Emotion-Based Ad Targeting in QSR Environment

Artificial Intelligence is not normally associated with emotion, but PMG recently partnered with Wurl to use their AI-powered emotion targeting to align their clients' QSR ads with content that conveyed emotions related to hunger and cravings. The result: PMG found was a 40 percent increase in incremental store visits and 48 percent lift in incremental sales. 

For a deeper dive, Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine turned to Pete Crofut, VP, Business Development – Agencies & Brands for Wurl, which uses Connected TV to reach potential consumers.

What is AI-powered emotional targeting?

AI-powered emotional targeting is the ability for advertisers to use artificial intelligence in order to precisely match the emotional tone of their ads with the emotional tone of the programming being shown on a TV screen.

Why emotion? As the biggest screen in the home and largely non-skippable environment, Connected TV offers a huge opportunity for advertisers to build positive attention with viewers, but only if done right. By aligning an ad’s emotion to the content’s emotion, brands can meet viewers where they already are in the right context, improving memorability and engagement.

By aligning an ad’s emotion to the content’s emotion, brands can meet viewers where they already are in the right context, improving memorability and engagement.

Imagine you are watching an animated kids film that would be deemed a light-hearted comedy by typical standards, but a particularly sad scene has just occurred (we can think of the opening scene of the movie “Up” as a good example). A loud and upbeat commercial depicting people dancing as they shop for jeans would likely be a jarring experience for the viewer who just watched that heartfelt and tear-jerking moment onscreen between Carl and his wife. This is where GenAI-based emotional targeting comes into play, giving advertisers the ability to target down to the scene level to ensure their ads are showing up in the best context for the viewer.

In what ways is AI-powered emotional targeting being used to help QSRs? What is the effect on sales?

While many verticals are feeling the effects of today’s economic pressures on their businesses, QSR brands, especially, find themselves in a tough position as they try to juggle the rising costs of doing business with customer expectations and loyalty. McDonald’s is just the latest example of a quick-service restaurant dealing with customer pullback as a result of raising their menu prices.

Now more than ever, marketing is playing an important role in QSRs’ strategies to combat customer withdrawal and rebuild brand loyalty. This is where emotional targeting on CTV comes in as a creative and effective new strategy that can help companies reconnect with consumers and attract new ones. A November 2022 report found that 92 percent of ad-supported CTV viewers visited a QSR in the previous six months from the date the study was conducted, suggesting CTV audiences are primed and ready to engage with these brands on the big screen.

One example of this in action can be seen with the agency PMG, who used emotion-based targeting for their QSR client’s campaign. By aligning their client’s product with the right emotions – specifically, targeting emotions related to craving and hunger – PMG improved the resonance of their food advertising, leading to a significant increase in in-store visit and sales for the QSR brand.

What kind of content from a brand most often resonates with guests on an emotional level and how/does it differ generationally, by gender, etc.?

With emotion-based contextual targeting, we’re looking specifically at what’s happening on screen in order to determine the best ad that will create the best experience for the viewer. It isn’t necessarily that happy ads resonate better with viewers versus heartfelt, emotional, or “sad” ads, but rather, the context in which those ads appear needs to be aligned.

With every campaign and test, we’re constantly learning about how different emotions resonate with different audiences and ultimately drive different outcomes.

Already we’ve experienced a lot of interesting learnings from the campaigns we’ve run. For example, in a campaign with Monks for one of their financial services clients, we targeted “Millennial Moms” and guessed that a “high joy” emotion would be the one to motivate them to take a specific action. What we discovered through testing, however, was that “anger” as an emotion also drove behavior for this group. In a similar vein with the PMG example mentioned above, we specifically looked to align their QSR client’s ads with content that conveyed emotions related to hunger and cravings, and ultimately discovered that feelings of “high joy” and “anticipation” served as precursors to hunger. 

With every campaign and test, we’re constantly learning about how different emotions resonate with different audiences and ultimately drive different outcomes.

How should brands be using GenAI targeting to better engage with guests and build loyalty?

With GenAI, brands today have the ability to target at scale across connected TV like never before. Specifically, targeting audiences based on emotions has only become possible thanks to technologies like GenAI that can be used to determine the emotional “score” of an ad and subsequently place it in the best possible context on screen to captivate an audience.

To better engage with customers and build loyalty, brands are increasingly focusing on how they can create impactful moments with their audiences – and creating those moments can only happen by first capturing people’s attention. With GenAI-based emotion targeting, brands can reach viewers where they already are in the right mindset and right context to receive an ad’s message.

Ultimately, the goal is that by building an emotional connection over time, audiences will come to forever associate certain positive feelings with specific brands – leading to long-term customer loyalty.

Ultimately, the goal is that by building an emotional connection over time, audiences will come to forever associate certain positive feelings with specific brands – leading to long-term customer loyalty.

There still is some fear of AI, but do you anticipate it will dissipate as brands realize it can be a useful tool?

New ways of doing things always come with apprehension, understandably. We can zoom out from AI and look at the TV industry as a whole on this point, which has seen significant change over the past two decades with the shift from linear to streaming. Now, streaming accounts for a record 40 percent of U.S. TV usage.

Today the challenge has become making the case for advertisers on CTV. Even as viewership has flocked to streaming, fill rates have stalled as advertisers haven’t kept pace. Ultimately, in order for advertisers to invest more in CTV, ensuring the medium can drive real performance for their brands will be critical. And, while some hesitancy around the future of AI might still exist, there’s no doubt that the technology will be key in helping us get there.

With GenAI-based emotion targeting, CTV can prove itself as a highly targetable, measurable, and performance-driven channel that drives upper and lower-funnel outcomes for brands.