This week’s Ad Of The Week, from Amazon, comes in two forms. It’s one in a line of successful brand-oriented TV ads for a general audience which tell emotional stories of how the perfect purchase can change lives. But in a cut-down form it’s also an ad built to appeal to TikTok users. We’ve run the ad through both our standard Test Your Ad platform and also Test Your Ad Digital, with its unique metrics which test effectiveness in a faster-moving, more skippable environment.
Amazon’s ad performs well on both platforms, with particular appeal to TikTok users. So it’s a great example of how the right edit lets the same work shine in different contexts.
Let’s look at TV first, and how the ad performs for a nationally representative Test Your Ad sample. This version of the commercial tells a story of a mother and son. The son is listless and feeling lonely; even his beloved skateboard isn’t giving him the thrills it used to. So his worried Mum helps him trade up, ordering a surfboard from Amazon, and the ad ends with the delighted teenager rushing into the waves for the first time, his joy in life returned.
In this format the ad includes a lot of elements ideal for emotional video storytelling. There’s a narrative with a journey from sadness to happiness. There’s a human connection between the boy and his Mum. And there’s a melodic soundtrack courtesy of indie star Jose Gonzales. All things which engage the right side of the brain and lead to greater effectiveness, as detailed in Orlando Wood’s books Look Out and Lemon.
Sure enough, the TV version of the ad gets strong scores on every Test Your Ad metric – a 5.4-Star Rating for long-term brand-building, and results well over the average for Spike (short-term sales) and Brand Fluency (fast, accurate recognition).
Amazon wants its ads to work consistently across platforms. But even with a strong ad like this, simply porting it to TikTok wouldn’t automatically get the right results. The very things which make the ad work so well on TV aren’t necessarily right for a digital format. The emotional context which makes for a strong story also means the ad starts with melancholy scenes, and isn’t as dynamic or attention-grabbing as an ad for TikTok audiences needs to be.
So Amazon cut down the ad and edited it into a vertical format, stripping out the context and just showing the gift, the response and the joy of surfing. In the TikTok version it’s not the narrative, but the “what’s in the box?” question that drives immediate attention, and the surf scenes are perfect for the rapid-fire editing TikTok viewers expect.
When we showed it to a sample of TikTok users on Test Your Ad digital, this version of the ad connected in a huge way. It scored a maximum 5.9-Stars with this specific sample, showing big emotional impact. It also got an Exceptional short-term Spike Rating.
Just as impressive are its scores on the metrics that are exclusive to Test Your Ad Digital – Fast Fluency and Attention. Fast Fluency is a recognition metric like Brand Fluency, but based only on the opening seconds of the ad – TikTok viewers immediately noted the Amazon package and understood who the brand was. And Attention measures the number of people who stuck with the ad until the end – a massive 93% with hardly any skips at all recorded. The ad is interesting, engaging and exciting enough that it holds almost all viewers for its 15 second duration.
"We aim to create authentic, story-driven content that resonates across all platforms, and we're humbled by the latest findings from System1, particularly across emotional resonance metrics. While we've long seen the power of emotional storytelling through television, this demonstrates that digital audiences are equally moved by genuine human moments when they're crafted thoughtfully for the platform. Ultimately it shows that when we lead with heart, we can deliver both immediate engagement and long-term brand building across platforms."
Laura Downey
EU Head of Brand, Amazon
It’s a perfect example of how to take the same ad and make it highly effective on two very different platforms. Both versions of the ad have two powerful emotional pivots – the mother-son connection and the boy’s joy. By shifting emphasis from one to the other, Amazon achieve cross-platform consistency and shine on every measure.
The most effective ads boost sales and drive long-term growth. They do it by making people feel more - building positive associations with a recognisable brand. We predict sales and growth impacts by measuring emotion, letting you make ads that entertain for commercial gain.
