Ads Good Enough to Eat: 8 Ways to Increase TV Commercial Recall Probabilities in the Food Category

First, let's talk briefly about the phenomenon of recall, as that term is used and measured in the advertising world. When a TV viewer recalls a commercial, two things have occurred: her attention has been captured, and that attention has been linked to a brand. Attention reflects evidence that an ad has been seen and heard; linkage is evidence that what was seen and heard has been connected to a specific brand name. High attention + good linkage = high recall.

Why Recall Matters

The degree of recall correlates with degree of advertising awareness. This has significant implications for advertising/media efficiency considerations. A commercial's ability to generate good recall plays a significant role in why this is so. It costs no more to create great TV advertising than lousy TV advertising, but the difference in marketplace impact between the one and the other can be as great as four to one. To illustrate:

The Analysis

One hundred thirty-second food commercials at or above the ninetieth percentile of the large Ipsos ASI thirty-second food commercial database were further reduced to 19 advertisements, which were subjected to further comprehensive content analysis. (The elements discussed below are common to most of the 19. Additional contributing elements appropriate to individual commercials are not included because they were not held in common.)

1. Creating a Unique Taste Expectation

Superior taste is a very difficult concept to bring to life convincingly in a television commercial. Appetite-appeal visuals and taste anticipation and/or satisfaction sequences are necessary cost-of-entry conventions; in and of themselves, however, they won't take a commercial to the level where lasting impact lies.

That level requires translation into a meaningful taste experience--of particular value and importance in a commodity environment. In one very successful campaign example--Snackwells--the brand, in its trial phase, went consistently out of stock. The agency translated that event into evidence of insatiability due to irresistible taste. Irresistibility as it relates to food is a universally shared experience, with high personal relevance, motivational value, and emotional impact. That concept formed the basis for years of advertising and marketing success for the brand.

2. "Continuance" as an Underlying Executional Component

"Continuance" is about creating equity-building elements from the start of a campaign that, with repetition, become highly efficient and leverageable communication devices. Some examples:

• Format repetition (for example, "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter")
• Continuing Characters (see the chart below)
• Visual and Auditory Mnemonics (for example, the Green Giant, Pillsbury Doughboy, M&M characters)

"Continuance" sets up a condition wherein viewers learn quickly to anticipate what will happen, which frees them to focus on how it happens. This enhances both retrieval and retention.

3. Visualized Taste Satisfaction

Taste satisfaction sequences allow the taste benefit to be visualized. Well executed, they can also trigger emotional reward.

4. Imaginative Appetite/Food Appeal Visuals

One would think optimal visual treatment of appetite appeal elements in food advertising would be automatic, but such is not the case. The key benefit most food advertising ultimately needs to offer--good taste--can never be proven, only implied; maximized visual treatment of the food itself is thus a necessary, cost-of-entry element.

5. Optimized Brand Identification

Introduce the brand name early. Execute with both visual and audio support. Brand name legibility is critical.

• Early Brand Identification: The average time at which thirty-second food commercials in the Ipsos ASI thirty-second food database identify their brand is at the seven-second point. The average time of introduction for the 19 highest scoring efforts is three seconds. Eight of the 19 introduce the brand in the first second.
• Nature of Brand Identification: Of the 19, 14 execute the introduction via fusion of both audio and visual. Presentation of the brand name itself was uniformly in a high-legibility mode.

6. Integration of Brand Name, Product, and Package into the Flow of the Commercial.

This is both a conceptual and creative issue, not easy to pull off. The executional concept underlying the commercial needs to be constructed around (intertwined with/inseparable from) the brand and the product, both visually and aurally.

7. Story with Beginning, Middle, and End.

A positive relationship exists between magnitude of recall and making information easy to extract. A "story format" can make information easier to extract and retain.

8. Superior Taglines

Superior taglines have a number of things in common. A primary characteristic involves translation of the brand's position (see the Ipsos Ideas Spring issue for a full evaluation of taglines). The highest recalling food commercials offered superior translations of their brands' positions. A few examples: