Most of us believe the choices we make are a result of a rational analysis of available alternatives and information. We underestimate the role emotions play on influencing, and even determining our decisions.

Studies by News UK and the New York Times show that ads perform around 40% better by targeting audiences based on emotion and opinion. 

Last year News UK clubbed together all its audience data from The Times, The Sun, talkSport, WSJ, Barron’s, MarketWatch and other owned properties, alongwith third party data in collaboration with Mastercard Ad Intelligence to create bespoke marketing and advertising solutions. 

Since then, ads that target audiences based on emotion have been consistently outperforming regular placements, by a large margin. 

Dominic Carter, the chief commercial officer, who announced the launch at Cannes Lions, said the News IQ UK platform has a lot of first-party data about its users’ preferences, opinions and emotions and that can drive a potential 45% increase in ad engagement.

“The genius that was putting our businesses behind a paywall when everyone said we were crazy to do it has now been manifested,” Carter said, referring to News UK’s audience data.

The publisher has commissioned research from Paul Dolan, a professor of behavioural science the London School of Economics, which looked at 600 readers of The Sun and The Times and examined three online articles from each title and embedded various car and personal care video ads.

Dolan found those who consumed “emotionally arousing content – whether positive or negative” and then interacted with a video ad were 45% more likely to watch the ad in full.

Readers who consumed content that they defined as “pleasurable” and then interacted with the ad were 32% more likely to watch a complete video ad than those who consumed “non-pleasurable” content.

The publisher said its data on users’ opinions and emotions will “help brands to move their focus away from simple click metrics to more brand and attention-focused measures” such as time spent or total reach of target audience.

Ben Walmsley, digital commercial director at News UK, said News IQ can help advertisers build a deeper “psychological connection” with readers and drive “emotional loyalty”.

He said: “Traditionally advertising has been targeted based on the external facts about a person – their location, their financial behaviour, their online activities.

News Corporation, the US parent company, launched News IQ in the US last year and brands will be able to get access to audience data across the US and UK.

Walmsley said: “For us, it’s a change in thinking and putting data right at the heart of the business.”