Varying responses to TV advertising in Riyadh and Jeddah - Part 3

Our final step was a statistical validation of our initial hypotheses. We ran a Regression Analysis on all 50+ ad concepts we had tested.

The first run was at an aggregate country level:

• Drivers of Commitment: 6 variables were significant - only one of them was a Bonding aspect, all others were Attention variables. Therefore, Attention is a more critical feature.

• Drivers of Attention: Results were similar - pointing to the importance of Attention in the overall effectiveness of any advertising to these audiences.

• Drivers of Bonding: Only Brand News and Persuasion were significant.

The data was then run by each location.

RIYADH RESULTS:

• Drivers of Commitment: Brand Fit, User Identification and Attention were most important. Followed by Wearout.

• Drivers of Attention: The results supported our hypothesis that Riyadh audiences are driven more by softer, bonding values.

• Drivers of Bonding: Brand News, Brand Empathy and Warmth were the most significant contributors.

JEDDAH RESULTS:

• Drivers of Commitment: Attention, Warmth, Bonding and Persuasion were most significant.

• Drivers of Attention: Our hypothesis that Jeddah looks for product news and differentiation was corroborated.

• Drivers of Bonding: Included Brand News, Brand Differentiation and Persuasion - all pointing to more of a rational interest amongst Jeddah audiences.

So with the help of this statistical analysis, we were able to identify what could possibly be important elements in the making of creative, and more importantly, effective ads for the two main metros of Saudi Arabia.

Our analysis shows that brands need to communicate a point of difference - and in most cases this still needs to be rational. Jeddah audiences specifically look for such brand differentiation and are not easily convinced by softer aspects.

But there is a need to balance rational product claims with an emotional and relevant message content. There must be a fine balance between product features and user imagery/identification- if the ad overemphasizes on product, it may be unable to create sufficient empathy. Simply put, ads need to creatively and innovatively communicate a point of difference and slowly move towards establishing an emotional bond with the audience. And, messages need to be clear, relevant, focused and unambiguous.

Finally, it is worth commenting on gender differences. We all know that 'Men Are From Mars and Women Are From Venus.' This difference impacts to some extent their responses to advertising. On the Attention statements, females are likely to be more positive to any ad than males. For Bonding also, they are likely to be slightly more positive. Therefore, during copy testing, clients should expect slightly lower scores for males. This might be due to greater product involvement or experience than any intrinsic bias - but that is a subject for another day.