The results of the research were presented by Hana Kloučková, Managing Director of Confess Research, for the first time ever at the Influcon conference in October, for which the research was created and which we as an agency are implementing. It showed that people aged 18-35 showed 21% higher attention and purchase interest and 12% higher positive emotions when watching influencer ads than when watching a traditional TV spot. This suggests that brands looking to target a digitally active young demographic should definitely not neglect influencers as a medium. And speaking of the digitally active population – for the purposes of the research, all respondents in the 18-35 age group were selected from Leoš Mareš’s followers .
Why neurosurvey at all and what does it actually mean?
Neuroscience as a field is based on the fact that 95% of decisions are made intuitively and subconsciously, only 5% are rational. It’s probably no surprise that everyday purchases fall into that subconscious 95%. This is a big weakness of conventional marketing research, where we ask people for their opinion. Even if they tell us the truth, it doesn’t reflect the reality of how they will ultimately make decisions at the supermarket shelf or with their finger on the “buy” button. Neuroscience addresses this very shortcoming and measures the immediate responses of the human body. Specifically, the intensity and tonality of emotions and so-called subconscious activation. While emotion influences recall and brand image, subconscious activation predicts an ad’s ability to move the viewer to action. If it occurs in conjunction with a brand or benefit, it also signals subconscious intent to purchase. Its above-average values are common to ads that place in the Effie competition precisely because these ads strongly motivate sales.
Chocolate, cosmetics, fashion, cars, entertainment. When did influencers score the highest?
Brands such as Student Seal, Notino, HBO Max, Toyota and M&S featured in the eighteen ads tested. And while the results for the 30-45 and 30-60 target groups varied, influencer ads worked better almost every time on Leoš Mareš’s followers, who for the purposes of this research represented the 18-35 age group, than on older respondents. Influencers also outperformed traditional TV very often for them. It should be emphasised here that influencer advertising for none of the groups tested fell below 80% of the performance of TV advertising. This is especially good to note in the context of the different costs of the two formats.
And how did influencer outputs perform for different influencers and brands? Leoš Mareš alone managed to get 189% of the unconscious TV ad activation with his fans on HBO Max. This means that fans’ potential reaction (i.e. attention and purchase intent) to his output was almost twice as strong as when they saw the spot on TV. On the other hand, Leoš did not evoke much positive emotion with this spot. But in this particular case, it probably wasn’t even the intention.
In the spots for the Student Seal, Nikol Leitgeb proved to be able to capture the attention of the youngest target group and potentially motivate them to buy better than TV, while it aroused more emotions in the 25-45 respondents. In contrast, the Pokáč song sold about the same amount of sales among young people as the TV spot, but evoked half as strong emotions. And Matěj Ruppert managed to outperform TV among young people by about a quarter in both parameters.
Where did influencers not work significantly better? At Toyota. The athletes Barbora Samková and Barbora Strýcová appeared together in an influencer spot where the subconscious activation of the audience (i.e. the will to act) was generally lower than in the TV spot. Emotions were only slightly higher, regardless of age. Here, however, the result may have been strongly influenced by the fact that the spots were not tested on the two athletes’ own fans. And they may differ significantly from people who normally follow celebrities (yes, you guessed it: Leoš Mareš).
Leave the TV, add influencers, address the content.
The study showed quite clearly that the 18-35 target group responds better to influencer outputs than to traditional TV advertising. The numbers presented would likely be even higher if it were possible for each influencer to test their own followers. At the same time, the small sample of respondents just for the youngest participants in the research, who were only twenty, should be taken into account. Still, it is clear that influencers have an unquestionable place in the media mix of successful brands. It’s not about replacing TV advertising entirely, but complementing it appropriately. Earlier data from Neuro-Insight, which conducted similar research in 2019 (and with considerably more bombastic results in favour of influencers), already pointed out that people are mostly annoyed by ads on TV, YouTube or Facebook, but if they’ve seen the same campaign first with an influencer, they’re more likely to pay attention to other iterations. So there’s only one thing left to figure out: What does Leoš Mareš say?
Ask for experience and get advice.
If you’re considering an influencer campaign, whether to build a brand or to motivate a purchase, an experienced partner is essential. Not just for selecting and dealing with influencers, but also when you’re figuring out what the communication should look like to reach the right people in the right way. At WOO, we have hundreds of campaigns under our belt and we’d love to design yours, so get in touch.
