Unruly Launches Dashboard Which Tracks Emotional Trends of Video Advertising

American consumers are far more likely to love a brand or buy a product after watching a video ad online than consumers in Europe.

That’s according to data from Unruly Pulse™, a new dashboard launched in beta today by video ad tech company Unruly. Data from the new platform - which provides unique insight into the emotional and brand trends of video advertising - found that 41% of US viewers reported having a more favorable view of a brand after watching a video ad, compared with 28% in the UK and 26% in Germany.

Purchase intent is also higher in the States at 40%, compared to 31% in the UK and Germany. The only consumers to have a stronger reaction to watching videos ads were viewers in South-East Asia and Brazil, highlighting the importance of video advertising for brands hoping to make it big in Rio this summer.

Academic and industry studies over the last decade have repeatedly shown the effects of emotional advertising on a variety of brand and business metrics, including increased brand favorability, purchase intent and earned media.

Unruly co-CEO Sarah Wood added: “Consumer emotions drive product sales, as well as brand love, so it’s not surprising that smart marketers appreciate the important role that Emotional Intelligence has to play in delivering effective video ad campaigns. Marketers using Unruly Pulse will have their finger on the pulse of consumer emotions and they’ll be able to plan more effectively for video launches around zeitgeist events and seasonal trends.

“Harnessing the Emotional Intelligence of Unruly Pulse, they’ll be better placed to understand what works for their audience and why. They’ll be equipped to develop a video content strategy that will resonate with a specific audience at a specific moment in time.”

Other insights compiled using Unruly Pulse data include:

• Advertisers are failing to make people laugh, with hilarity one of the least common emotions worldwide, felt by 4% of respondents. Happiness is the most common emotion people felt while watching video content during the same period. It’s also the emotion most likely to cross national and cultural borders, making it perfect for sporting events like the Olympics;
• Almost a fifth of millennials who watched Mountain Dew’s Super Bowl ad “Puppymonkeybaby” had a less favorable view of the brand after watching it;
• The launch of Christmas ads during November and December results in a global spike in Inspiration and Exhilaration. Meanwhile, hilarity spiked during this year’s Super Bowl;
• The most shared ad of all time - Google Android’s 2015 commercial “Friends Furever” (7 million shares worldwide) - made consumers around the globe feel almost four times as happy as the average ad. It was also over five times as likely to make people laugh as the average tech ad;
• Our psychological responses change as we age and vary by gender. US males aged 25-34 are more likely to feel happiness, inspiration and pride while watching video ads, while male Boomers are more likely to feel confusion and disgust. Meanwhile, women aged 25-34 in the US are more likely to feel happiness and inspiration, while with Boomers it’s warmth, surprise and confusion;
• The key drivers of video sharing differ greatly around the world. For example, in the US and Europe, emotions are the key drivers of video sharing, while in South-East Asia, Brazil and Turkey it’s more about giving consumers reasons to share content.

Using Unruly Pulse, advertisers can:

• Make data-driven decisions to drive purchase intent and brand metrics;
• Track how emotions seasonally ebb and flow over time;
• Find out what motivates viewers to share a piece of content;
• Identify the emotional profiles of best-in-class content ;
• Dissect trends by sector, geo & demo;
• Optimize distribution for maximum impact among their target segment.

Academic Dr Karen Nelson-Field, Director of the Centre for Digital Video Intelligence, said: “In true Unruly style, Unruly Pulse is a fun, user-friendly dashboard that provides deep levels of insight for brands and agencies hoping to make the most out of their video advertising campaigns.”

Methodology: Unruly Pulse is powered by Unruly’s unique, first-party data on emotional advertising. It visualises data from more than half a million consumer responses across thousands of videos, spanning EMEA, APAC and the Americas.

Pricing and availability: The dashboard is currently available in beta in Future Video Labs across the UK, US, France, Germany, Nordics and South-East Asia. To download our 7 Steps to Sporting S.U.C.C.E.S.S this Summer, click here. To find out more about the dashboard, please click here.

UNRULY, UNRULY PULSE and logos and associated marks are trademarks of Unruly Group. Other marks are owned by their respective owners.

About Unruly

Unruly is the ad tech company that gets videos watched, tracked and shared across the Open Web. Positioned at the intersect of video, social, native & mobile, Unruly uses emotional audience data and user-friendly video formats to massively increase viewer engagement, brand performance & publisher revenues.

With 3 out of every 4 video views now taking place outside of YouTube, 90% of Ad Age 100 brands have already used Unruly to connect with audiences at speed and scale across the Open Web.

Differentiated by a unique data set of 2 trillion video views and powered by a full tech stack, Unruly adds value by algorithmically evaluating content shareability and programmatically targeting custom audiences. Viewability is 100% guaranteed to an audience of 1.35 billion monthly unique users across mobile, tablet and desktop devices.

UnrulyX is the first supply side platform (SSP) for mobile video to offer scaled delivery of native ad formats and guarantee the viewability of premium video impressions bought via RTB.

Unruly employs 200 people across 15 offices, with regional HQs in London, New York and Singapore.

Its super power is emotional ad tech. Its secret weapon is passionate people on a mission to #DeliverWow. Unruly was acquired by News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) in September 2015.

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