Money Talks: 5 Insights from Financial Advertising Audience Data

Financial services is one of the biggest industries in the United States. It's also, not coincidentally, one of the biggest advertisers. Marketers advertising financial products spent $17.1 billion in 2016, which is predicted to rise to $19.7 billion in 2017. Was this advertising a sound investment? Most of the ads were undoubtedly tested with a variety of market research tools, including traditional advertising effectiveness techniques. But no one asked how well the audio in each ad actually evoked the emotions each company was aiming for. That’s because music and audio for advertising has resisted measurement — until now. The complexity and subjectivity of audio requires marketers to apply new tools and techniques to evaluate their effectiveness. Fortunately, advancements in technology and market research are enabling this type of insight. We applied Veritonic's patent-pending technology and methodology to test ads from 20 of America's largest financial institutions across retail banking, credit card, and investing segments. We measured emotional resonance and audience engagement across 8 different emotions from more than 3500 US Consumers. This report shares what we learned, including the critical role that aspirational storytelling plays in driving successful financial services advertising.

Methodology

20 diverse financial institutions were selected to represent difference sectors of the industry, including retail banking, credit card issuance, asset management, and online trading. Over 3500 panelists were surveyed in June, 2017. The panel was carefully modeled to reflect US Census-representative distributions of age, gender, ethnicity and race. Household income and data about a variety of other demographic and psychographic factors were also collected. Panelists were asked to record their emotions as the ads played. Panelists were then asked about a generalized basket of other feelings and associations the music and ads evoked. All emotions and engagement were tracked using Veritonic's patent-pending EchoTime™ technology. Finally, scores were calculated using a proprietary algorithm that combines emotional response, engagement, and Veritonic's EchoTime™ data.

Findings

What did we learn?

Results