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How Marketers Can Focus on Reaching Consumers in the Right Mindset

People consume content for a variety of reasons—and some of those reasons make them more receptive to certain kinds of brand messaging than others. It’s simple advertising psychology.

When a consumer is engaged in endless scrolling—the habitual action of continuously moving through a feed or timeline to view content—they may be motivated by different factors such as boredom, habit, or even anxiety. Doom Scrolling, for example, is when consumers get caught up perusing saddening, maddening, or otherwise stressful content. This sort of activity doesn’t lend itself to all tones of messaging, and it can create unsafe environments for brands when ads are unintentionally paired with sensitive content.

Doomscrolling doesn’t lend itself to all tones of messaging, and it can create unsafe environments for brands when ads are unintentionally paired with sensitive content.

Fortunately, large swaths of consumers stream content in a more positive state of mind and in environments that lend themselves to brand-safe advertising. In The Stream 2024: Streaming Insights for Marketers, for example, researchers found that many viewers associate streaming platforms with quality time, community, and self-care.

Read on to explore the implications of mindset on brand messaging receptivity and where you can advertise to reach consumers in their happy(ier) place.

Why Mindset Matters in Advertising

Marketers know that you can use emotional appeal in advertising to make an impression on and persuade consumers. Less readily acknowledged is the importance of your audience’s pre-existing mindset on these same desirable outcomes.

But what do we mean when we say mindset? In scholarly speak (literally), “mindsets are ‘orientations that affect how consumers encode, interpret, and respond to information”…and they can shape consumers’ motivations.

That last part is key. In the same study that provided us with the helpful definition above, researchers found that consumers who display a positive mindset react differently to advertising than others:

“Consumers who believe that they are flourishing may be more receptive to advertising, enhancing their [attitude towards advertising in general].”

In its independent research on the effects of a positive mindset on advertising, Hearst Corporation came to a similar conclusion, stating that “People who have a positive mindset are more receptive to messaging in advertising.” The company also found that positively-minded consumers viewed brands more favorably and were more likely to take action after being exposed to advertising.

“If you are positive, then you are motivated to move forward and action-oriented – and being exposed to brand messaging, within a positive environment, for brands [that] fit well within that environment, leads to action being taken.”

— Samantha Fosbury, Advertising Effectiveness Manager, Hearst

Doomscrolling vs. Self-Care

Back to doomscrolling. It refers to the habit many people have of obsessively consuming disturbing or distressing news or user-generated content. By nature, it’s associated with a negative consumer mindset.

Whether doomscrolling breeds negativity, is simply more likely to be engaged in by people with a negative mindset, or both, is unclear. But what is clear is that it’s linked to depression, anxiety, and symptoms of high acute stress.

Meanwhile, some advertising channels are more susceptible to doomscrolling than others. Channels that offer high concentrations of news (or deep fakes)—and channels that offer short video content in a scrollable reel format—are particularly easy for consumers to spiral on. There’s even an app being marketed as a doomscrolling prevention tool.

On the flip side, there are advertising channels associated with more positive feelings. In The Stream 2024: Streaming Insights for Marketers, researchers found that many consumers consider streaming on platforms like Tubi, Netflix, and Hulu a catalyst and a conduit of human connection:

“In a world that can feel increasingly lonely, streaming plays a significant role in the lives of consumers by encouraging human connection and personal empowerment. An hour of streaming is an hour of quality time. For many people, streaming creates shared moments, bringing people together and creating content communities.”

— The Stream 2024: Insights for Marketers

Interestingly, this coming together and sense of community can happen in-person or remotely. While a majority of viewers (71%) said they stream content with members of their household as a form of quality time, over half (54%) of Gen Z communal watchers prefer to stream with people outside their homes. Sometimes, this happens via text, while watching the same content from different locations (21%). In other instances, it means chatting with folks on social media as they stream (13%).

But it’s not all group-hangs. For many viewers, streaming also represents “me time” and self-care: 68% view streaming TV or movies as an opportunity to carve out precious alone time.

The Short of It

As a marketer, you can never be certain of the mindset of every consumer you reach, but you use context clues to make some safer-than-not assumptions. Practically speaking, that means being aware of typical consumer behaviors on the channels you advertise on. It also might look like buying ad spots for streaming programs that are more likely to foster positive feelings or resonate with people who are in a positive mindset.

To learn more about consumers’ streaming behaviors, download The Stream 2024: Streaming Insights for Marketers.

Tubi is the world’s most watched free streaming service, accounting for 1.8% of all TV viewing in the U.S. With nearly 80 million monthly active users, Tubi is a hub for young, multicultural viewers not easily reached on linear TV or on other streaming platforms. Learn more about our advertising solutions for cord-never audiences at https://www.foxadsolutions.com/tubi/.

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