UnrulyEQ Max and Custom Audiences launch in New Zealand

Advertisers in New Zealand can now maximise the local impact of their video content, using UnrulyEQ.

Did you know that kiwis tend towards individualism rather than collectivism, which is in keeping with their Aussie neighbours, but also Brits, Canadians and Americans? Or that New Zealanders are very secure – meaning that in general they are less likely to buy things to feel good about themselves.

Unique cultural insight like this has been used to create two new bespoke products for the New Zealand market – launched today at ad:tech Auckland – by the video marketplace you can trust, Unruly. These products are designed to help advertisers maximise the impact of their video content and target cultural audiences at scale.

The impact of culture on consumer response to content has long been known intuitively by advertisers, and now work by Unruly has quantified this impact for the first time.

Based on the seminal cultural framework developed in the late 60s / early 70s by behavioural psychologist Geert Hofstede, and exclusive access to MediaCom’s Cultural Connections research, Unruly’s cultural insight allows advertisers to build up an extremely accurate picture of the cultural leanings of a market, and individuals within that market.

Unruly, a News Corp company, has incorporated this quantified cultural data into its video content testing solution – UnrulyEQ Max, and targeting segments – UnrulyEQ Custom Audiences for the New Zealand market.

UnrulyEQ Max allows advertisers to discover, and capitalise on, the emotional impact of their video content prior to launch. The tool utilises a variety of data sources, such as facial coding and declared survey data, to understand the impact of video creative on local audiences. Higher emotional impact drives engagement, brand recall and ultimately sales. A Nielsen consumer neuroscience study found that ads with above-average electroencephalography (EEG) scores deliver a 23% lift in sales volume (Nielsen consumer neuroscience internal study, FMCG brands, –2015). In other words, the more emotive an ad is, the more people will react to it. If an ad triggers the right emotional responses and is attributed to the correct brand, it will likely lead to increased sales.

With culture greatly influencing the emotions people feel when watching content, the addition of Unruly’s cultural insights to the UnrulyEQ tool gives local advertisers the opportunity to further predict both campaign and brand success by pre-testing content for cultural resonance in New Zealand.

The new bespoke test also allows global and trans-Tasman advertisers to understand whether existing video content can be repurposed for the New Zealand market – giving them the opportunity to adapt creative at the pre-testing stage.

Unruly’s audience targeting solution – UnrulyEQ Custom Audiences – helps advertisers find the most receptive audiences for their video content. Using UnrulyEQ methodology, Unruly can uncover the most emotionally engaged audiences, audiences to match brand personas and consumers with the strongest intent to buy a product or those with a specific brand affinity.

With the addition of its exclusive cultural data, Unruly’s Custom Audiences solution now allows advertisers in New Zealand to further maximise the effectiveness of their video content by reaching audiences with the greatest cultural affinity to their video content.

Finding the cultural bullseye for a campaign can results in uplifts of up to 40% in purchase intent, up to 55% in brand promoters and up to 26% in brand favourability (all vs. the average consumer response to a video – Unruly testing)

Ricky Chanana, Unruly’s Managing Director of Australia and New Zealand said, “Thanks to our unique access to MediaCom’s groundbreaking Cultural Connections data, video advertising has just become a lot smarter.

In an age when media budgets are being squeezed and the need for efficiency is greater than ever, it is critical to understand how video creative will perform before media dollars are deployed. Our UnrulyEQ testing and targeting solutions can help advertisers to reduce media wastage and ensure better engagement with consumers.

Our cultural targeting segments can be used to maximise the impact of the ads even in situations where videos cannot be edited. We can find pockets of ambitious individualists in collectivist markets, find fashionistas in markets where function reigns and curious cats in markets where the norm is closed.

New Zealand is a unique market, with a unique set of cultures, and these tools will give our clients confidence that their campaigns won’t just reach people, they’ll move them.”