AD BATTLE #9 Belfius vs. BNP Paribas: There are emotions behind money, and there is money behind emo
Banks only tell you about finances? Our contestants from Feelin’s ad battle #9 Belfius and BNP Paribas won’t agree. For them, banking ads are rather about emotions.
That’s why Belfius is presenting their mobile banking application that records heartwarming messages to each bank transfer. Voyaging from the Roman battlefield to the flower shop around the corner, BNP Paribas conveys a simple but essential idea: “we are stronger together”, reaffirming their engagement towards society and clients.
BNP Paribas Chez BNP Paribas nous savons qu’on est plus forts quand on est bien accompagnés, YouTube, uploaded by BNP Paribas
And click here to watch Belfius’ ad.
With this article, Feelin will show you that there are not only emotions behind money. Indeed, there is also a treasure box behind emotions. If you are not (yet) familiar with the concept and format of “Ad Battle”, here is our beginner pack.
Key Takeaways
Starting with Belfius’ ad, viewers mainly reacted with positive emotions (16.7%), whereas towards BNP Paribas, they demonstrated a mixed feeling with happiness (8.5%), anger (6.4%) and sadness (10.6%).
Both videos have well engaged viewers’ attention in the first 5 seconds. Only Belfius’ video experienced a drop in attention in the last 10 seconds, due to a few fixed plans with static text.
According to eye-tracking analysis, we observe that viewers did not read the logo of BNP Paribas that appears between 33 and 34 sec. This means the audience will perhaps not associate this ad with BNP Paribas until the very end, when the final logo is introduced.
The victory goes to Belfius — a clear and rhythmic design that successfully conveys the key message and addresses different consumer profiles. Don’t miss the full analysis, practical tips and heatmap illustrations below!
Round One: Emotional Power
Belfius 29.17% of Feelers reacted with strong emotions, the dominant emotion here is happiness (16.7%).
Happiness elicitation sequences Belfius
As we can see from the illustration above, the happiness elicitation sequence follows a rhythmic distribution. Each heartwarming message addresses a different situation in life and the last two scenes triggered increasingly higher peaks of positive emotions.
BNP Paribas: 25.53% of Feelers reacted with strong emotions; here we observe a mixed feeling combining happiness (8.5%), anger (6.4%) and sadness (10.6%).
Happiness, anger and sadness level over time BNP Paribas
What does this mixed feeling tell us? Happiness reactions at 34 sec. show that certain viewers have well received the key message “we are stronger together”, but how do we understand the dominant negative emotions from 37 sec. till the end?
In Ad Battle #8, we mentioned that observing negative emotions is not necessarily bad news, however, when negative reactions are not intended, we should still pay extra attention to understand what triggered such emotions. The sadness near the end of the ad might be explained by the fact that viewers start to realize that the characters (the Roman soldier, the freezing girl, the astronaut in space and the conductor) who appeared in the previous scenes are, compared to the woman of the flower shop, left alone with no rescue to come — hopeless message, right?
Tips from Feelin: Why not provide an alternative ending in which the previous characters are supported by others and have their problems solved, and in some cases, have their lives saved?
No doubt, the winner of Round One is Belfius!
Round Two: Attentional Power
For Round Two, Belfius achieved an attentional score of 58.55% and BNP Paribas reached 61.21%
Attentional Power – Overall Tendency Belfius vs. BNP Paribas
As for the second round, both contestants delivered a good performance in the first 5 seconds as well as with regard to the overall tendency.
Only Belfius’ video experienced a drop in attention in the last 10 seconds due to a few fixed plans with static text. One possible reason might be that text and logo are displayed for too long and, as a result, viewers start to loose their focus after having read the text (see Round Three for heat map illustration).
Tips from Feelin: For Belfius’ video, people have certainly understood the key message long before the ending scenes. If a shorted version is needed, reducing the time needed for the final fixed plans might be a simple and efficient choice.
So the video with higher attentional power is BNP Paribas!
Round Three: Eye-Tracking Analysis
Heat Map Belfius vs. BNP Paribas
As illustrated by the heat map, a good point for both contestants is that areas of interest (AOI) sufficiently cover the regions in which human faces, text and logo are situated.
However, in the final scenes of Belfius’ video, viewers’ gaze is not fully fixated on the logo, they seem to get bored and start to explore the blank background (perhaps due to the long-lasting fixed plan, as mentioned in Round Two).
Turning to BNP Paribas’ ad, a major weakness is that their logo, which appears between 33 and 34 sec., is not read by viewers. It means that the audience will perhaps not associate the ad with BNP Paribas until the very end, when the final logo is introduced.
The victory for Round Three, and also for Feelin’s ad battle #9, goes to Belfius, thanks to their skillful rhythmic design that clearly conveys the key message and addresses different consumer profiles!
Have you learned any useful tips from our analysis? Book a demo to test the performance of your own creative content. If you wish to find out more about the treasure box behind emotions, check our article What are emotions and why do they matter for marketers!