Trying to Get a Better Picture of How People Feel About an Ad

Before companies broadcast costly TV commercials, they often try to find out if anyone will even like the darned things.

There are all sorts of wacky methods that researchers have used to see if everything from fast food to floor wax will sell. They’ve strapped gadgets around TV viewers that measure how fast hearts are beating or how profusely palms are sweating. Some researchers are even trying to see if tracing brain waves can give them clues about viewer emotions.

The thinking behind it goes something like this: People may lie, but their emotions don’t.

The problem with most of these tests has been how easily they can been misinterpreted. Someone’s heart may be racing, but is that because the person is in ecstasy over an ad or just afraid of the dark? And could it be that the guy who is perspiring is actually perturbed with what he’s watching?

That is why, for years, the most efficient and common way to see if commercials are any good has been to simply show the ads to small groups of people--called focus groups--and then ask them a laundry list of questions about what they’ve just seen.

Now the research department at one of country’s most respected advertising agencies has decided that words alone won’t do anymore. It is raising the eyebrows of researchers nationwide by asking viewers to comment on commercials with photos.

“These days, it takes more than performance claims to get consumers to buy one brand over another,” said Karen Olshan, executive vice president of research at the New York agency BBDO Worldwide, which creates ads for Pepsi and Gillette. “Our job is to help establish an emotional bond between the consumer and the brand.”

How to judge someone’s emotional reaction to an ad? The same word can mean vastly different things to different people. Besides, they found that those in focus groups were often too sheepish about expressing feelings.

In the past, BBDO researchers succeeded in getting people to tell them which moments they liked in commercials. Many of the images used in General Electric’s “We bring good things to life” campaign are there because certain pictures made members of focus groups smile. With that in mind, BBDO spent three years--and tens of thousands of research dollars--to develop a special stack of 53 pictures that it calls “Photodeck.” They’re photos of people smiling, frowning and even cringing.

These photos were carefully selected from among 1,800 pictures of six actors. Researchers at BBDO believe that these pictures represent almost the full gamut of human emotions.

After focus groups watch commercials, they are asked to select pictures from the stack that best describe how they feel about the ad. Those pictures then tell the agency if the commercial is eliciting the kinds of emotions that the advertiser wants.

But what kind of way is this to create commercials?

Well, advertisers don’t seem to think that it is crazy at all. One of BBDO’s biggest clients is Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co., and portions of its familiar “Piece of America,” ad campaign were reportedly selected on the basis of this so-called Emotional Measurement System.

“This is the best thing I’ve seen that addresses the emotional responses people have to ads,” said Ron Cox, group vice president of marketing at Wrigley. He strongly defends the method. “This is not some new, subliminal advertising scam,” said Cox. “That’s never worked in the ad business. You can’t get people to buy products they don’t want. The issue is, are we communicating the emotional response that our product has with consumers?”

Experts in advertising research say this new method could become the vogue.

“We’re moving increasingly towards nonverbal measures of advertising research,” said Alex Biel, executive director of the San Francisco-based Ogilvy Center for Research & Development. “Searching through a stack of pictures is not really a big task. But finding that right word that expresses an emotion can be very difficult.”

But at least one advertising research expert has some doubts about this method. “Most advertisers are trying to find ways to make emotional bonds between their products and the people they’re trying to reach. So the idea of measuring emotions is good,” said Barbara S. Feigin, director of strategic services at Grey Advertising in New York. “But do all people take away the same thing from the same picture? I don’t think so.”

Chiat/Day Has Its Eye on L.A. Gear

It helped make Nike a household word and Reebok a top-selling brand. But the Venice ad agency Chiat/Day/Mojo lost both clients. The question: Is L.A. Gear its next new client?

“We’d love to talk with them,” said Bob Wolf, chairman of Chiat/Day/Mojo, the day after his agency lost the $40-million Reebok business last week.

Executives at L.A. Gear, however, don’t sound very interested in Chiat/Day/Mojo. The athletic shoemaker has always created its own ads--directed by Executive Vice President Sandy Saemann--with the help of free-lancers. “We’re happy with our in-house agency,” said an L.A. Gear spokeswoman, who also noted that the company had not been contacted by the agency.

You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet on Lottery Hype

Get ready for an onslaught of California State Lottery hype. With business off, the lottery last week awarded a $2-million sales promotion budget to the Orange-based office of the Chicago sales promotion firm Frankel & Co. Future lottery sales promotions will include free decks of cards handed to all people who play its upcoming “Decco” on-line game.

Doggone, Those Two Ads Sure Look Similar

What happens when one agency creates an ad and someone else runs a virtually identical ad?

Well, in the case of two strikingly similar “before-and-after” print ads, one advertiser has quickly caved in.

Last week, the Marketing column mentioned a humorous ad for a Los Angeles hair-weaving company called the Hair Replacement Center. The ad showed a “before” picture of a balding man and an “after” picture of an Irish setter.

Well, just one month earlier, the agency Suissa & Associates ran an almost identical ad for its client, the Advisory Council of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. That ad showed a “before” photo of a lovely model followed by an “after” picture of an Irish setter.

“We were ripped off,” said David Suissa, president of the agency. And after a phone conversation with Suissa, the hair company has agreed to stop running its similar version. “I never saw their ad before,” insisted Daniel Simons, president of Hair Replacement Center. “But we’ve decided to try a different campaign that can sell more product.”

Firm Getting Account One Piece at a Time

Almost every mid-sized agency has a secret dream of landing a giant-sized client. And one of the best ways to do that is to pick up small pieces of a potential client’s ad business, do a great job with those and eventually land the whole enchilada.

Last week, the Los Angeles agency Eisaman, Johns & Laws picked up its second piece of business from a client owned by Black & Decker. It won the estimated $4-million account for Kwikset, an Anaheim-based maker of residential lock sets. It already handles the estimated $6-million ad business for bathroom fixture maker Price-Pfister, for which it created a campaign that makes fun of the company’s odd name. Both are Black & Decker divisions.

Is the agency quietly eyeing the multimillion-dollar Black & Decker power tool and appliance accounts handled by other agencies? “All I can say is, we hope to be able to do more for Black & Decker,” said Dennis R. Coe, president of the agency’s Los Angeles office. “And yes, we’d be interested.”