eBuzzing, a video advertising network, wanted to identify which content triggered the strongest emotional response of viewers and which emotions lead to an ad going viral.

Affdex for Market Research gathered over 2,600 participants’ spontaneous facial reactions, via webcam, and analyzed their emotional responses to 40 viral ads on YouTube — uncovering the link between respondents’ emotional engagement and social network shareability.

THE RESULTS

Affdex provided eBuzzing’s advertisers with deep moment-by-moment insights to optimize their viral ad campaigns.

The study found:

  • Emotional ads are 4x more likely to be shared
  • Video ads which make people smile are almost 5x more likely to lead to more that 10 million views on YouTube
  • Video ads with smart product placement are up to 3x more emotionally engaging than the norm
  • Smart brand reveals lead to 2x the attention
  • Video ads for movie sequals are 17% less engaging compared to the average movie trailer

Affectiva’s global normative database led eBuzzing to predict specific ads that would go viral, like Evian’s Baby & Me, based on their Affdex emotional engagement score.