Television advertisements which evoke emotion are more readily remembered than those which do not, a University of South Africa Bureau of Market Research study has found.

"The fact remains that emotions play a fundamental part in decision-making," the BMR said in releasing its findings on Thursday.

The television advertisements remembered were those which evoked primary emotions — non-conscious pleasurable or repulsive states of arousal.

Many people found it difficult to admit they were not in full control of their decisions, said BMR research Professor Pierre Joubert.

This was especially the case for television advertising, where promoting an image or general perception, rather than functional attributes, was commonly used.

The study investigated the influence of emotions in 200 television advertisements.

Emotions largely present in 25 percent of the most emotive advertisements included contentment (pleasure) and surprise (amazement, astonishment).

These advertisements were also likely to reflect a warm or caring, cute or adorable, happy or fun-loving, relaxed or comfortable, cool or laid-back and conservative or traditional tone, said Joubert.

Emotional advertisements were also associated with gentle, honest, relaxing, positive, warm, calming and caring feelings.

The study showed that emotive advertisements differed from less emotive advertisements by displaying lower levels of familiarity.

Viewers were therefore less likely to become accustomed to more emotive advertisements.

They also tended to include more devices displaying scenic beauty, established "brand cues", children, animals and vignettes, but fewer auditory devices with spoken taglines.

"Appeals and propositions that attempt to differentiate brands from competitors, or introduce new features or variants, are significantly more common in less emotive television advertisements, while social responsibility appeals are present in more emotive advertisements," said Joubert.

"Furthermore, emotive television advertisements also tend to use significantly more music linked to the main message to create an overall positive mood."

He said there tended to be significantly fewer emotive advertisements for smaller brands, and that less emotive advertisements provide more product attribute information.

Emotive advertisements tended to show either the product or brand infrequently or at the end of the advertisement.

Sapa