IMPULSE Moment-by-Moment Test: An Implicit Measure of Affective Responses to Audiovisual Televised or Digital Advertisements

Gemma Anne Calvert; Geraldine Trufil; Abhishek Pathak; Eamon Philip Fulcher

doi:10.3390/bs10040073

IMPULSE Moment-by-Moment Test: An Implicit Measure of Affective Responses to Audiovisual Televised or Digital Advertisements

Behav Sci (Basel). 2020 Apr 5;10(4):73. doi: 10.3390/bs10040073.

Authors

Gemma Anne Calvert¹, Geraldine Trufil², Abhishek Pathak³, Eamon Philip Fulcher²

Affiliations

¹ Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore.
² Split Second Research Ltd, London, E1 8FA UK.
³ School of Business, University of Dundee, Dundee, DD1 4HN UK.

Abstract

IMPULSE is a novel method for detecting affective responses to dynamic audiovisual content. It is an implicit reaction time test that is carried out while an audiovisual clip (e.g., a television commercial) plays in the background and measures feelings that are congruent or incongruent with the content of the clip. The results of three experiments illustrate the following four advantages of IMPULSE over self-reported and biometric methods: (1) being less susceptible to typical confounds associated with explicit measures, (2) being easier to measure deep-seated and often nonconscious emotions, (3) being better able to detect a broad range of emotions and feelings, and (4) being more efficient to implement as an online method.

Keywords: YouTube; advertising; advertising effectiveness; audiovisual content; implicit measure; implicit reaction time; neuromarketing; online experiments.