Do Men And Women Respond Differently To Ads?
by Millward Brown

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.



Similarly, looking at emotional responses generated by advertising, the overall pattern between the sexes is similar.





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).



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.



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.



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