When and How Slow Motion Makes Products More Luxurious

Abstract

This research examines when and how the speed of video ads influences consumers’ perceptions of luxuriousness and their subsequent behaviors toward products or brands featured in the ads. Across 12 experiments (total N = 27,227, five preregistered), we demonstrate that when a video ad depicts a product in slow motion (vs. regular speed), consumers perceive the featured product or brand as more luxurious. The effect emerges across various product categories (chocolate, shampoo, mineral water, wine) and in different countries (United States, United Kingdom, France). Tests of mediation and moderation suggest that the effect occurs because viewing a slow-motion ad increases feelings of immersion, which in turn lead consumers to expect greater hedonic value from the featured product and thus view it as more luxurious. Consistent with this account, the effect weakens when video blurriness or buffering impairs the immersive viewing experience afforded by slow motion, and the effect attenuates among consumers very weakly or very strongly predisposed to experience immersion. Finally, by enhancing perceptions of luxuriousness, slow motion subsequently boosts consumers’ desire for the featured product or brand (as manifested by higher willingness-to-pay, purchase intentions, and ad click rates), particularly when the goal to consume luxury is salient (vs. not).

The Art of Slowness: Slow Motion Enhances Consumer Evaluations by Increasing Processing Fluency

“…Apparently, slow motion can change the hedonic nature of the viewing experience, making it positive in some cases and negative in other cases. It has been suggested that these conflicting findings might be explained by the fact that slow-motion videos increase viewer immersion (Jung and Dubois 2022), since immersion can intensify the valence of an experience (Diehl, Zauberman, and Barasch 2016). Yet, Jung and Dubois (2022) did not experimentally manipulate valence, and other research even conflicts with their interpretation by suggesting that engagement is inherently pleasurable (De Oliveira Santini et al 2020), implying a mere main effect of immersion instead of an intensifying effect.…”

“…It has been suggested that these conflicting findings might be explained by the fact that slow-motion videos increase viewer immersion (Jung and Dubois 2022), since immersion can intensify the valence of an experience (Diehl, Zauberman, and Barasch 2016). Yet, Jung and Dubois (2022) did not experimentally manipulate valence, and other research even conflicts with their interpretation by suggesting that engagement is inherently pleasurable (De Oliveira Santini et al 2020), implying a mere main effect of immersion instead of an intensifying effect. Thus, existing work has neither theoretically nor empirically reconciled the conflicting affective consequences of slow motion.…”