Samenvatting

Only 18% of the Dutch population watches TV commercials. This means more than 80% does not watch them and zaps to another channel or walks away from the television. In general TV commercials are evaluated to be an irritating interruption during a program or movie that is broadcasted. Research shows that the attention to the TV decreases when the commercial break starts. As a result, the commercial will be ignored or zapped. This study focuses on the effects of emotions on zapping behavior. A mediating variable was found to be ad-liking. By measuring the level of aroused emotion (positive or negative), how much people like a commercial and the likeability to zap this commercial, a conceptual model was established to present the relationships between these three variables. An experiment was conducted among 56 people to test six different hypotheses. The results show that there is a very strong positive relation between the aroused emotions during a commercial and the extent to which a commercial is liked. This means that positive emotions will increase ad-liking and negative emotions will decrease ad-liking. However, both the aroused emotions and ad-liking appear to have a very strong negative relation with zapping, meaning that positive aroused emotions and ad-liking will decrease the chance that a commercial will be zapped. On the other hand, negative emotions and ad-disliking, will increase the zapping chance. Factors that seem to have most influence on the aroused emotion and liking a commercial are whether the commercial makes you laugh and whether it is entertaining or not. Besides, commercials that are new and create curiosity will create more positive emotions and thus be better liked. Commercials that are irritating create negative emotions which will lead to disliking the ad and zapping it. Although both ways of using emotions can be useful methods, creative agencies do have to keep in mind that the aroused emotion from a commercial will be linked to a brand or product. In this way, negative emotions might be of risk for both zapping but also the brand itself. Future research should indicate whether the aroused emotion has any effect on brand recall, recognition or success of a brand. The goal of this study was to gain a better understanding of how creative agencies and advertisers could use emotions in order to create TV commercials that are liked by more people and thus will be watched (not zapped) by more people. Besides, different statements were examined to see which factors have most influence on the aroused emotion, ad-liking and zapping.