ZenithOptimedia’s Richard Shotton explains why being able to target consumers by their emotions is something that advertisers should be taking advantage of.
Facebook have announced that they will launch a series of emojis to complement the ‘Like’ button.
The emojis will cover six ‘reactions’ including Love, HaHa, Yay, Wow and Sad. They have been introduced as Facebook users wanted a more subtle way of expressing empathy for their friends’ posts, and that the ‘Like’ button is a crude response to posts about splitting with one’s girlfriend or a tough day at work.
The launch is being trialled in Spain an Ireland, two of Facebook’s more self-contained markets, but a broader roll-out is expected. This will further speed up the rapid uptake of emojis. A survey conducted by Bangor University revealed that 29% of UK adults already use emojis in at least half of their texts, instant messaging and social media posts.
It’s an interesting development for Facebook users, but why should advertisers care? Well, it brings closer the day when advertisers can accurately target consumers by their mood. That’s exciting as there’s evidence that happy people are more receptive to ads.
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ZenithOptimedia worked with students from the University of Lancaster to quantify the effect. In the experiment participants were shown ads after either being exposed to either happy or sad stimuli. Participants exposed to happy stimuli were 9% more likely than other respondents to say they would use the advertised product in the future.
Our findings are supported by other experiments. Fred Bronner, a psychologist at the University of Amsterdam, ran a test into the effect of mood on ad recall amongst 1,287 participants.
The participants flicked through a newspaper and then answered questions about which ads they remembered. When the data was split by the reader’s mood the results were conclusive: readers in a good mood remembered 28% more ads than those in a bad mood.
Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel Prize winning psychologist, has provided an evolutionary explanation for this phenomenon. When we’re in a good mood it signifies the absence of danger and, therefore, mitigates against the need to think critically. We’re therefore far more likely to absorb ad messages when we’re happy.
When Facebook targeting via emojis is available, advertisers should seize the opportunity. Until then they’ll have to make do with targeting moments when people are likely to be happiest.
This could be done by weather targeting, reaching people during enjoyable events like a cinema trip or simply focusing on key day-parts.
According to IPA TouchPoints, evenings along with Friday and Saturdays, are the times when people tend to be in a better mood. Using some of these mood targeting tactics will, hopefully, lead to some happy clients.
Richard Shotton is head of insight at ZenithOptimedia
Twitter: @rshotton
