If you are still hesitant to try out neuromarketing, or you want to get inspiration about what others use the methodology for, the next lines are for you: read what László Baka, Brand Marketing Manager at Heureka Group (árukereső.hu) thinks about neuromarketing.
This article will cover:
The purpose of measuring TV spots’ performance
Benefits of a neuromarketing research
Learnings from an advertisement test
Differences between age groups
Personal benefits for a marketing professional
Synetiq: First of all, let’s start with the basics: who are you, what are your experiences and what kind of connections do you have with marketing communication and research?
László Baka: My name is László Baka and I am the brand marketing manager of 3 price comparison websites out of 9 countries at Heureka Group: the hungarian árukereső.hu, the romanian compari.ro and the bulgarian pazaruvaj.com. Having more than 8 years of marketing communication experience in multinational environment, I can proudly say that with my professional knowledge I have helped big companies like MALL.hu or eMAG Hungary to become market leaders. 90% of my experience comes from the online area, mostly in e-commerce. At some point we created more than 200 ads per year with my team, which is very unique in Hungary.
Synetiq: At an ecommerce company like yours, how do you divide budget and how do you prioritise between online videos and TV advertisements?
László: Usually it is a question of budget, which medium we use. But I believe that the best way of brand building is still through television. Although you can reach your target group easier online, when it comes to reaching new markets in a short time, it is essential to be on TV, even if it takes a large part of your yearly marketing budget. When it comes to segmentation and optimization, YouTube and social media are great platforms.
Synetiq: How do you measure the effectiveness of your videos?
László: In case of TV campaigns it's hard to tell the immediate effect - of course, you can check real time visitors, but these are visits, not sales. On YouTube you have access to “number of viewers”, but here the goal is different: to reach the target group faster, and more precisely. At árukereső.hu, our goal now is building the brand mostly through the help of television.
Synetiq: How did you meet with Synetiq for the first time and what were your first impressions?
László: I met Synetiq for the first time in 2017 and after visiting their neuromarketing lab, I found the methodology super interesting - I was sure that as soon as I have the opportunity I would love to try out their marketing intelligence tool.
Synetiq: Why did you find it interesting and for what kind of business challenges were you trying to solve?
László: After creating our brands’ ads on Heureka group level in 2020, I contacted Synetiq to test the spot of árukereső.hu as we wanted to use it for a longer time and we wanted to make sure we have the best possible copy. We were curious about the customers’ opinion, the emotional resonation with each scene, how easy it was to understand the spot, how it delivered messages and how different age groups understood the stories.
When choosing Synetiq I was not even looking for other options - I was certain they are able to answer all my questions. Although for a few years we were not working together directly, they appeared in our life continuously - helping our lives with webinars, interesting educational content and with short analysis on social media. Also, their offer was detailed and the perfect choice for us to understand our target group.
Synetiq: How did Synetiq help you in reaching your goals?
László: Synetiq gave an answer to all of our questions - now it’s only our decision how we will integrate those answers into a new and improved spot. Our goals were clear: we wanted clear and tangible answers for our exact questions, so we can develop our advertisement based on that information.
Synetiq: How did you benefit from working with Synetiq’s neuromarketing methodology compared to other providers?
László: Their results highlighted how different age groups reacted to the same scenes: while a story with too much narration could be boring for younger audiences, it helps to transfer messages for the older ones. Visual-verbal consistency and simple visuals also support understanding.
Our spot was 30sec long, the first 15 second was built up from 3 different mood stories - background visuals, without narration, only “message bubbles” (chatbox style) appeared on screen. Although the scenes were obvious for the younger audience, older ones needed time to understand them - they needed the narration. Synetiq’s output was perfect for us to understand the differences between age groups. Also, we gained insight into how the chatbox bubbles we planned worked, if viewers had enough time to read the messages, how the background scenes led or diverted the viewers’ eyes. Synetiq’s platform is easy to use: you can see how viewers react on a second-by-second level, and also how your visuals lead their eyes - thanks to the heatmaps.
““Synetiq’s platform is easy to use: you can see how viewers react on a second-by-second level, and also how your visuals lead their eyes.” ”
Synetiq: If you have to say one word of Synetiq, what would it be?
László: High-level customer focus. Our contact person was a senior insight consultant with profound experience from the market. She was listening to our needs, helped us in our questions and presented the results in English in a highly professional manner involving our teams from multiple countries.
Synetiq: How likely would you try out Synetiq’s pre-test product?
László: I could imagine trying out ad pre-testing in the case of a strategically crucial copy. For example: it is really important how your protagonist engages your viewers, how he/she can transfer your messages. I would love to create the same spot with different characters to see which protagonist is the most likable, how people resonate with them. When it comes to rebranding, big expenses are at stake. With such a cost-effective research methodology Synetiq offers, you can make sure your communication will work out and you will achieve better results than without using this opportunity.
Synetiq: Your latest project with Synetiq was a post-test. What were the main learnings of this, how could you use the results in your everyday work?
László: When it comes to a new spot I would love to use all the learnings from Synetiq. Also, Synetiq’s test was great as it is very difficult to measure TV spots’ performance otherwise.
This analysis is not only beneficial when you are using a spot for a longer time and you want to improve it year by year. Their results not only give you a picture about your own ad, but you can reflect on your intuitions too. Usually we put into a spot all of the elements we think would work based on our experiences. However, Synetiq’s results showed us that our intuitions are not always right. When we believe that our audience is going to understand the message clearly: they might not in reality. A short example: in the packshot we wanted to represent a similar design to our website, in line with the narration. At the end the visual became too busy, understanding was hard. We learned that our visuals should be more simple and straightforward, especially when you have only a couple of seconds to deliver a message. For example, in the case of árukereső.hu, viewers understood better the message of “comparing prices” than “select from 14 million products”, even though we wanted to tell them about the second. They might remember “wide range of products”, or nothing at all. In the case of a 15-30sec long advert it’s better to transfer one main message instead of a bunch of information.
““Synetiq’s results showed us that our intuitions are not always right.””
Synetiq: Would you recommend Synetiq to your professional partners, competitors?
László: I would recommend Synetiq to everyone as this solution works well. Now, even our colleagues in the Czech Republic are interested in working with it. They loved the presentation, the output and as Synetiq is growing on the Czech market, it would be a great opportunity for them too.To sum it up: regardless of your professional experience in marketing, it’s not 100% sure that the right message is the one you want to highlight the most. It is neither 100% sure that your customers will understand it the same way you intend it. If you would like to get real data and feedback about your intuitions and test what is working and what isn’t, Synetiq’s methodology is perfect for you.
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