1. Millward Brown: Knowledge Point
Do men and women respond differently to ads?
While at an overall level, men and women give similar ratings to ads, they
respond differently to individual ads. Men are more likely to enjoy ads featuring
humor, distinctive creative styles, and sexual imagery, while women are more
likely to enjoy ads featuring children or a slice of life.
Overall, ratings are similar Comparison of male and female – negative emotions
At an overall level, we observe little difference in the way men
10
9. 24
8 .88
8 .42
and women respond to advertising. The following chart looks
7.97
at key TV Link measures (enjoyment, active involvement,
branding, news, credibility, difference, and relevance) for U.S. 5
English ads for which the test sample consisted of both men 3.03 2.94
and women; there is little difference in the scores given by 1.66 1.76
1.08 0.85 0.63 0.71
1.42 1.29 1.42 1.29
men and women. 0
Repel led Inadequate Sad Annoyed Hat red Dis appointed Guilty Unimpressed
(1277 ) (1268 ) (1277 ) (1268 ) (1277 ) (1268 ) (1277 ) (1268 ) (1277 ) (1268 ) (1277 ) (1268 ) (1276 ) ( 1267) ( 1276) ( 1267)
Men versus Women: No real differences
Male
6 Female
5. 32
5. 03
These findings are backed up by analysis from our tracking
4.04 4.03 4.09
database, which finds no difference between the average
4.01
4
3.55 3.54
3.58 3.60
2.65 2.64
3. 02 3.04 Awareness Indexes for men and women. After advertising,
2
increases in TV ad awareness and brand measures are similar
among both groups.
0
Diffe re n c e Rel eva nce
Men and women enjoy different things
Enjoyme nt I nvo lve me nt Bran d in g News Cre d ib il ity
(1338) (1329) (456) (447) (1332) ( 1323) ( 1287) ( 486) ( 443) ( 434) (1285 ) However, behind these averages, it is clear that there are real
Ma l e differences in the types of ads that are enjoyed by men and
Fema l e women.
We took data from a set of 1 200 U.S. ads that were tested
Similarly, looking at emotional responses generated by
among samples including both males and females and
advertising, the overall pattern between the sexes is similar.
examined the ads that were in the top 10 percent for each
Comparison of male and female – positive emotions group on enjoyment. This analysis showed that men are more
15
13.3
14.5
likely to enjoy humorous ads - particularly those involving
1 8
1.
10.5 10.7 spoofs. (However, it is worth stressing that there are also
10. 3
10
8 .1 8 .1
9.4
8.4 many humorous ads that do perform well among women).
7. 2
6 .2
HUMOR Male Female
5
3.1 Funny 47 28
2.6 2.2
1.6 Light hearted 36 38
0 No Humor 17 34
Att ra c te d Exc i te d Co n fi d ent Contented Affec tionate Sur prised Proud Ins pired
( 1277) ( 1268) (1277) (1268) (1277) (1268) (1277) (1268) (1277) (1268) (1277) (1268) (1277) (1268) (1277 ) (1268 ) --------------------
Male
Spoof/Parody in ad 12 2
Fem ale Base (ads) (114) (135)
Base
April 201
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2. Millward Brown: Knowledge Point 2
A Spanish ad that features a humorous scene in a Other ads may actually alienate women. For example, one
slaughterhouse provides an example of humor that appeals German ad for a chocolate brand targeted at young adults
more to men than women. Men better appreciated the featured a teacher behaving in an erotic, flirtatious manner in
intended black humor; it kept their attention. However, the front of her young adult class. Responses to the ad differed
somewhat violent nature of the ad put off the female target, substantially by gender. Men enjoyed the woman’s behavior,
who did not enjoy the ad. while women increasingly lost interest as the ad progressed.
The ad fails to engage women German Chocolate ad
AUDIO
VISUAL Woman Woman takes Woman comes
enters She as well a piece again to the fore.
A grade the room translates and eats it with She licks off some
30 of school and starts words Man eats indulgence crème from her finger
a lesson a piece of
with
young the product Product
MORE MORE adults described,
Product demo woman only in
INTERESTING INTERESTING 20 Female the background Product
legs on shot and
Product usage high-heels slogan
going in
Scale: Romantic 10 a hall
Standard scenery
Scale:
2 SECS
1.5 Standard 0
30 SECS 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
1
Packshot & -10
Zoom onto the Product
Slogan woman’s face and description
MORE
MORE -20 further on the mouth
Male BORING
BORING Cut & Change of scene:
Female
in the slaughtery -30
Male Female
Base: Total (50) (50)
VISUAL
While men enjoy a distinctive creative style, women on the More than twice as many men as women said they would
whole are more likely to enjoy ads featuring a slice of life, enjoy watching the ad (52 percent versus 24 percent). Over
or children. There was no significant difference in messaging half of the men liked the woman in the ad while only 1 4
style between the most enjoyed ads for each group. percent of women did. Almost a quarter of the women
disliked the ad for being sexist or erotic. Given that women
Male Female were an equal target for the brand, this represented a major
Distinctive creative style 36 22
problem.
Slice of life 32 47
Children 9 36
So while at an overall level there may be no differences in
Emotional 41 50 responses to advertising between the sexes, there are clearly
Rational 16 14
differences in response to individual ads.
Both 37 33
Base (ads) (1 4)
1 (135)
Response to sexual imagery
Ads that feature sexual imagery can also elicit distinctly
different responses from the two sexes. Some ads are enjoyed Knowledge Points are drawn from the Millward
by both sexes, but for different reasons. For example, a Brown Knowledge Bank, consisting of our databases
deodorant ad featured a girl preparing for a date while her of 132,000 brand reports and 70,000 ads, as well
boyfriend is coming up in the lift. It was an entertaining ad that as 1,400 case studies, 900 conference papers and
performed well overall, but men and women found different magazine articles, and 350 learnings documents.
parts interesting. Women followed the main elements of the
story, while men showed peaks of interest only when the Share this Knowledge Point:
woman appeared in her underwear.
©201 Millward Brown
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