Key Takeaways:

• Pairing a humorous, "organic" moment with a traditional ad can be highly effective for brand lift and purchase consideration.
• Younger audiences are more swayed by organic content, while older audiences respond better to traditional ads.
• Humorous, “organic” moments improve memorability with all demographics.

Forget boring commercials! Did you catch the hilarious Don Julio bit at the Oscars, where Guillermo offered margaritas to celebrities? That lighthearted moment was part of a brilliant marketing strategy from Diageo’s Don Julio. According to AdWeek, this was also the first time that an advertiser had been brought into an in-show bit during the Oscars.

The Oscars bit included Jimmy Kimmel, Guillermo Rodriguez, and Best Actor nominee Colman Domingo doing an exchange about Don Julio margaritas. Guillermo hilariously mispronounces celebrity names and referring to a flabbergasted Charlize Theron as his wife.

For viewers at home, this bit was immediately followed by a 60-second Don Julio commercial. At Swayable, we love seeing innovative marketing, so we decided to test the impact. We tested the 60s ad, the Oscars bit, and a combined version where we showed them back-to-back.

We ran a Randomized Controlled Trial (the gold standard in scientific measurement) to measure how much these clips persuaded viewers. We sampled a population of 2,506 consumers aged 21+. Each respondent was shown one of the clips or a neutral placebo video. We use that neutral placebo group to build an independent, real-time baseline to benchmark against. The Swayable platform displays the impact of each clip against this benchmark. We focused on Brand Lift and Purchase Consideration, which were defined by the following questions:

Overall, the combined Oscars bit followed by the 60s Spot was most effective

In the results below, you can see that the Oscars + 60s Spot was the most effective treatment that we tested. It had a +6 point impact on Brand Lift, compared to +4 points for the Oscars bit alone, and +5 points for the 60s spot alone. On Purchase Consideration, the combined version and the 60s spot were tied.

We also segmented the sample by people who say they watched the Oscars. Among this audience, the combined spot again had a +6 point impact on Brand Lift.

We also asked respondents for their alcohol preferences. Among tequila drinkers, the combined and traditional 60s spots were equally effective on Brand Lift. Interestingly, the traditional 60s spot had a slightly greater impact on Purchase Consideration than the combined version with the Oscars bit. The standalone traditional 60s spot had a +7 point impact on Purchase Consideration, whereas the combined Oscars + 60s Spot had a +5 point impact.

Older audiences preferred the traditional ad while younger audiences preferred the seemingly-organic moment

Younger audiences, aged 21-34 were more persuaded by the Oscars bit and the combined Oscars + 60s Spot. Both were able to increase Brand Lift by +4 to +5 points, and only the combined spot was able to move Purchase Consideration by +3 points.

In contrast, age 55+ audiences were more persuaded by the traditional 60s Spot followed by the combined Oscars + 60s spot. The Oscars bit alone had no effect on Purchase Consideration among 55+ consumers.

This pattern mirrors other research that Swayable has conducted around the Oscars: younger audiences are more persuaded by seemingly “organic” moments, whereas older audiences prefer traditional 30s and 60s advertisements. Marketers should keep this in mind, especially if they seek to reach audiences of all ages.

The combined Oscars Bit and 60s Ad was rated as more authentic than just the Oscars bit

Interestingly, audiences rated the Oscars Bit as 63/100 on the authenticity scale. But when we paired the Oscars bit with the full 60s traditional ad, audiences rated the combined version as a 69/100 on authenticity. Explicitly connecting the organic moment to a traditional ad actually increased authenticity. This matches prior research we have done, which found that organic social media ads are more persuasive when there is an #ad disclosure.

All audiences found the Oscars bit to be funny and memorable

All audiences rated the Oscars bit as funnier than the combined version or traditional 60s ad. That should come as no surprise. However, we noticed a slight age effect: younger audiences consistently rated each clip as slightly funnier than older audiences did.

Across the age spectrum, we found that the Oscars bit was more memorable than the 60s spot. This suggests the power of pairing these together. We asked respondents what the most memorable moment of the ad was. Those who saw both the Oscars clip and the traditional 60s often responded with moments from the Oscars clip. This held across the age spectrum.

Most memorable moments from younger audiences:

“The actor at the Oscar's who had the giant bottle of Don Julio and cheered to his "wife" Charlize Theron. Also the commercial was really cool.”  – 31, Female, Farmington Hills MI

“It was the first video at the Oscar’s. I forget his name unfortunately but that Mexican dude is amazing.” – 27, Male, Yonkers NY

“The guy buying everyone tequilla and wanting to toast everyone individually.” –23, Male, Lacombe LA

Most memorable moments from older audiences:

“When Gierremo claimed to be married to Charlize Theron. And she just went along with it I thought that was awesome.” –63, Female, Louisville KY

“The gentleman toasting everyone with Don Julio tequila and thanking his “wife” Charlize Theron.” –60, Female, Des Moines IA

“Guillermo toasting Charlize Theron claiming her as his wife. Very funny!” –61, Male, Lake Carmel NY

Conclusion

This study by Swayable highlights the power of combining organic and traditional marketing tactics.  A funny, unscripted moment can grab attention and make your brand memorable, while a polished ad provides details and reinforces the message.  By understanding your target audience's preferences (organic vs. traditional), and incorporating humor where possible, you can create a winning marketing strategy that resonates with all ages.

Methodology

This monadic RCT survey experiment was conducted on Swayable over 12 hours between March 11 and 12 with responses from 2,506 U.S. consumers aged 21+. Questions were asked of a general population sample aged 21+, using Swayable’s proprietary online platform.

The sample frame is U.S. smartphone users in all 50 states with active internet connections who are users of popular mobile and web apps that make up Swayable’s network of respondent partners. Respondents are solicited from partner apps with non-monetary reward offers for their participation. Respondents were recruited with an approximately even ratio of men and women imposed via separate quotas for each. This is a “non-probability sample” (in the conventional terminology of public opinion research, although this team’s position is that this concept is not meaningful since truly random sampling of the population is not possible via any methodology). To correct for over/under-sampling, all samples are post-stratified to the general U.S. population using cross-tabulations accounting for factors including age, ethnicity, gender, educational attainment and geography, based on the latest available data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Swayable’s proprietary population modeling. Margins of error quoted are based on response distribution statistics and sample sizes and are calculated independently for each given result.

This research was conducted and self-funded by Swayable.