As an adtech PR agency, we were fascinated by news of data from the Journal of Advertising - published in Contagious - that seemed to prove that metaphors work.
According to the study, ads that employ metaphors are more memorable than those that rely on emotion or - worst of all - just convey straight facts.
After participants were shown a selection of print ads, they were tested for what they could remember. The outcome - the metaphorical and emotional ads were consistently more likely to be remembered than the purely functional ones.
However, ads that were emotional alone were found to be ‘weak vectors’ for brand information because the respondents tended to confuse important details like brand messages. Where metaphors were included, this helped to bolster the message more clearly.
As an adtech PR agency working with clients that work to improve the certainty of ROI for marketing budgets, we think there’s huge potential for an AI platform that learns from insights like these to help brands to optimise their copy for memorability.