Millward Brown: Knowledge Point
Do men and women respond differently to ads?
While at an overall level, men and women give similar ratings to ads, they
respond differently to individual ads. Men are more likely to enjoy ads featuring
humor, distinctive creative styles, and sexual imagery, while women are more
likely to enjoy ads featuring children or a slice of life.
Overall, ratings are similar
At an overall level, we observe little difference in the way men
and women respond to advertising. The following chart looks
at key TV Link measures (enjoyment, active involvement,
branding, news, credibility, difference, and relevance) for U.S.
English ads for which the test sample consisted of both men
and women; there is little difference in the scores given by
men and women.
Comparison of male and female – negative emotions
10
7.97
8 .42
5
3.03
1.66
1.08
0
2.94
1.76
1.42
0.85
0.63
0.71
1.29
1.42
1.29
Repel led
Inadequate
Sad
Annoyed
Hat red
Dis appointed
Guilty
Unimpressed
(1277 ) (1268 )
(1277 ) (1268 )
(1277 ) (1268 )
(1277 ) (1268 )
(1277 ) (1268 )
(1277 ) (1268 )
(1276 ) ( 1267)
( 1276) ( 1267)
Men versus Women: No real differences
Male
6
Female
5. 03
4
5. 32
4.01
3.55
4.03
4.04
4.09
3.54
3.60
3.58
2.65
3. 02
3.04
2.64
2
0
Enjoyme nt
I nvo lve me nt
Bran d in g
News
Cre d ib il ity
Diffe re n c e
Rel eva nce
(1338) (1329)
(456) (447)
(1332) ( 1323)
( 1287)
( 486)
( 443) ( 434)
(1285 )
Ma l e
Fema l e
Similarly, looking at emotional responses generated by
advertising, the overall pattern between the sexes is similar.
Comparison of male and female – positive emotions
15
14.5
13.3
11. 8
10.7
10.5
10. 3
10
9.4
8 .1
8.4
8 .1
These findings are backed up by analysis from our tracking
database, which finds no difference between the average
Awareness Indexes for men and women. After advertising,
increases in TV ad awareness and brand measures are similar
among both groups.
Men and women enjoy different things
However, behind these averages, it is clear that there are real
differences in the types of ads that are enjoyed by men and
women.
We took data from a set of 1200 U.S. ads that were tested
among samples including both males and females and
examined the ads that were in the top 10 percent for each
group on enjoyment. This analysis showed that men are more
likely to enjoy humorous ads - particularly those involving
spoofs. (However, it is worth stressing that there are also
many humorous ads that do perform well among women).
7. 2
Male
Female
Funny
47
28
Light hearted
36
38
No Humor
17
34
HUMOR
6.2
5
2.6
3.1
2.2
1.6
0
9. 24
8 .88
Att ra c te d
Exc i te d
Co n fi d ent
Contented
Affec tionate
Sur prised
Proud
Ins pired
( 1277 ) ( 1268)
(1277) (1268)
(1277) (1268)
(1277) (1268)
(1277) (1268)
(1277) (1268)
(1277) (1268)
(1277 ) (1268 )
Male
Fem ale
-------------------Spoof/Parody in ad
Base (ads)
Base
April 2011
12
2
(114)
(135)
2
Millward Brown: Knowledge Point
A Spanish ad that features a humorous scene in a
slaughterhouse provides an example of humor that appeals
more to men than women. Men better appreciated the
intended black humor; it kept their attention. However, the
somewhat violent nature of the ad put off the female target,
who did not enjoy the ad.
Other ads may actually alienate women. For example, one
German ad for a chocolate brand targeted at young adults
featured a teacher behaving in an erotic, flirtatious manner in
front of her young adult class. Responses to the ad differed
substantially by gender. Men enjoyed the woman’s behavior,
while women increasingly lost interest as the ad progressed.
The ad fails to engage women
German Chocolate ad
AUDIO
Woman
enters
She
A grade the room translates
and starts
words
of
school
30
a lesson
with
young
MORE
adults
INTERESTING 20 Female
legs on
high-heels
going in
10 a hall
VISUAL
MORE
INTERESTING
Product demo
Product usage
Romantic
scenery
Scale:
Standard
Scale:
Standard
30 SECS
21.5 SECS
Packshot &
Slogan
MORE
BORING
Male
Female
Cut & Change of scene:
in the slaughtery
Woman comes
again to the fore.
She licks off some
crème from her finger
Woman takes
as well a piece
and eats it with
indulgence
Product
described,
woman only in
the background
Product
shot and
slogan
0
0 1
-10
MORE
BORING
Man eats
a piece of
the product
-20
2
3
4
5 6
7
8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
Product
description
Zoom onto the
woman’s face and
further on the mouth
-30
Base: Total
Male
(50)
Female
(50)
VISUAL
While men enjoy a distinctive creative style, women on the
whole are more likely to enjoy ads featuring a slice of life,
or children. There was no significant difference in messaging
style between the most enjoyed ads for each group.
Male
Female
Distinctive creative style
36
22
Slice of life
32
47
Children
9
36
Emotional
41
50
Rational
16
14
Both
37
33
(114)
(135)
Base (ads)
Response to sexual imagery
Ads that feature sexual imagery can also elicit distinctly
different responses from the two sexes. Some ads are enjoyed
by both sexes, but for different reasons. For example, a
deodorant ad featured a girl preparing for a date while her
boyfriend is coming up in the lift. It was an entertaining ad that
performed well overall, but men and women found different
parts interesting. Women followed the main elements of the
story, while men showed peaks of interest only when the
woman appeared in her underwear.
©2011 Millward Brown
More than twice as many men as women said they would
enjoy watching the ad (52 percent versus 24 percent). Over
half of the men liked the woman in the ad while only 14
percent of women did. Almost a quarter of the women
disliked the ad for being sexist or erotic. Given that women
were an equal target for the brand, this represented a major
problem.
So while at an overall level there may be no differences in
responses to advertising between the sexes, there are clearly
differences in response to individual ads.
Knowledge Points are drawn from the Millward
Brown Knowledge Bank, consisting of our databases
of 132,000 brand reports and 70,000 ads, as well
as 1,400 case studies, 900 conference papers and
magazine articles, and 350 learnings documents.
Share this Knowledge Point: