‘Timing is everything’ holds true in much of life, and producing well-branded advertising is no exception. When it comes to video ads, the worst thing you can do is wait until the end to introduce your brand or its distinctive brand assets.
Studies1 of brain activity have identified a phenomenon termed ‘conceptual closure’: one to two second drops in attention and long-term memory encoding at event boundaries, e.g., often the conclusion of a little mini-story, or in some cases signaled by audio cues. In ads, event boundaries constitute anything that suggests the end of an event, for example the screen changing to a uniform color, a piece of music coming to an end, or a rear view of a car driving away. Anything that suggests the end of the ad is coming will trigger ‘conceptual closure’.
Once ‘conceptual closure’ is triggered, consumers start processing the information they just took in and are no longer taking in new information. If the brand is only introduced at the end of the ad, chances are very strong that the brand will be completely missed.
Leveraging distinctive brand assets such as spokespeople or logos throughout the full ad, instead of just as book ends, can go a long way towards making sure your brand gets credit. More information on the importance of building brand linkage can be found here: The Story of the Lost Brand.
If creating memorable taglines is your goal, make sure the tagline brings the story to a close in a way that’s meaningful to consumers and that the tagline is part of the overall story being told. This way, you’ll help to ensure that the tagline doesn’t get lost in the moments of conceptual closure.
Examples such as Arby’s ‘We have the meats’, Rice Crispies’ ‘Snap! Crackle! Pop!, or Meow Mix’s ‘The only one cats ask for by name’ are a few examples where the tagline leverages what’s unique about the brand and brings that story to its conclusion.
In contrast, the auto industry has struggled with creating meaningful and memorable taglines as they are often introduced at the very end after the story has already come to an end. ‘Progress is Never Satisfied’, ‘Let’s Go Places’, ‘Above and Beyond’ and ‘Give it Everything’ are just a few of the taglines currently in market. How many do you remember, and do you know which brands these are for?
Ultimately, neither the brand nor the tagline should be a surprise. Although if you wait too long, it’s a surprise that may never even register.
1 Silberstein, Richard B., Nield, Geoffrey, Pynta, Peter, Seixas, Shaun. Conceptual Closure: The impact of event boundaries on long-term memory encoding and advertising effectiveness. ESOMAR, 2015.
Kathleen Coll Senior Account Director
