Communicating Brands in Television Advertising

Many studies have quantified the effects of TV ad spendingor gross rating points on brand sales. Yet this effect is likelymoderated by the different types of brand-related messages or cues (e.g., logo, brand attributes) embedded in the ads and by the ways (e.g., explicitly or implicitly) these cues are conveyed to TV audiences. The authors thusmeasure 17 cues often usedwithin ads to build brand awareness (or salience) and brand image and investigate their influence on ad effectiveness. Technically, the study builds a dynamic model to quantify the effects of advertising on sales; builds a robust and interpretable (i.e., nonparametric and sparse) factor model that integrates correlated, left-censored branding cues; and thenmodels the effects of advertising as a function of the factors identified by these cues. An analysis of 177 campaigns aired by 62 brands finds that salience cues (e.g., logo) and benefit and attributemessagesmoderate ad effectiveness. It also finds that explicit cues aremore effective than implicitones; nonetheless, the primary drivers of ad effectiveness are visual salience cues: the duration and frequencywith which the logo and the duration with which the product are displayed. The study can thus suggest ways brand and ad agency managers can improve the effects of creative ad content on sales.