Belanche, Flavián, and Pérez-Rueda (2020) show that the best moment to show the brand name flips with format. Active skippable audiences and captive non-skippable audiences do not process the same brand-timing rule.

3×2 experiment of brand-name timing (pre-arousal, during arousal, post-arousal) × format (skippable vs non-skippable). Skippable: pre-arousal brand recall 27.3%, during arousal 8.2%, post-arousal 12.8%. Non-skippable: post-arousal 28.6%, during 11.4%, pre-arousal 8.6%. Active skippable viewers process the front of the ad; passive non-skippable viewers need arousal before the brand payload.

Method

A neuroscientific pre-test selected an arousing video stimulus; a second pre-test checked scenario validity. The main study crossed three brand-placement designs with skippable and non-skippable formats and measured brand recall.

Main findings

  • Skippable = brand early. Highest recall when the brand appears before the arousal peak.
  • Non-skippable = brand after arousal. Highest recall in the traditional post-arousal structure.
  • During-arousal is worst in both. Placing the brand on the arousal peak produced the lowest recall in each format.

Why this is in the Darwin index

This is a direct peer-reviewed rule for feed video creative sequencing under skip control — the nearest published timing map to Darwin’s silent-start / early-hook questions. It sits next to Teixeira et al. (2012) on emotion trajectories and Brasel & Gips (2008) on compressed, silent brand exposure.

Source of record: doi:10.1108/OIR-01-2019-0035.