased in a great piece of research last year, business benefits can be secured by finding ways to combine the benefits of both sources of content.
In my interview with Karen and Phil, I also asked about the social motivation behind the sharing of content. Specifically, I wondered whether people share because they want to share (external good) or because they they want to be seen to be sharing (recognition). It seems a little more digging into their data will be required. Looking forward to seeing what they come up with. And am off to have a dig around myself...
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