Neural responses to functional and experiential ad appeals: Explaining ad effectiveness

• Published in: International journal of research in marketing 2017-06, Vol.34 (2), p.355-366
• Main Authors: Couwenberg, Linda E., Boksem, Maarten A.S., Dietvorst, Roeland C., Worm, Loek, Verbeke, Willem J.M.I., Smidts, Ale
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ad appeals; Consumer neuroscience; Experiential; fMRI; Functional
• ISSN: 0167-8116; 1873-8001
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijresmar.2016.10.005

Despite the large body of research that has investigated the effect of ad appeals of television advertisements on consumers' internal responses and behavior, our understanding of how different ad appeals are processed remains limited. Complementing existing literature with novel insights from neuroimaging techniques can be valuable, providing more immediate insights into implicit mental processes. The present study explores the neural responses to functional and experiential executional elements in television advertisements by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Comparing a unique set of different commercials for the same brand enabled examination of the influence of differences in ad appeal on brain responses and subsequent advertisement effectiveness. Findings show that functional and experiential executional elements engage different brain areas, associated with lower- and higher-level cognitive processes, and that the extent to which these particular brain areas are activated is associated with higher ad effectiveness. •Neural responses to functional and experiential ad appeals are explored using fMRI.•Functional and experiential ad appeals engage distinct networks of brain regions.•Findings suggest a distinction between lower- and higher-level cognitive processes.•Activation of both networks is associated with higher ad efficacy.