El Paso Company’s Research Ranks Super Bowl Commericals; Darth Vader Slays Competition
The Dark Side was certainly with Volkswagen – or at least with its cute and quirky Super Bowl commercial.
Neuromarketing firm Sands Research, based in El Paso, Texas, announced Feb. 16, that it has completed its annual comprehensive study gauging the effectiveness of Super Bowl commercials and the VW Passat commercial starring a child as Darth Vader, wielding his Sith powers, was the No. 1 ranked commercial, according to research.
?Deutsch LA?s creative team for Volkswagen for two years in a row has topped our ranking? stated Dr. Stephen Sands, Chairman and Chief Science Officer at Sands Research. ?Last year Deutsch created Volkswagen?s ?Punch Dub? which was our top scorer for Super Bowl XLIV and this year their Darth Vader advertisement elicited such a strong emotional response it ranks as the highest we have ever tested.?
The 2011 results were compiled using electroencephalography (EEG) recordings and eye-tracking data gathered from a national sample of study participants to measure overall engagement and emotional response to the annual advertising event.
Participants in the annual Sands Research Super Bowl Ad Neuromarketing Study wear an EEG cap and view the commercials on the SensorMotoric Instruments (SMI) eye-tracking system. This allows Sands to record each viewer?s non-verbal brain response on a millisecond by millisecond basis and sync exactly where and at what level their attention is at that millisecond. This methodology allows a much more granular level analysis of the Super Bowl Ads compared to the simple Ad Meter type measurements used by USA Today and others.
Using its proprietary Neuro Engagement Score (NES)?, the company ranked these spots and 69 other commercials. The top six ads, their creative agency and respective scores are as follows:
No. 1: Volkswagen ? Darth Vader / Deutsch LA (6.36) No. Paramount Pictures ? Captain America / In-House (5.13) No. Chevrolet – Volt Discovery / Goodby Silverstein & Partners (4.96) No.: Volkswagen ? Black Beetle / Deutsch LA (4.91) No. Universal Pictures ? Fast Five / In-House (4.87) No. Pepsi Max ? Love Hurts / Independent (4.74)
Bottom three ads are as follows: No.: Stella Artois ? Crying Jean / Mother – (2.69) No.: Salesforce.com – Chatter.com / Dipdive (3.13) No.: Sealy ? After Glow / Leo Burnett (3.26)
This year?s Super Bowl Study allowed Sands Research to showcase their new copyrighted report format. The new format for copytesting provides a timeline for simultaneous display of the Neuro Engagement Score (NES) and Emotional Valence Score (EVS) plus the eye-tracking data overlaid on the actual commercial.
?As you will see in the Volkswagen ad, the positive and negative emotional response flows with the commercial and ends on an extremely positive point,? said Dr. Sands. ?By creating an engaging and emotional storyline with strong positive response, viewers were extensively engaged and strongly recalled the spot and more importantly, specifically recalled the brand associated with the commercial. Too often that correlation is lost and key branding moments are missed.?
Full rankings, videos of the highest scoring 2011 Super Bowl commercials, and past year?s results are available at http://www.sandsresearch.com/SBXLVMain.aspx
