New research suggests that accents can impact advert effectiveness 

IRS+ conducted an experiment to explore Local Accent Bias, showing that consumers were more engaged when an ad featured an accent similar to theirs

Response to a Nissan car commercial featuring a local voiceover was up to 5.13% higher than the response to the same ad with a neutral voiceover.

New research suggests that voiceover accents can impact the effectiveness of advertisements.

Broadcast advertising specialists IRS+ conducted an experiment with 15,000 respondents to explore the psychology behind the commercial impact of accents.

The test was conducted via YouTube and pitted a national Nissan car commercial featuring a neutral voiceover against the same commercial with a local voiceover.

The ads ran side by side for two weeks in four different regions: Co Kerry, the midlands, the southeast, and Co Donegal.

When analysing the results, researchers found that the geographically targeted ad outperformed the national ad, especially in Co Donegal and Co Kerry, where the response to the ads with local accents was 5.13% and 3.91% stronger.

In the midlands, the targeted ad outperformed the national one by 2.26%.

“This research proved the science of Local Accent Bias, where we lean in and become more engaged when we hear others speaking in the same way as ourselves,” said Peter Smyth, CEO of IRS+.

“There is a commercial advantage to running national and locally targeted executions – allowing brands to extract maximum value from each campaign and extend the length of activity by generating increased local engagement.” 

Jeanne McGann, Head of Marketing and Communications at Nissan Irel added: “We were delighted to be asked by IRS+ to lend our national campaign for the purposes of this fascinating piece of research.

“It has delivered an important new insight that confirms that, in Ireland, there is a different dynamic at play between national and local activity. It has certainly given us a new perspective.”