Ads With a Brand, Product Focus Drive Highest Intent With High-Income Audiences

High-income earners (making $100K+ a year) are a coveted audience for many brands, but what resonates with these viewers in advertising is often hard to unlock. A new analysis from iSpot across nearly 9,000 unique video ads from over 1,500 brands in 124 categories reveals a few clues that can help inform brand messaging and creative development to drive business results. 

Among the high-income audience, the most successful spots resulting in positive purchase intent have clear messaging with a brand and/or product focus. Additionally, ads that evoke curiosity or leverage humor can often break through — especially since this demographic shows stronger overall emotional reactions than the general population — but those elements don’t always guarantee purchase consideration. 

• Just over a third of the ads analyzed sparked above-average consumer intent for high-income viewers, with 17% securing a double-digit increase. Those with that double-digit increase had viewers commenting positively on cinematography and color, with creative that focused more on brand, product and/or message than the database norm. 
• This audience responded with very high (+30 points or more) purchase intent to ads that had a clear message and centered around the brand and/or product on offer — and 40% of the top performers had message, product or brand cited by viewers as the “single best thing” about the ad.
• One standout is Aleve’s “Ballet” ad, featuring interesting visuals and a message that was considered “clear & concise” by high-income viewers. This resulted in a 67% positive purchase intent, +30 points about the pharmaceutical norm.