Neuroscience and adversting. Attention, emotion and their relation with the awards received at Cannes International Advertising Awards

Abstract

One of the most recurrent issues in advertising is related to effectiveness. Sometimes the obtained advertising awards are used as a measure of success. However, the psychological processes of attention and excitement recorded by the spots seem to be a more reliable indicator for measuring success, even more so considering the importance of these two mental processes in the generation of memories by the target audience. Thus, in this work we measured electro-dermal activity in a group of 22 people to analyze their attention and emotion levels while they were watching Cannes Advertising Awards. Later this measurement was related to the prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival 2002 (Golden, Silver or Bronze Lions) to investigate if the spots with Gold awards obtained higher levels of attention and emotion. The results show significant relation between higher rates of change in attention and receiving a gold award. Moreover, higher emotion levels and better prizes obtained were also significantly related (gold award announcements had significantly higher levels of emotion than the spots where silver awards were obtained, and these higher than where they won bronze awards).