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Advertisers are failing to make Southeast Asians laugh finds study

Asians laughingSoutheast Asian consumers respond to emotion in advertising as much if not more than anywhere in the world accept for one emotional response – hilarity.

In a study by ad tech firm Unruly, Southeast Asians were shown to respond more emotionally than the global average to online video ads across all emotion types, but advertisers are not making Southeast Asians laugh.

However, causing amusement is a global failing of advertisers, with this emotion felt by just four per cent of video ad-watchers globally.

Exhilaration is one emotional response to video advertising felt more keenly in Southeast Asia than anywhere else, according to the study based on data from a new platform from Unruly that gauges consumers’ emotional responses to ads.

Southeast Asians are more likely to share online video ads, scoring higher than the global average for all motivations to share, including to help a good cause or seek a friend’s point of view.

Even so, Southeast Asians are less likely than elsewhere to share video content for emotional reasons, and take a pragmatic view to sharing – they do it for a reason not on a whim.

The research, called Unruly Pulse, confirms an already widely accepted notion – that Southeast Asians tend to be less cynical of advertising than consumers in the West.

Unruly’s data found that Southeast Asians are more likely to love a brand or buy a product after watching an video their peers in the US and Europe.

Well over half of those studied in Southeast Asia (58 per cent) reported having a more favourable view of a brand after watching an ad, compared with just 26 per cent in Germany, 28 per cent in the UK and 41 per cent in the US.

Southeast Asians are also more likely to buy a product after watching an online video ad, with 52 per cent purchase intent among people in the sub-region compared to 40 per cent in the US, and 31 per cent in the UK and Germany. The only country where consumers show a higher purchase intent is Brazil.

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