Vampire effect
The term vampire effect in advertising refers to the unwanted loss of attention to the actually advertised product through distraction and side effects of advertising, for example through the use of humor , sex (in the sense of " sex sells ") or testimonials (especially well-known personalities ) . This effect can also occur with strongly emotional motives. One speaks here of over-activation .
According to Kilian, the vampire effect can be defined as “the attention-absorbing effect of certain components of brand communication, for example sex , humor or fear . Like a bloodsucker, they attract a large part of the viewer's attention. The same often applies to the use of well-known personalities. [...] Whenever an attention-grabbing stimulus is irrelevant or of subordinate importance to the brand message, there is a distraction effect, the so-called vampire effect ”.
Although American studies of the 1960s showed that a slight distraction can lead to increased advertising effect (reduction in reactance ), a more recent study found that a very strong distraction has significantly less advertising effect than if no distracting effects are used at all .
Examples
The music by Simon and Garfunkel and the star Dustin Hoffman attracts sympathy in an Audi spot from 2004, but draws attention away from the car brand actually being advertised. Similarly, a viewer may still remember a commercial with Anke Engelke , but no longer know which insurance brand she was actually advertising for.
literature
- Irka Schneider: Humor in advertising. Practice, opportunities and risks . VDM Verlag Dr. Müller , Saarbrücken 2005, ISBN 3-86550-116-8 .
- Siegfried J. Schmidt (Ed.): Handbook advertising . Lit, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-8258-7540-7 (= series: Medienpraxis , Vol. 5).