The Surprising Way Slow Motion Video Changes Brand Perception

[00:00:00] It is Thursday, March 28th and today our agency is doing a full team offsite retreat so

[00:00:08] no regular episode but in its place some new data from the world of marketing science.

[00:00:15] There are a lot of things to consider when you make a product video or a promotional video

[00:00:19] for your company.

[00:00:20] Do you make it look polished or go with the amateur look popular on TikTok?

[00:00:25] Do we focus the viewer's attention or employ the one cut every second technique?

[00:00:31] Well add one more to the list whether you should show your products being used in slow motion.

[00:00:38] Anika Stuppi is an assistant professor of marketing at Tilburg University.

[00:00:42] She and her colleagues recently published some research looking at that very question

[00:00:46] and she joins me from our office in Düsseldorf, Germany.

[00:00:49] Dr. Stuppi welcome.

[00:00:50] Hi Tod thanks for having me.

[00:00:52] At all you studied how slow motion affects consumer behavior but what behavior exactly purchases

[00:01:01] sharing a warm fuzzy feeling?

[00:01:03] So we look at slow motion as mostly a social media phenomenon so we're interested really

[00:01:09] in behaviors related to sharing of videos, number of views, likes, commenting.

[00:01:18] So that is the predominant group of outcomes that we're looking at.

[00:01:24] But we were also interested in how slow motion might work to precision products.

[00:01:30] So in one of us or two in our studies actually we also measure how slow motion imagery makes

[00:01:36] a brand more likeable and increases consumers willingness to pay.

[00:01:40] I wasn't interested in that you had a number of experiments in your study and one in particular

[00:01:44] as you mentioned tested whether a brand or whether people liked a brand more after

[00:01:50] seeing videos from that brand in slow motion.

[00:01:52] I could see how it would be easy to study whether someone likes a product more because

[00:01:56] you just measure purchases or likes or shares but can you walk us through how that tested

[00:02:01] worked of how people like to brand more after seeing videos from that brand in slow motion

[00:02:08] and what you learned?

[00:02:10] Yes, so a really important phenomenon in marketing is that if you use images or music

[00:02:18] or just anything that create that positive emotions and people right and you put a brand

[00:02:23] right next to it or product right next to it these positive emotions kind of rub off on the

[00:02:29] product of the brand over time as you repeatedly show brand and the positive image for instance

[00:02:38] simultaneously so that is exactly what we did in that study too right so we show the slow motion

[00:02:43] videos off this was actually baseball players dunking together with the logo of the sports brand

[00:02:52] and over time.

[00:02:53] Do you mean basketball players?

[00:02:54] Yes, basketball players dunking right so in slow motion or in regular speed

[00:03:00] and then after we pair the brand and these videos for about six times we then measured liking

[00:03:06] for the brand and then we indeed find that brand liking is higher when slow motion videos were

[00:03:12] shown together with the brand because slow motion is pleasant to watch.

[00:03:18] And how did you test the connection with the brand in particular like how how did that experiment work?

[00:03:23] So participants were seeing on the computer screen the brand logo on one side and the video

[00:03:32] on the other side right and this was either slow motion or regular speed video which we varied

[00:03:39] from person to person right was randomly assigned in the experiment and then they had these

[00:03:44] exposure multiple times and then at the very end of the study we showed just the brand logo

[00:03:48] and asked people how much do you like this brand would you be interested in or willing to buy shoes

[00:03:54] of this brand and those measures showed that the slow motion increased brand liking and also

[00:04:02] willingness to pay for shoes of the brand.

[00:04:06] How did you control for people who may have just not liked that brand to begin with before they

[00:04:11] even walked into your experiment?

[00:04:13] So we used very unfamiliar brands to kind of eliminate that problem that people have prior

[00:04:20] to see Asians with a brand so these were very underdog European sneaker brands and we used an

[00:04:26] American panel to collect the data which didn't notice.

[00:04:31] Right, I see. So these are brands that they wouldn't have known ahead of time.

[00:04:35] That makes sense.

[00:04:35] Exactly.

[00:04:36] So that's the connection with brands.

[00:04:38] Let's talk about sort of the main area of your study which was when people see a marketing

[00:04:43] video in slow motion.

[00:04:45] How did that affect their behavior on social media with that actual piece of content with that video?

[00:04:52] Yes, so the context that we looked at was a gift sharing platform.

[00:04:58] So I'm saying gift not just I know this is the debate but I prefer to give

[00:05:04] and on this gift platform people could upload gifts and then share them comment like the gift

[00:05:13] and each gift has a tag attached to it which denotes the topic that is shown but also whether

[00:05:19] the video is at the gift is in slow motion for instance.

[00:05:22] Right, and what we could then do is we could basically look at the behavior of people

[00:05:32] the slow motion gifts right and the behavior that was associated with those and compare it

[00:05:36] with a number of control gifts that were not in slow motion.

[00:05:42] And that analysis kind of showed what we predicted right the slow motion gifts go more viral

[00:05:48] on this platform. People watch them more like them more, comment on them more.

[00:05:53] I know you tested gifts or gifs and not actual like promotional videos but do you think that

[00:05:58] there's a parallel? Do you think that your the results would have been the same if your study had

[00:06:03] studied people's experience with actual slow motion videos as opposed to slow motion gifs?

[00:06:11] Yes, absolutely. I think ultimately right slow motion is a tool that can make an ad more visually

[00:06:22] appealing right more aesthetically pleasing so what works for gifs should also work for

[00:06:28] for commercials. It's just harder to study this topic in the setting of commercials right because

[00:06:35] not that many around that use the slow motion effect and they're like big other differences between

[00:06:41] commercials right which brand is promoted etc. So the gift context was one where we could study

[00:06:48] this more easily and more cleanly. Was there a difference between different types of products

[00:06:54] being offered? Like I'm thinking would looking for an exciting ski adventure be different than

[00:07:00] someone wanting a relaxing spa vacation? Yes, that's a very good point so we predict right at

[00:07:09] slow motion creates this positive feeling when we watch it because it's easy to

[00:07:17] easy to understand the movement right to slow down movements makes it easy for us to take in

[00:07:21] all the visual input and we like this easy watching experience. And indeed right this should

[00:07:29] especially work well for products right that are hedonic or that we consume for pleasure right

[00:07:34] that are actually about this these nice emotions that consumers should associate with the

[00:07:42] with the brand. Indeed we show that actually in the setting where of looking for vacations that

[00:07:48] are either relaxing or exciting slow motion works better for consumers to seek a relaxing vacation

[00:07:57] because the excitement seeking is kind of misaligned with slow motion being pleasant so much.

[00:08:05] So actually for the exciting right to create excitement and thrill it's actually

[00:08:13] recommended to other speed up movement because that is associated with a rousal

[00:08:19] and creating a sense of thrill and excitement. Right I guess if someone is you know interested

[00:08:24] in playing a fast paced game of social racket ball they're going to want to see it in in fast you

[00:08:30] know and so on. What about positive content versus negative content like I'm thinking about like

[00:08:35] an ad about the dangers of drunk driving when someone is shown being tossed around in a car you know

[00:08:42] that's that's a negative promotional advertising. Did you test the difference between positive

[00:08:48] content and negative content. Yes we did and we found that for slow motion has the potential to

[00:08:57] kind of amplify the valence of the content that is shown so slow motion makes pleasant movements

[00:09:05] more beautiful because we see all the details of a subtle dance performance for instance but when

[00:09:12] the movements are aversive the exact opposite happens right now the consumer gets to see a

[00:09:17] versive disturbing content and slow motion so that actually amplifies the negative feelings

[00:09:26] that such a commercial creates. I think of a drunk driving campaign or a bloody bloody boxing match

[00:09:33] where people are getting hurt. Slow motion makes that more difficult to watch which can sometimes

[00:09:39] align with the intentions of marketers right. And yet some things that are positive in slow motion

[00:09:44] didn't work. I thought it was interesting your paper noted that some slow motion can still hurt

[00:09:49] a company's marketing even if it is a hedonic as you would say use for pleasure when people saw

[00:09:54] TV ads for instance this is not your research but some past research when people saw TV ads with

[00:10:00] someone eating chocolate in slow motion or shampooing their hair in slow motion consumers actually

[00:10:06] didn't like that they found it to be fake why would that slow motion hurt marketing while slow

[00:10:12] motion on social media as opposed to TV commercials in those previous examples would help.

[00:10:18] Yes so this effect where slow motion makes the ads seem fake or post right that is very specific

[00:10:27] to commercials in which actors express some kind of utility right that they get from the consumption

[00:10:36] so the smile after each chocolate in slow motion seems more fake because people think when the

[00:10:42] action is slowed down that you are more acting out is enjoying and really truly feeling it

[00:10:51] the same with the woman shampooing her hair right so she like strokes her hair and is excited

[00:10:57] about the softness of the conditioning right that enjoyment right seems fake when the smile is in

[00:11:06] slow motion so this is just very specific type of ads that we all know right from shampoo commercials

[00:11:12] it does make sense you know I'm thinking like if I was watching an actor eating chocolate and then

[00:11:17] in slow motion he slowly turns his head to the camera and slowly creeps the smile on his face I'm

[00:11:23] thinking this guy's faking it this is acting that's very interesting yeah exactly exactly so these are

[00:11:29] not the settings we look at right we look at natural movements being filmed not people express some

[00:11:36] kind of enjoyment in slow motion putting our podcast and newsletter together can get complicated

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[00:13:18] favorite podcast app future you well thank you how does the complexity of a video's content change

[00:13:26] the way consumers react with it on social media yeah because the point so the right idea we had

[00:13:32] as what slow motion is more enjoyable to watch for people because it really unpacks these movements

[00:13:39] that we typically don't get to see in real time right the this pleasure water drop makes when

[00:13:45] it hits hits the surface so it slows down the visual input right and then we can appreciate

[00:13:53] all the details so precondition in order for slow motion to be successful at creating this

[00:14:01] viewing pleasure is that there's actually something to unpack so if the movement is very simple

[00:14:06] very basic we can already see it basically in real time then slowing down actually hurts you

[00:14:14] because the video becomes then boring right if you in the videos that we use that very very

[00:14:20] low in complexity right for instance a glass of milk right with like a little drop of milk like

[00:14:27] running running running running down the cup so there was very little movement in the whole video

[00:14:33] and the slow motion version of that scene was just extremely boring because nothing was happening

[00:14:39] nothing was unpacked for the viewer rather it was annoying to watch because yeah the rate of

[00:14:45] information was too low right so that's something to consider in your using slow motion right it needs

[00:14:51] to be a movement that is inherently complex and that we cannot appreciate fully in real time then slow

[00:15:01] motion works before we started recording I asked you to stay away from academic terms like

[00:15:07] confluence and congruency and you have done an excellent job of that Dr. Stuppi and I'm gonna

[00:15:12] I'm gonna take it back briefly because I can ask you to talk about one of those academic terms

[00:15:16] in your paper you talked about processing fluency can you explain what that is and then how that

[00:15:23] affects the appeal of slow motion videos on social media processing fluency is basically basically

[00:15:28] about presenting information in a way that it easy it is easy to take in for for consumers

[00:15:36] for instance right if you think of a handwriting that is very neat and tidy and easy to read versus

[00:15:42] handwriting that is very sloppy and hard to read right processing fluency is higher with the neat

[00:15:50] handwriting and the theory basically said when whenever things are easy to process for us and make

[00:15:57] sense of we attribute that to the to the to the stimulus itself so in other words when I read

[00:16:04] the same text in like sloppy handwriting versus neat handwriting I like the text more when it's

[00:16:10] neat and there are the positive effects associated with I think it's more truthful I think it's more

[00:16:19] more honest etc so processing fluency is basically about this idea that when things are easy on

[00:16:26] the mind we like them processing fluency has been studied a lot with textual stimuli also with

[00:16:36] images right the resolution of an image makes it more or less fluent the size of the image makes

[00:16:42] it more or less fluent but fluency hasn't really looked at how video content dynamic content

[00:16:49] can be more easily processed and that is kind of the contribution of our work a bit right if we show

[00:16:55] processing fluency is also important when you show movement when you have dynamic content

[00:17:00] what surprised you the most about your findings actually I was really surprised that we found

[00:17:06] slow motion to amplify the aversive disturbing content because when I started studying this phenomenon

[00:17:14] I was thinking about you know slow motion scenes and action movies you know people fighting in

[00:17:19] slow motion bullets flying to the air and in slow motion and I had this hunch that maybe slow

[00:17:25] motion makes also aversive things beautiful to us in a way right because they're both of it they're

[00:17:32] beautiful and and and really horrible at the same time so my hunch was actually that would also make

[00:17:39] horrible things beautiful so surprised that we found found the opposite yeah all right bottom line

[00:17:47] from a marketing perspective how can someone listening to this who is a marketing director or a

[00:17:52] brand manager change the way that they're using slow motion content or how can they use slow motion

[00:17:58] content to boost consumer engagement so I think the secret to using slow motion is right make sure

[00:18:09] the underlying content is is high in complexity and if not try to find a way to increase complexity before

[00:18:19] you then implement this slow motion effect it would really encourage

[00:18:27] marketers to use slow motion as kind of to kind of highlight a peak or an important element

[00:18:35] within the video right so not the whole video should be in slow motion it's more effective if you

[00:18:41] actually mix up regular speed and slow motion within the same scene that makes the the power of

[00:18:47] this slow motion effect a bit stronger yeah you had co-authors on your paper who were they I co-authored

[00:18:54] this paper with the young Landweer from from go to university he's an expert on product aesthetics

[00:18:59] and product design so it was really excited to work on videos right as something that's also about

[00:19:06] product design and aesthetics and Peter McGraw from University of Colorado Boulder is also on the

[00:19:12] product he's a really an expert in media entertainment so yeah a great team to have for this paper

[00:19:20] indeed well it is very interesting research I'm delighted you could share it with us thank you

[00:19:25] so much for your time thank you for having me and a Kashtapi is an assistant professor of marketing at

[00:19:30] Tilburg University for paper is called the Art of Sloaness slow motion enhances consumer evaluations

[00:19:38] by increasing processing fluency before I leave you another reminder that we have a writer and

[00:19:44] production assistant position open is for someone with lots of real world marketing experience most

[00:19:49] the job is to research and write the first draft or a podcast and newsletter each day as well as

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[00:19:58] Steph's Mat leave until the end of the summer so if you have a deep understanding of digital marketing

[00:20:04] and hopefully also a background in journalism or writing for radio please check out the job

[00:20:10] the link is b dot link slash writing job that is b dot link slash writing job it is Easter weekend for

[00:20:19] those who celebrate that holiday and we are taking good Friday off tomorrow and Easter Monday as well

[00:20:26] so that will do it for this week today in digital marketing is produced by engage q digital

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[00:20:42] math and have a great long weekend and I will see you on Tuesday it's really is a big one it's a very

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