At the midway point of the World Cup, a San Francisco-based shopping app is "leading the way" in the ad stakes, "triumphing over football heavyweights" such as Coca-Cola and adidas, according to Erin Lyons of MARKETING WEEK. When it comes to emotional engagement, U.S. online shopping app Wish is first for its "Time On Your Hands" campaign, according to System1, which monitored how thousands of U.K. consumers responded to 28 different World Cup ads by "getting them to register their emotional responses by showing them eight different faces" -- contempt, disgust, anger, fear, sadness, neutral, happiness and surprise. Ads were then weighted for business effect and given a score of between one and five stars based on ROI growth, with one star representing 0% growth and five stars 3% growth. The campaign scored three out of five stars, meaning it was a "good ad with the potential for reasonable long-term brand growth." The data shows that ads have "generally not resonated that well this year though," with none of those tested scoring a four or five, and just four ads achieving three stars. While no World Cup ads score higher than three stars, the ones that do best have "ramped up humour, patriotic sentiment and excitement, to achieve emotional resonance with consumers," according to System 1 Head of Communications Tom Ewing, who added that U.K. advertisers have "focused much more on supporters enjoying the tournament as a whole." He said, "That's a safe route because everyone loves a party. But it's not an especially exciting one, which is why nothing hit higher than three stars" (MARKETING WEEK, 6/27).
