neurons

State of
Advertising 2023
Key Insights from

Neuromarketing Research
What You’ll Find in This Report
Note from the CEO

The yearly 'State of Advertising' report gives you actionable insights

for the advertising industry. All of which are filtered through the lens
of decades of experience in consumer neuroscience and validated
through extensive research.

Delve into this essential guide packed with valuable insights, distilling
our extensive neuromarketing research with hundreds of brands.

Our science and data teams have extracted actionable findings from
billions of behavioral data points collected from thousands of
consumers.

In this report, you’ll find all the latest takeaways from our vast
neuromarketing research across industries, to help you build a
smarter advertising strategy.

Every year, we collect and decode data using neuromarketing tools

like eye-tracking, EEG (brain scanning), and AI to understand
responses that underpin customer behavior. We run comprehensive Dr. Thomas Z. Ramsøy
studies with our clients to reveal the trends and patterns that define Neurons Founder & CEO
the state of advertising.

neurons 2
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Table of Contents

Executive Summary 5

Attention | Why Attention Matters in Advertising 7

Digital Ads | Context Is K ing for Digital Ads 13

Short Videos | How to Use Short Videos Effectively 17

AI in Advertising | AI Tricks To Make Content Work For You 22

Print Advertising | Why Print Still Has a Future In Advertising 26

Brand Experiences | How Brand Experiences Affect The Mind 28

Key Takeaways | Conclusions from Neuromarketing Research 32

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Executive Summary
Attention
With tracking options being phased out,
marketers cannot easily predict the
actions of their audiences. Instead,
they must leverage a finite commodity:
human attention.
Human attention is a very coherent and
universal behavior. Cultural differences
have close to no impact on visual
attention and it is similar across
genders. Attention is the gatekeeper for
customer decisions and is vital for
emotional responses to unfold.
have the highest brand recall.
showed stronger brand performance.
See why attention matters →
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Digital Ads
Digital ads are well-suited to contextual
advertising. Digital platforms sharing
the same topic as advertised brands
offer better performance, regardless of
brand familiarity. Yet, well-known and
less familiar brands should use different
strategies to stand out.
On websites, medium and large ads
capture the most attention and drive
emotions. However, larger ads are
perceived as intrusive and medium ads
The secret of context driven ads →
Short Videos
Short video apps are expected to drive
ad spend, signaling a shift in video
marketing. While the format is already
strong for capturing and maintaining
audience attention, its effects can be
strengthened by priming.
Pairing TikTok with TV or streaming lifts
brand attention (4-16%) and brand
memory (6-8%) but also boosts brand
likability (5-11%) and relevance (4-10%).
Priming TikTok by TV or streaming
How to use short videos effectively →
5
 AI in Advertising
The three major applications of AI are
high-level language, vision, and
prediction. The neuroscience and the AI
revolution made it possible to predict
customer behavior with AI and to do it
accurately in seconds.
AI models like Predict can now forecast
what people will notice and where they
will look in any ad or brand asset.
Visuals created by generative AI must
be tested and evaluated to determine
their advertising effectiveness.
are seen more often.
and are considered 16% less irritating.
AI tricks to make your content work →
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Print Advertising
7 out of 10 ads in newspapers are seen.
People spend more time viewing ads in
the press than on social media and
online. Ads in newspapers are easier to
understand and require a lower
cognitive effort than social media ads.
Copy and text are key for newspaper
ads, with 57% of readers viewing them
in print ads. Ad sizes, order, and area of
placement in newspapers also matter
for attention. Print ads within context
Why print ads can be still effective →
Brand Experiences
Brand experiences define brand
perception and associations.
Advertising across multiple platforms
elevates brand experiences, while
friction leads to negative emotions and
brand perception.
Pre-roll ads are the most irritating of all
video formats, yet they drive the
highest attention on mobile (40%).
However, in-banner ads drive attention
20% faster, are 15% more memorable,
How experiences affect perception → 
6
Attention
Attention is the ultimate commodity
throughout the entire customer journey
Brands that are household names today owe much of their success
to the ability to captivate the attention of the masses. While the
world of advertising is constantly evolving, the power of attention
remains constant.

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 The Attention Economy
As we navigate the dizzying array of media and information
available today, it's no secret that attention is a precious
commodity. In fact, attention has become the cornerstone of
the global economy, where companies leverage innovative
techniques to stand out from the crowd. This phenomenon is
known as the attention economy.
In this new economy, the global attention span is narrowing, and
trends don't last as long. On average, people are exposed to
between 6,000 and 10,000 advertisements in a single day, and
as the number of options increases, attention is lost quickly. On
top of that, we have limited bandwidth in how much information
our brains can process at the same time.

In the past, scheduled television programs made it easy for

advertisers to gauge prime times to capture viewers’ focus. Now,
when audience attention is scattered and tracking options like
third-party cookies are being phased out, it is much harder for
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companies to acquire the data they need to target their

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One consequence of these changes is that marketers cannot
easily anticipate the actions of their audiences. Instead, they
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must understand and predict attention to guide effective
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Debunking Myths Around Attention 
Human attention is a very coherent and universal behavior.
While we all have our unique quirks and preferences, we respond
to visual information like videos and ads in similar ways. We tend
to look at faces first. We also look more at recognizable brands
than unknown ones.
Attention is the first of many important unconscious steps on
the customer's decision-making journey in any situation, from
reading a blog post to investing in a new house. That is why we
at Neurons developed accessible tools to measure and
understand customer attention.

While measuring and predicting customer behavior, it is critical

for us to understand what affects the responses we quantify
and also to have a holistic view of our AI model that learns from
this data.

Clarity 61%
To assess the issue of potential biases in the work we do and
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
the models we build, we ran a series of experiments. In these
studies, we looked at similarities and differences between
cultures and genders in terms of attention. Here are the key
findings.

Brand: 34%

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Cultural Differences Have Close to No Impact
To date, we have a poor understanding of the regional
differences in consumer responses to ads and other branded
assets. We ran a global eye-tracking study to test whether
different regions around the globe show differences in attention.
Key Takeaways
There are no significant cultural differences in where and
what people pay attention to when viewing ads and images.

We found that attention to different areas, such as brand,

product, and text, are highly similar across regions.
A total of 177 participants, 87 males and 90 females with an age
range from 18 to 55 from 5 countries (i.e., Denmark, USA, Brazil,
Guatemala, and Iran) were exposed to 180 images divided into There are minor regional differences in attention to specific
six categories, namely websites, packaging, social media ads, types of content, but overall attention is highly comparable
static ads, and general images as well as video ads.

across the globe.

All participants were exposed to each image in a randomized

manner without having any particular task. While viewing the
images and videos on a screen, participants’ eye movements 3.0
BR
and gaze were recorded (5-second exposure) using an eye DK
tracker device (screen-based Tobii Pro Nano eye tracker). 2.5 GT
IR
US
2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

Branding Product AdTest AOI CTA Creative

There are no significant cultural differences in where and what people pay attention to in
advertising materials. (Study conducted in 5 countries namely BR = Brazil,

DK = Denmark, GT = Guatemala, IR = Iran, and US = USA).
Brazil Guatemala Iran

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Visual Attention Is Similar Across Genders Key Takeaways
The widespread belief that men and women respond to visual Men and women show no differences in attention to images.
stimuli differently has led to gender-specific communication
strategies in advertising and marketing. We challenged this The correlation coefficient between male and female
assumption with eye-tracking heatmap analyses.

versions of eye-tracking heatmaps was an average of 97%.

For this research study, we analyzed the data* from our previous This means that men and women respond extremely similarly
global eye-tracking study on cultural differences. We created to image ads.
heatmaps representing the concentration of visual attention for
each image across each group.

We then compared them on a pixel-by-pixel level using three

different metrics (i.e., KL divergence, Similarity score, Correlation
coefficient) usually used to assess the similarity of heatmaps.

Female
Male-Female eye-tracking heatmap comparisson for different categories of stimuli
1

0.98

0.96
Correlation coefficient

0.94

0.92

Male
0.9

0.88

0.86 Packaging Static Ads Desktop Website Mobile Website Other SoMe Ads
Stimuli categories

Correlation coefficient between men and women for different types of image categories. The box plot Heatmaps on a static ad show a very high correlation between
denotes the median (middle line), upper and lower quartile (box top and bottom), upper and lower female (top) and male (bottom) participants.
extreme (whiskers), and outliers (data points).

neurons *This is a preliminary study conducted on cisgender male and female participants. 11
Attention and Emotion 
Attention is only the beginning of successful marketing. Creative
ads are meant to affect us emotionally and move us in a way we
won’t soon forget. To be effective, brands must also consider
evoking emotional responses that help boost brand awareness
The research, which is the largest of its kind, revealed the
human brain needs only 400 milliseconds (less than ½ a second)
to engage with mobile advertising and trigger an imprint,
positive or negative.

and brand memory.

For example, a viral ad usually uses humor, novelty, or
sensationalism to live in our subconscious until we are
presented with a buying opportunity. At that point, the emotion
we felt when we watched the ad comes back and influences our
on-the-spot decision.
By the time a consumer blinks, their brain has already seen and
processed a mobile ad. And more so, by the time it takes for
their heart to beat once, they likely have formed an emotional
response (under 700 milliseconds).

To measure how emotions unfold in our minds, we tested 24

ads and 15 organic posts on all major social media platforms,
with over 900 participants using mobile eye-tracking, EEG brain
monitoring, and additional survey methods.

400 Milliseconds 700 Milliseconds 1000 Milliseconds

67% of all ads capture viewer
attention within 400ms. Attention
recognition response
leads to emotional and cognitive
responses later on.
Ads start to evoke processing 50% of all ads produce an
responses that can be traced as emotional
emotional and cognitive memory when they are seen for a second or
responses later on. more.

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Digital Ads
Why is context king in the future of
 Sponsored

digital advertising?
For the greatest impact, every marketer must consider the context
€25
Off
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%
their digital ads are running in. A YouTube commercial might allow
you to lock your audience’s attention for longer than a TikTok ad

%
would, merely because of contextual factors.

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Why Context Matters in Online Advertising

Have you ever visited a website and noticed that the ads

appearing on it were eerily relevant to the content you were

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advertising in action.

Digital ads are particularly well-suited to contextual advertising, x

as they can leverage the power of algorithms that deliver the

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neurons 14
Use the Halo Effect to Your Advantage

Contextual advertising strategies build upon a cognitive We found that when ads are displayed in context, they
phenomenon called the halo effect. The halo effect leads us to outperform other ads placed alongside content that does not
carry over positive or negative impressions of people, brands, or share the same intent. For novel brands, the directory site we
products from one area to another. This is a form of cognitive used was a classified ads type site - such as eBay, where
bias that can cause judgment without reason.
everything is novel, so familiar brands are less important.

Advertisers can reinforce their online advertising by taking On top of that, knowledge-based platforms like news sites
advantage of the halo effect. Our research shows that digital performed better for familiar brands, while directory-based
platforms sharing the same content as advertised brands sites drove better results for novel brands.

perform better, regardless of brand familiarity.

For example, when visiting a platform like Facebook,

We measured customer attention, brand memory, perception, expectations drive greater attention, perception, and behavior to
and implicit associations for three brand types (familiar, less ads matching such expectations. On the other hand, if you are
familiar, and novel) shown on four digital platforms (well-known searching for a recipe and land on a food website, you will be
news site, food website, Facebook, and directory/info site). more open to contextual ads from novel brands.

Tips to run ads in context for well-known brand Tips to run ads in context for less familiar brand

Make ads that stand out visuall

Place ads in context & instantly increase viewing tim

Visual power is the gatekeeper of brand perceptio

Boost visual power to strengthen brand memor

Establish a functional connection to digital context

Create a connection between context and your bran

Use familiar platforms to build brand perception

Take advantage of the halo effect of news sites

neurons 15
Ad Size and Position
Aligning ad format with advertising goals can also increase the
effectiveness of contextual advertising. Characteristics like ad
size, position, and format can impact attention to the ad and
affect brand memory.
We ran a research study with a major ad and PR company using
brain scanning (EEG), eye-tracking, and surveys to assess online
ad placement and sizes. The research focus on behavioral
metrics like attention, emotional reaction and memory, but also
brand metrics such as liking, relevancy, willingness to buy.

Key Takeaways
Ad 1 Medium & large website ads get the most attention
Top banner
They also drive higher emotional reactions
Global Leaders Meet to Discuss Climate Change
Crisis and Solutions Larger ads are perceived as intrusive
Ad 3 Ad 7 Ad 2 Medium ads have the highest brand recall
Left
In stream video
Right

Banner
Constantly in
Top Banner
Constantly in
Recognizable brands get more attention
view view

Unfamiliar brands get longer view times

Leaders from around the world have gathered
in a historic summit to address the growing
Ad 4
climate change crisis.

Right Centre

The summit, which is being held virtually, aims Banner

to find solutions to the unprecedented
challenges posed by the warming planet.

% Seen
Small 54.5 sec Large 55.2 sec Medium 77.7 sec
Ad 5
Right Centre

Banner Small 1.2 sec S M Large 1.7 sec Medium 9.2 sec
L
Time to first
fixation (sec)
With increasing extreme weather events, rising
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
sea levels, and melting ice caps, the stakes for
action have never been higher.

Ad 6
Leaders are expected to discuss new policies,
technologies, and initiatives to reduce carbon
Right Centre

emissions, transition to clean energy, and

protect vulnerable communities from the
Banner Total fixation
impacts of climate change.
Stays in view duration (sec) Small 0.96 sec Large 1.43 sec Medium 1.57 sec
0 1 sec 2 sec
The world is looking to this summit for bold
and ambitious action, and the outcomes of the
discussions will have far-reaching implications 8,0%
for generations to come.

3,3%
% Relative Time 1,2%
Spent *Medium ads are constantly in view
Ad 5
In stream video

bottom

Small medium large

neurons 16
Short Videos
Short videos are at the center of

the Internet's attention

Brand familiarity built by priming, engagement, and creativity are the

key ingredients to capturing audiences' undivided attention with
short-form videos.

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The Rise of Short-Form Videos
Short-form videos have burst onto the scene as a versatile
medium that provides an engaging way to connect with
audiences. Whether a quick tutorial, behind-the-scenes footage,
or a product showcase, the 15-second to 2-minute format sponsored
videos are perfect for capturing viewers' attention.

From TikTok to Snapchat, Instagram Reels to YouTube Shorts,

and Facebook Stories, short-form videos have found a home in
the most popular social media channels. It has quickly become
the go-to format for capturing mobile attention. In fact, short The 15-second to 2-minute
video apps are expected to drive ad spend, signaling a shift in format videos are perfect for
capturing viewers' attention.
how marketers approach video marketing1.

While the format is already strong for capturing and maintaining

attention, its effects can be strengthened further. Brands can
have a significant impact on brand awareness and likability with
a fluid video marketing strategy that combines channels like TV
with TikTok.

As consumer attention continues to expand across platforms, Video ads are

brands that embrace reflective multimedia strategies are seeing twice as likely to
big results. Our findings working directly with TikTok show the create emotional
latest strategies for winning in the attention economy. response!

neurons 1Data.ai - State of Mobile 2023 18

Attention Priming with Short Videos
TV broadcasting, TikTok, and streaming services all provide
When participants saw a brand on TikTok before TV,
marketing opportunities on their own. But our research with the brand received:
TikTok suggests that brands can compound their success by
combining these channels into a fluid video marketing strategy.

A 4% lift in visual attention to branding moments

A 6% lift in aided brand recall

We set out a research study to understand how advertising seen
on different platforms (TikTok, TV, & Streaming) impacts viewers.
We measured the priming effects that exist when they are used When participants saw a brand on TikTok before a
in combination.

streaming service, the brand got:

A 7% lift in visual attention to product moments

Participants in this study who were primed by content on TikTok An 8% lift in aided brand recall
paid more attention to brand cues like product shots or branding
when they saw them later on TV or streaming services.

+500

545.6K
Brand Name

143

neurons 2132
19
There is a similar trend when TikTok is paired in a different order. The below results show that pairing the TikTok algorithm with TV
Participants showed an even higher lift in attention when they or streaming services doesn't only lift awareness, attention, and
first saw a brand on TV or a streaming service, then saw that engagement but also boosts brand likability and relevance.

same brand on TikTok.

When participants saw a brand on TV followed by If a brand is on both TV and TikTok, they’re subject to a lift in
TikTok, the brand got: positive brand perceptions
A 16% lift in visual attention to key branding moments

A 13% lift in visual attention to key product moments +4% +5%

”TikTok ads feeling relevant to me.” Lift in TikTok ads feeling “likeable”
If a brand is on both Streaming and TikTok, more positive results.
When they saw a brand on a streaming service,
followed by TikTok, the brand got: +10% +11%
”This brand is for me.” “This brand’s ads are likeable”
A 13% lift in visual attention to key product moments

A 9% lift in visual attention to key branding moments Source: TikTok Marketing Science US Cross-Platform Study contdcted by Neurons

TV
TVAD
AD

545.6K
Brand Name

neurons 143

20
Advertising on TikTok
By capturing attention via storytelling, brands are simultaneously
forming connections with the TikTok audience—connections that Brand Recall 3 weeks after exposure
drive stronger brand affinity, brand memory, and brand equity.

This uptick in brand-building activity proves that ads on TikTok

do more than just capture attention—they garner sustained,
business-driving interest.

49% 42%
Both by itself and when coupled with other platforms, ad
performance on TikTok is bolstered by preceding content.

We found a 27% increase in aided brand recall when users
 Unaided
saw brands' organic TikTok content before paid ads.

This spark in attention can be partly attributed to how

seamlessly paid ads fit into the platform, with users saying that
after just two exposures, paid ads interfered less with their
TikTok experience.
62% 55%

Aided

TikTok Other

Source: TikTok Marketing Science Global Ad Attention &

Brand Building Research Study conducted by Neurons

neurons 21
 your company

AI in Advertising Product: 14%

AI has taken advertising by storm and

continues to reshape marketing

The recent explosion of AI created a frenzied interest in its

unparalleled capabilities. The three major applications of AI in
advertising are high-level language, vision, and prediction.

neurons 22
AI Has Entered The Chat
If you are suddenly jumping into learning about AI, you are
A recent example is the AI chatbot GPT, which generated a
not alone. AI adoption is expected to skyrocket with the infusion
million users within five days of its November 2022 launch and
of AI into easy-to-use tools.

led thousands to flood social media with content discussing AI

and its implications. AI-generated copy, images, and videos are
AI democratization will continue, and generative AI tools and transforming content marketing and communications.

best practices will become more sophisticated, speeding up the

process of marketing campaigns, reducing costs, and improving In advertising, AI offers many benefits. It helps brands create
efficiency. better content, automate marketing tasks, and predict customer
behavior, just to name a few ways creatives and businesses
already adopt AI.

How can I help

you today?

neurons 23
Lesser-Known Capabilities of AI

Two major revolutions - the neuroscience and the AI revolution - Predicting View Time Spent on Ads

made it possible to predict customer behavior with AI and to do

Predict’s Cognitive Demand score indicates how complex or
it accurately in seconds. AI models like Predict can now forecast
difficult an image is to process on a cognitive level. It is
what people will notice and where they will look in any ad or
predictive of the actual amount of time a people spend viewing
brand asset.

creatives like a social media post. 

Here are some key findings on the lesser-known capabilities of

Our research shows that in natural viewing circumstances,
AI that revolutionize asset design, marketing strategies, and
customers spend little time viewing ads. There is a sharp drop-
brand experiences.
off in the percentage of viewing an ad over time, i.e. images that

require more processing time are not entirely viewed. It is

Revealing Ideal Benchmarks For Visual Assets therefore important to keep the Cognitive Demand score low in

order to boost recall on desired portions of an ad.

To put the human experience at the center of the AI revolution,

Predict AI is capable of calculating the typical range of

behavioral metrics i.e., Focus, Cognitive Demand, Clarity, and
Engagement, for any static visual asset. This allows clients to
compare creatives to industry standards in no time.

Brand: 7%

Engagement 69%
Visuals: 25%
44-67%

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

neurons 24
Generative AI Needs Predictive AI

AI is widely used in advertising for its ability to generate data, We found that the packages performed differently in terms of

create fascinating images from short text prompts, and write

attention, appeal, and other key behavioral aspects. Looking at

high-converting copy. The abundance of options may seem like the Areas of Interest (AOI) scores of how attention was

a surefire way to improve performance. However, it is important distributed to specific items, some interesting differences

to remember that simply generating more content does not appear. For example, if building brand awareness and driving

equate to better results.

attention to the brand is the goal, design #3 works the best. But

if the product description and package information is more

In order to truly determine the effectiveness of generative AI important, design #2 is the winner.

designs, they must be tested and evaluated. To demonstrate

this, we tested four different cereal packaging designs created These findings highlight the importance of testing generative AI

around the same color theme and used Midjourney to generate designs to determine which is more likely to drive the best

the images. We then used Predict AI to predict consumer results. At the very core, these insights do not come

responses to the packaging designs. automatically with the generative AI results themselves.

25%

20,5%

20%

16,0%
15,4%
14,9%

15%

1 2

10% 9,0%
8,5% 8,4%

4,8%
5% 4,4%

2,4%

0,3% 0,6%

0%
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

3 4 Brand Product Info

neurons 25
 NEWS

Print Advertising Ad

Ad
Print still has a place

in the future of advertising

Despite the fact that print advertising is dropping in preference for

advertisers, it is an effective medium to make a lasting impression buy 1

with your brand. 

get 1
Brand
free

neurons 26
 More Time Spent on Print Ads Ads in Context Are Seen More

Based on an eye-tracking research study on print advertising
that focused on newspaper ads, we found that 7 out of 10 ads in
newspapers are seen. People also spend more time viewing ads
in the press than on social media and online. Ads in newspapers
are easier to understand and require a lower cognitive effort
The positive effects of contextual advertising are also present in
newspaper ads. We found that print ads within context are seen
more often (related to the surrounding article, column, etc.), and
people spend more time on them than ads presented outside
their context.

than ads in social media.

Creating ads in the right context drives higher attention for

Copy and text are key for newspaper ads, with 57% of brands and builds stronger emotions. Full-page ads work best
participants viewing them in print ads. Order and area of if they tell compelling stories with a medium amount of text
placement in the newspaper also matter for attention, while while giving space for product and brand exposure.

different ad sizes work for different purposes. We found that

newspaper ads work well to generate attention, emotional
connections, and memory, depending on advertising objectives.

Attention Matters to Brand Memory

3572
Newspapers
We also measured how well participants remembered the ads.
Digital
Readers had to list all the brands they could recall seeing after
Seconds / 1.000 Exposures

reading newspapers.

2160
2046
Only 29% of readers actually saw and recognized the brand
behind the ads. We also found that integrating the brand into the
1406
story of the ads leads to higher brand memory and motivation
957 to buy. Ads optimized for digital channels fail in physical
501 newspapers since no one recalled brands that ran banner ads in
the paper.

Instagram Facebook Newspaper Full page YouTube Backpage full

neurons 27
 19

Brand Experiences
Empower your customers, and don't let

bad experiences damage your brand

Brand experiences define brand perception and associations. Cross-

channel advertising elevates brand experiences, while friction leads
to negative emotions and brand perception.

35

neurons 28
Brand Lift with Cross-Channel Advertising
Advertising across multiple platforms can elevate brand When consumers are exposed to ads
experiences. For example, our studies showed that when on TikTok and and TV, it results in:
audiences see ads on TikTok and traditional TV, people pay more

+13%
attention to branding moments and find ads more likable and
relevant. As a result, they perceive the advertised brand more
positively.

TikTok also drives 27% faster attention toward branding

elements compared to TV and streaming services. Seeing Increase in ad memorability
brands on TikTok prior to TV and streaming makes viewers find (detailed memory)
ads 4% more engaging and 9% less intrusive. TV and streaming
prime TikTok advertising by driving 5% more attention towards

+11%
the ads and 7% more positive brand perceptions.

Increase in narrative

(global memory)

+12%
+

+
Increase in engagement

(personal memory)
Source: TikTok Marketing Science Global Cross
Platform Research Study conducted by Neurons
+

neurons 29
Video Ads and Irritability
More people are getting increasingly irritated by advertising,
according to a Mindshare study1. Online video is found to be the
most irritating of all formats. Irritation can lead to negative brand
experiences that damage brand perception.
drives the highest attention on mobile.
In a mobile-first world where video is king, it's essential to
understand how different video ads affect viewer attention and
irritation. We set out to compare how the two major types of
video ads (i.e., pre-roll and banner ads) perform when viewed on
mobile
Pre-roll video ads are short promotional videos that play
before the content you want to see
In-banner video ads are video ads activated within a
standard display banner on a webpage
Tips to make efficient in-banner video ads for mobil
Use self-explanatory visual
Draw a linear narrativ
Convey just one messag
Ensure a consistent brand placement
neurons 1Reklameanalysen 2022 - by Mindshare
We found that in-banner ads perform more effectively than pre-
roll ads for certain types of advertisements. The pre-roll ad
format is the most irritating of all video formats, yet it also
Despite pre-roll ads being noticed 40% more, in-banner ads
drive attention 20% faster, are 15% more memorable, and are
considered 16% less irritating. Pre-roll ads are however
beneficial for commercials that convey a high amount of relevant
information.
Different video ad formats can be used for specific purposes
and designs. When designing your communication strategy
make sure to choose the ad format that better suits your
advertising purpose and structure to maximize ad attention and
brand perceptions.
Tips to max performance with pre-roll mobile ad
Align visuals and audio to convey complex informatio
Present the product solution in the first scene
Consider brand and CTA placement in key area
Set the purpose before choosing this format
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Friction Leads to Negative Experiences
Every new step or delay is a chance for customers to abandon
their journey. Clearly, friction is an obstacle to customer success
- the more obstacles you provide for seeing and purchasing your
product or service, the less likely it is seen or chosen. Friction
leads to stress, frustration, and negative brand experiences.
We conducted a series of studies on the effects of friction
during the customer journey, testing the impact of mobile delays
on customer responses. Using eye-tracking to measure visual
attention to the content and EEG brain monitoring to measure
emotional and cognitive brain responses, we intentionally
created experiences with varying levels of delays on the phone.
Participants were asked to perform tasks on the phone, such as
visiting a website or watching video content.

Firstly, we found that mobile delays lead to a strong emotional

and cognitive response, comparable to watching a horror movie.
Cognitive load associated with stressful situations Secondly, mobile delays also lead to negative experiences
connected to the content on the website or video. We also found
1 that brands that were associated with this bad experience – the
phone, the brand in an ad, or the network provider – would take
0.9
a hit on brand emotions and trust.
0.8

0.7

0.6

0.5

0.4 The level of stress caused by

0.3 mobile delays is comparable to
watching a horror movie.
0.2

0.1

Waiting in line at Watching a Standing at the Watching a horror Experiencing Solving a math
retail store melodramatic TV edge of a virtual movie mobile delays problem
show cliff

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Key Takeaways from Neuromarketing Research
Behavioral insights are powerful in easing the uncertainty
surrounding the attention economy. Businesses can make better
decisions on how and where to invest their marketing resources
once they truly understand what motivates consumers.
Neuromarketing and the science of predictability offer many
untapped marketing opportunities.

Investing in neuromarketing tools and consumer behavior

research is essential to winning in the attention economy. The
emergence of new technologies, particularly predictive AI, has
played a massive role in transforming how teams work, make
decisions, and optimize creative assets.

Amid these turbulent changes, it's easy to overlook traditional

media like TV and newspapers in favor of newer platforms.
However, businesses that discount these channels are missing
out on valuable opportunities to reach a broader audience and
lock viewer attention.

Striking a balance between old and new can maximize reach

and engagement, making both print and predictive AI effective
tools in the attention economy.

Vietnam Market Report & Marketing Research by CTO Vietnam Network

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