The Feeling That Sells: Why Emotion Is the Hidden Driver of Advertising Effectiveness

AI is changing the economics of advertising by making creative faster and cheaper to produce. But more creative does not automatically mean more effective creative. As brands scale production, the ability to understand whether an ad truly connects emotionally (at both a conscious and unconscious level) becomes a critical advantage.

Join NIQ for a science-backed look at how emotion works in advertising, why it matters for brand growth, and how marketers can better measure the feelings that trigger action. Effective emotional advertising is not about adding jokes, puppies or babies. It’s about understanding what makes people lean in, remember and act.

In this session, you’ll learn:

• How emotion works as a motivational system in the brain: not simply as stated liking or positive sentiment.
• Why traditional copy testing can understate the value of emotional advertising.
• Why there is no one-size-fits-all formula for emotion, and how brands can build connection through the right mix of intrinsic human cues, processing fluency and learned associations.
• How AI-generated creative creates new effectiveness risks and why implicit measurement matters more in an AI-enabled creative world.