The study saw Twitter partner with media agency Starcom and social TV analytics company Canvs to understand how programming influenced viewers’ emotions, as tracked by Tweets, as well as to see how these emotions drove their ability to remember TV ads and act on them. 

It was found that Twitter users were 62% more likely to recall brands advertised during a programme - whether they were actively Tweeting or just following along.

It was also found that there was a higher ad recall for TV programmes that elicited emotional reactions (according to Twitter data). So during programmes that generated a high percentage of Tweets with emotional reactions, viewers were 48% more likely to recall an ad than those seen during programmes that had a lower emotional reaction rate.

Further to that, it was found that viewers who were emotionally invested – again, as measured by Twitter reactions – were three times more likely to recall advertisers than those that Tweeted neutral reactions. 61% of the ‘emotionally reactive’ group said they would be likely to purchase from that brand now or in the future.