Negativity Bias: Why Customers Don’t Want Anything To Do With You (And What To Do About It) via @sejournal, @SequinsNsearch

Picture this: You’re sitting on a train to see a friend of yours you haven’t seen in a long time, sipping your favorite coffee order, and looking at a beautiful landscape outside the window. Everything is going great. Right up until someone sits right next to you, chatting loudly on the phone and ruining that peaceful journey of yours. Even though the train gets to its destination on time and without a hiccup, do you think you are most likely to mention the coffee, the landscape, and the quiet of the first part of the journey, or that annoying seatmate, when you friend asks how the journey’s been?

If you chose the latter, it’s not because you are a particularly pessimistic person. It’s all very normal, part of a common phenomenon known as negativity bias.

What Is The Negativity Bias?

The negativity bias is defined as an overattention to the negative aspects of an experience as compared to positive ones that carry the same emotional load. It affects the way we process and remember information, but also the way we interpret the world around us and make decisions. In short, it makes us value and remember the “bad” much more than the “good.”

The origins of the negativity bias are still under debate, and different theories have been raised, but one thing seems clear: It’s so ingrained in our biological profile that it even shows up as a functional asymmetry in our brain. That means that certain regions involved in emotional processing (like the amygdala and the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex) tend to process negative stimuli faster, or respond to them in a stronger way, showing that a greater weight is assigned to averse stimuli and situations as compared to neutral and positive ones. This has been corroborated by electroencephalography (EEG) studies isolating larger late positive potential amplitudes, which are a measure of stimulus significance, for negative rather than positive stimuli.

These neurobiological markers translate in a negative overattention that can be seen at the behavioral level from a very early age, which tends to rule out the possibility of the bias as a learned behavior. According to evolutionary theories, the bias might be tied to an early and adaptive response to threat, which hardwired us to be wary of negative or ambiguous stimuli in order to safeguard our species’ survival.

The Negativity Bias In Marketing

Given the power of negativity in shaping the perception of the world and, most importantly, our impressions and judgements, it is only natural that our industry has learned to leverage this bias as a way to get more content traction online. Think about those TikTok videos that start with a deceptive hook along the lines of “Why I’ll never buy [brand]” to then list only positive aspects of the experience. Or the way clickbait headlines still work, despite the fact we know exactly what the media are doing.

Several marketing studies have shown that CTRs are higher across different channels (including SEO) when we use negative superlatives as compared to neutral or positive ones, something that has been confirmed in a large Nature study on the consumption of negative news.

So, it is a known fact that, from the first touchpoints until the very last, negativity is a way to capture and retain the most precious commodity of today’s age, attention. However, what a lot of brands fail to acknowledge is that it can be a double-edged sword as well.

Because if it is true that our curiosity is piqued when we see something negative, it is also true that we are very quick at abandoning the journey when we realize we’ve been tricked into a click that wasn’t worth our time. And once people drop a journey, they are not likely to give it a second chance, particularly if they’re not already invested in the brand.

This doesn’t only have to do when brands are not delivering on their early promises (such a discount claimed on a title that ends up only being available under certain caveats, or an outdated pricing), but also includes the later stages of the experience, too.

An annual study by Baymard analyzing reasons for cart abandonment (when users have already put energy and time into evaluating offers and deciding to convert) found that a large portion of these blockers have to do with UX issues such as no guest check-out, insufficient information, and too long processes, rather than a misalignment of expectations:

And most times, these “bad portions” of the journey are the ones that tend to be remembered, rather than all the positives that users have encountered before the blockers. One bad experience can taint a website’s reputation in the prospects’ eyes, and represent a threat to the brand as a whole (see, for example, what happened with Coca-Cola and its AI ad recently).

How Can Brands Avoid Losing Customers To The Negativity Bias?

Even when a decision is made on the basis of rational arguments, it’s often the way someone feels about a product or brand that seals the deal. That’s the reason why you want to account for negative experiences (and how to fix them) in your customer acquisition and retention strategy.

Here are my top three tips to put in the agenda for a negativity-free 2026:

1. Removing Ambiguity

First of all, brands need to commit to transparency. The balance between negative and positive is skewed unfavorably when there is insufficient information.

Anytime someone needs to validate a brand’s legitimacy online, or the reliability of their processes and services, it’s an indicator of something that needs to be made clearer or more prominent earlier on in the journey. Isolating brand queries from internal analytics or social listening tools is a good starting point to really figure out what might be the ambiguity that becomes a blocker in the path from awareness to transaction.

2. Minimizing Unnecessary Frustrations

We have seen how the journey can be cut short even when the user is very motivated to complete an action, and how this can be tied to very specific negative experiences that outweigh all the positive aspects of an online journey. Sometimes, the mishaps we come across a website can be the equivalent of that annoying seat mate in our journey from intention to action. It can even drive us to change carriage.

So, in order to prevent dropouts, we don’t only need to fix the reported issues – we need to proactively remove the barriers our users have yet to encounter: cognitive load that produces decision paralysis, distractors that affect purchase intention, intrusive pop-ups that block a natural navigation, and much more.

Ultimately, your job has to help make the journey as smooth as possible and provide the path of least resistance to the action your users want to take.

If you’re looking for ways to get started on this, you can start by isolating behavioral data and potential friction points via surveys, CX logs, heatmapping tools, and ngram analysis from platforms that collect first-hand experiences belonging to both the awareness and the post-purchase stages.

3. Turning Flaws Into Ways To Connect With Customers

You know what’s a perfect example of this? 404 pages.

No one cares about them, especially when they’re a fraction of the millions of URLs a user can land on, but for some, they will be their first impression of a business. This is a particularly likely scenario when we know that AI assistants make up URLs and send users to broken pages more often than it would occur with a traditional search engine.

While we know that first impressions tend to last, particularly if they’re negative, the very last stages are equally important and should be given just as much attention.

If a user lands on a 404 page after evaluating all the offers that are relevant to them, that one annoyance has the potential to be pervasive of the entire experience, affecting the perception of the brand or service as a whole.

But here’s the thing: If you take that opportunity to turn that one frustration into a chance for connecting with your user, you might still come out on the winning end of that interaction. Negative is memorable because it makes us feel a certain way  – so we need to find ways to produce another emotion that can compete with it.

You can do so by acknowledging users’ frustration in a way that makes them smile, and providing them with an alternative path to reach the same goal, like on this page by Tripadvisor:

Or switching it up completely, and turning the experience into a positive one by leveraging surprise, delight, excitement.

It might seem almost too simple, but we need to remember that humans are much less complicated than we make them out to be. Deep down, most people just want to be understood and have reason to trust whoever they are placing their bets and time on – face to face, but mostly online.

Don’t make things harder for them, make them feel good, and most of all, do not trick them, as it will most likely backfire.

More Resources:

Featured Image: Vitalii Vodolazskyi/Shutterstock

AI Search Blueprint: Entity Maps, Structured Data, IndexNow & The Basics

Let’s reminisce for a moment. Do you remember how, back in 2020, we all obsessed over “link juice” and PageRank flow as far as internal links are concerned?

In 2025, what matters more is how your internal links define the entities and relationships on your site.

Internal linking is no longer just about distributing authority. It’s about:

• Building your own semantic map that Google can trust.
• Reinforcing your topical authority.
• Earning a place in an AI-search-forward landscape.

The last full guide I wrote on internal linking strategies was in 2020, and – well – much has happened since then (to say the least).

And most internal linking guides treat links as simple “traffic routers,” ignoring their role in building entity context.

So today, yes, I’m revisiting some of the basic building blocks of SEO, but we’re going to expand how we think about internal linking.

If you’re already deep into entity-first SEO and apply it to your internal linking tactics, skip ahead to the action items to ensure you’re implementing it well.

For everyone else, I’ll explain why tightening up your internal linking structure isn’t just table stakes. It’s one of the simplest core levers to influence organic visibility.

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

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Internal linking is the age-old SEO practice of connecting one page on your site to another page, all on the same domain.

These links act like the roads or highways that guide users through your content. But they also help search engines understand how your pages relate.

In the past, we thought about internal links as “pipes” for PageRank.

Add enough links from your homepage or other strong, well-ranking pages, and you’d push authority toward the URLs you wanted to rank.

That view isn’t wrong; it’s just incomplete.

Today, internal links aren’t just distributing authority. They’re defining the semantic structure of your site.

Internal linking isn’t simply a practice that routes people (and bots/crawlers) to the pages you want them to go to.

In fact, when we think about internal linking this way is exactly when we start to half-ass the practice or let it sit on the back burner.

The words you use in anchor text and the way you connect hubs of related content all signal to search engines: These are the entities your brand wants to be known for.

Strategic internal linking can do three critical things for your site:

1. Reinforce entity authority. You’re signaling to Google, and everyone else, which concepts you want associated with your brand.
2. Improve index stability. Pages that are well-linked internally are more likely to be crawled often – and that means they stay indexed and are likely to show up in AI-generated results. (This is especially for Bing optimization, which seems to struggle more with indexing than Google. Bing is often forgotten when it comes to AEO/GEO because everyone assumes ChatGPT only uses Google, but it doesn’t.)
3. Drive user engagement. Smart placement and descriptive anchors help users explore more of your related content, increasing engagement signals.

Put simply: Internal links aren’t just SEO plumbing. They’re how you build a discoverable, authoritative entity graph inside your own site.

Generative AI being infused into all modalities of search means Google and LLMs aren’t just hiking all over the web searching for crawlable/indexable pages — search engines and LLMs are mapping relationships between entities and judging your brand’s authority accordingly.

But currently, there’s some disagreement on whether or not LLMs can navigate your site through internal links.

My hypothesis? LLMs do form entity relationships via your strategic use of internal links. But probably not through traditionally “crawling” them like search engines do, and more purely based on text signals on the page.

And if that turns out to be true – keeping in mind that LLMs often use search engine results to ground themselves – internal linking also benefits LLM optimization/AEO/GEO mostly by improving Google/Bing ranks, which LLMs heavily rely on.

I dropped the question over on LinkedIn, you can check out the discussion there. But a few responses stood out. (Take a look at the full thread, but I also highly recommend following these pros to learn more from each of them.)

Dan Petrovic, founder and CEO of Dejan SEO, gave a detailed answer about the differences between a) the types of LLM crawlers and b) the different LLMs and how they behave.

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

Lily Grozeva, head of SEO at Verto Digital, rightfully called out that we can all get the answer in our own logfiles.

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

Chee Lo, head of SEO at Trustpilot, shared his experience with Perplexity, which seems to be a bit more aggressive than other bots.

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

Sites with clear internal linking patterns that mirror how humans connect concepts are (in theory, more data will tell over time) better positioned to be included in AI-generated answers and entity-rich snippets.

Way back in 2019, I explained the following in Semantic content optimization with entities:

Entities are semantic, interconnected objects that help machines to understand explicit and implicit language. In simpler terms, they are words (nouns) that represent any type of object, concept, or subject … According to Cindy Krum and her fantastic entity series, Google seems to restructure its whole approach to indexing based on entities (while you’re at it, read AJ Kohn’s article about embeddings). Understanding entities and how Google uses them in search sharpens our standards for content creation, optimization, and the use of schema markup.

Entities are nouns like events, ideas, people, places, etc. They’re the building blocks of ideas and how those ideas relate to each other. (They’re not just “keywords.”)

Search engines and LLMS use semantic relationships between entities to (1) reduce ambiguity, (2) reinforce authority/canonical sources on your site, and (3) map out relationships between topics, features, services, and audiences across your site.

When you internally link pages together with strategically descriptive anchors, you’re telling search engines how your site fits together … and you’re training them on how entities across your site connect.

Therefore, by practicing internal linking through an entity-based lens, you’re creating stronger, clearer relationships and patterns for Google/search engines/LLMs to understand.

Entity-first SEO starts with defining the people, products, concepts, and places your brand “owns.”

If you’re a B2B SaaS company offering a CRM, those entities might include your:

• Core product (CRM platform).
• Features (pipeline management, email automation, reporting dashboards).
• Use cases (sales enablement, customer support, marketing teams).
• Personas/target ICPs (heads of sales at mid-market companies, startup founders scaling revenue teams, or enterprise IT buyers).

Taking this example, you’re going to think in terms of topic-first SEO:

• Hub or pillar pages = parent entities. These are your central nodes – the definitive resource on a core concept. For a B2B SaaS CRM, it might be the CRM platform overview page.
• Cluster pages = sub-entities. These are the supporting nodes that expand on the hub. For a CRM, the CRM hub branches into feature pages like pipeline management, email automation, and reporting dashboards.
• Cross-link clusters to show relatedness. Don’t just point everything back to the hub – connect the clusters to each other to model real-world relationships. In the instance of the CRM, pipeline management integrates with email automation to shorten deal cycles.
• Navigation and breadcrumbs reinforce hierarchy. The visible structure tells both users and Google how entities fit together. Example: Home → Products → CRM → Pipeline Management.
• Include personas in the implementation. This reinforces the relationship: This persona → has this pain point → solved by this feature → within this product topic.

For example, look at this topic cluster map created with Screaming Frog:

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

It shows two clusters with nodes very close together (red and orange) and three other clusters that are spread apart (green, blue, and purple). Guess which clusters outperform the others in organic search? Red and orange!

Here’s how you connect those entities into a meaningful structure in the copy on the page:

1. Anchor text = entity disambiguation.

Instead of linking with vague text, use descriptive anchors that clarify which entity the link refers to. For example, if your CRM has a feature page about pipeline management, link to it with “sales pipeline management CRM feature” language.

2. Consistency matters.

If you always link to that pipeline management page with variations like “pipeline automation tool,” “deal tracking software,” and “CRM feature,” you dilute the entity connection. (But variations like “pipeline management tool,” “sales pipeline management CRM feature,” and “pipeline management features” are derivatives.)

By sticking to clear, consistent anchors, you signal to Google that this is the page that defines “pipeline management” for your brand.

3. Context strengthens meaning.

The sentence or paragraph around the link can add semantic weight. For example:

“Our CRM includes pipeline management, so your sales team can track every deal from prospecting to close.”

That tells Google (and users) that pipeline management isn’t just a phrase; it’s a core feature within the CRM product.

4. Include personas.

Making personas a criterion for internal linking is a no-brainer, because from a psychological perspective, a link automatically signals “there’s more for you here.”

If your internal link is placed on the right word that triggers a response in your target ICPs (and the right areas of the page), it increases the chance of people staying on the site. It’s also just a better experience – and good customer service – to help site visitors find the right offering specifically for themselves, all with the goal to increase trust and the chances they take an action or convert.

If one of your ICPs is head of Sales at mid-market SaaS companies, you might internally link from a blog article like “10 Ways SaaS Sales Leaders Can Shorten Their Sales Cycle” directly to your pipeline management feature page, while using copy surrounding that link that explains how your offering solves this problem. That link makes the relationship explicit: This is the feature that solves this persona’s pain point.

Ultimately, think of every internal link as a connector in your brand’s knowledge graph.

Together, these links show how entities and topics (like CRM platform → pipeline management → sales enablement → head of sales persona) relate to each other, and why your site is authoritative on them.

Amanda Johnson jumping in here to add: Basically, show + tell people (and search engines/LLMs) what you want them to know via literal semantics. It really is that simple. No need to overthink this. Use clear, descriptive, accurate anchor text for the internally linked page, use it consistently, and give context as to how/why the page is linked there with surrounding copy.

Ultimately, if you practice internal linking thoughtfully and methodically, you end up with a better user experience and more thorough reinforcement of internal entity relationships (which can improve topical authority signals).

Worried that your most important pages aren’t getting enough visibility because you haven’t set up a clear linking structure? Following the guidance above will help you resolve this and set up a clear internal linking system.

And using tools that have internal link auditing (like Semrush, Ahrefs, Clearscope, Surfer, etc.) will help you implement your system. Some SEO tools also give page-level internal linking recommendations and copy suggestions to anchor the text to.

Internal linking hasn’t just been about crawlability for some time now.

By structuring links around topics, entities, (and even user journeys of your target personas), you communicate your site’s semantic map to Google and LLMs.

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal

The Brands & Campaigns That Won Black Friday 2024 via @sejournal, @gregjarboe

When it comes to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the winners aren’t just the brands that rack up sales; they’re the ones that capture attention, drive conversation, and leave a lasting impression.

In 2024, Pixability’s YouTube Insights revealed how shoppers used video to plan and validate purchases throughout the season. Meanwhile, YouGov’s BrandIndex tracked which brands earned the highest “Buzz scores,” asking consumers whether they had heard something positive or negative about a brand in the past two weeks. And DAIVID’s creative testing platform analyzed how Amazon and Walmart’s humor-driven campaigns performed.

Together, these data sources provide a 360-degree view of who won last year – and what lessons marketers should take into 2025.

What Pixability’s Insights Tell Us About Black Friday 2024

Pixability’s YouTube Insights provide a valuable lens on what drove consumer behavior last season – and what will matter in 2025.

In a direct email, Matt Duffy, the CMO of Pixability, told me on Sept. 18, 2025, “YouTube searches that spike the most on Black Friday are tech-related products, but in terms of consumption patterns, the real winners are home-related channels – where people are likely watching reviews of bigger-ticket items like couches or even how to put a deck on your house.”

Duffy also shared original research directly with me that showed on Black Friday itself (Nov. 29, 2024), searches for popular products spiked compared to the seasonal average:

• Dyson Airwrap: up 132%.
• AirPods Pro: up 100%.
• Nespresso Vertuo: up 92%.
• Smart TVs: up 73%.
• Madden NFL 25: up 42%.

But the bigger story was how far in advance shoppers began preparing. In November, views of product-related content like gift guides, reviews, and hauls were nearly 19% higher than the rest of 2024. By October, those same videos were already up 26% compared to the first nine months of the year.

Duffy added, “The uptick in product interest accelerates as early as October, with views on videos that inform purchase decisions up 26.3% compared to the first nine months of the year.”

Category-specific growth was also revealing:

• Home content: up 91% in October, 62% in November.
• Tech content: up 26% in October, 8% in November.
• Fashion content: up 17% in October, 8% in November.

The surge in home-related content suggests shoppers are increasingly using Black Friday to make bigger lifestyle investments, not just splurge on gadgets.

Retailers benefited as well. For example, Best Buy-related content saw an 18% jump in November, reflecting how brand-specific searches converged with shopping intent.

The takeaway? Winning Black Friday begins long before Black Friday. Brands that resonate are the ones that show up early, align with categories people are actively researching, and create the kind of content – reviews, guides, tutorials – that helps consumers feel confident about their choices.

Duffy concluded, “Views on videos that inform purchase decisions – gift guides, reviews, hauls – were 18.7% higher in November than the rest of 2024, with home-related content up 62% year-over-year.”

Which Brands Generated The Most Buzz During Black Friday And Cyber Monday 2024?

During a webinar on Sept. 24, 2025, Ashley Brown of YouGov said, “Ahead of 2025, we looked back at the brands that drove the highest Buzz during November last year to understand which categories are winning consumer attention during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.”

Brown added, “YouGov BrandIndex tracked more than 2,000 U.S. consumers between Nov. 1 and Dec. 3, 2024. The net Buzz score showed which fashion, retail, tech, beauty, and gaming brands were most positively talked about during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.”

As the dust settled after Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2024, one thing became clear: Not all brands captured consumer attention equally. Some emerged as big winners in the battle for share of mind, sparking conversations online, in the news, and at the dinner table.

The results highlight which fashion, retail, tech, beauty, and gaming brands broke through the noise. Let’s take a closer look.

Fashion Retail: Nike Runs Ahead Of The Pack

In fashion, Nike led with a Buzz score of 26.2, proving once again that its mix of cultural relevance, athlete endorsements, and smart digital campaigns keeps it top of mind.

The rest of the top 10 shows a mix of performance wear, heritage names, and mass-market favorites:

1. Nike (26.2).
2. Adidas (22.5).
3. Rolex (19.9).
4. Skechers (18.8).
5. Old Navy (18.5).
6. Victoria’s Secret (17.1).
7. New Balance (16.2).
8. Puma (16.2).
9. Levi’s (15.2).
10. Crocs (14.7).

From high fashion watches (Rolex) to comfort footwear (Crocs), fashion buzz during Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2024 reflected both status and accessibility.

Retail Stores: Walmart, Home Depot, And Target Dominate

Among retailers, Walmart took the top spot with a Buzz score of 23.9, but Home Depot was a close second (23.8). Target and Lowe’s tied at 22.0, while Costco rounded out the top five at 21.3.

The full ranking underscores how large-format retailers continue to dominate awareness:

1. Walmart (23.9).
2. Home Depot (23.8).
3. Target (22.0).
4. Lowe’s (22.0).
5. Costco (21.3).
6. IKEA (17.7).
7. Best Buy (16.6).
8. Ace Hardware (15.2).
9. Home Goods (14.9).
10. Kohl’s (13.9).

These brands won by blending convenience, deep discounts, and multichannel experiences that amplified their visibility.

Tech & Electronics: iPhone Tops The Charts

It wouldn’t be Cyber Monday without tech. In 2024, the iPhone led the pack with a Buzz score of 33.5 – the highest single score across any category. Samsung (29.4) and Apple as a brand (29.0) followed, reflecting the enduring ecosystem war.

Here are the top 10:

1. iPhone (33.5).
2. Samsung (29.4).
3. Apple (29.0).
4. LG (21.4).
5. Android (21.3).
6. Apple Watch (21.1).
7. Sony (15.8).
8. iPad (15.8).
9. HP (15.5).
10. Google Pixel (14.8).

Big launches, steep markdowns, and loyal communities made tech brands the most talked-about of Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2024.

Skincare, Hair & Cosmetics: Dove Leads In Double Categories

In beauty, Dove pulled off a rare double, ranking No. 1 in both skincare (28.6) and haircare (26.0). Legacy personal care brands dominated, while retailers like Sephora and Bath & Body Works also broke into the top 10.

The rankings:

1. Dove (Skincare) (28.6).
2. Dove (Haircare) (26.0).
3. Vaseline (22.0).
4. Olay (18.8).
5. Nivea (18.1).
6. CeraVe (17.2).
7. Head & Shoulders (14.5).
8. Neutrogena (14.3).
9. Sephora (13.5).
10. Bath & Body Works (13.3).

The buzz highlights how trusted household brands continue to thrive, even in a social-driven beauty market.

Video Games: Call Of Duty Fires The Winning Shot

Gaming saw heated competition, but Call of Duty secured the top spot with a Buzz score of 16.8, followed closely by Candy Crush Saga (16.5) and Super Mario Bros. (14.8).

The top 10 video game brands during Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2024 were:

1. Call of Duty (16.8).
2. Candy Crush Saga (16.5).
3. Super Mario Bros. (14.8).
4. Call of Duty: Warzone (14.2).
5. MONOPOLY GO! (11.9).
6. Minecraft (11.4).
7. Mortal Kombat (10.9).
8. Grand Theft Auto (9.7).
9. EA Sports FC (9.6).
10. Fortnite (9.3).

From AAA franchises to mobile hits, gaming buzz was fueled by new releases, bundles, and the power of community-driven hype.

Brown concluded, “The lesson for marketers is clear: measuring net Buzz doesn’t just reveal who won last year – it provides a roadmap for which categories and campaigns are most likely to generate positive word-of-mouth this holiday season.”

Amazon And Walmart Prove Humor Can Win Black Friday

While buzz rankings and search spikes show marketers and their agencies which brands topped the conversation, creative execution explains why.

In 2024, Amazon and Walmart both leaned into humor – and it paid off, according to original research shared directly with me on Sept. 26, 2025, from DAIVID’s AI-powered testing platform.

Amazon’s “Five Star Theater” campaign featured actor Adam Driver performing dramatic monologues based on actual customer reviews. By turning quirky product reviews into performance art, Amazon transformed shopping commentary into entertainment.

Walmart countered with “Deals of Desire,” a 10-part parody series riffing on popular TV tropes, distributed across TV, YouTube, TikTok, and out-of-home. The series even brought back Vampire Diaries star Ian Somerhalder, who read reviews in character.

According to DAIVID’s creative data, both brands outperformed the industry average for humor. Amazon’s ads were 22% funnier than typical campaigns, while Walmart’s were 19% funnier. Walmart’s “Stable Boy of the Season” was the single funniest ad, boosting purchase intent nearly 9% above the norm.

In an email sent directly to me, a spokesperson for DAIVID said, “The problem with brands trying to be funny is that most fail. For advertisers, it’s even harder as you also have to squeeze in some suitable brand messaging at the same time, while also not offending any of your target demographics. Easier said than done. Well, despite the risks, both Walmart and Amazon managed to tickle people’s funny bones with their campaigns.”

Image courtesy of DAIVID, shared to author, October 2025

Attention patterns told a different story. Both campaigns struggled to hook viewers in the first few seconds, but Amazon steadily won people over by the end of its longer-form spots, such as the “Salad Bowl” video. Walmart’s performance varied, though “Stable Boy” again stood out as the exception.

The spokesperson added, “Losing attention in the first few seconds can really hurt an ad’s performance. It’s hard to win it back. So, it’s interesting that in Amazon’s case overall attention levels in ‘Five Star Theater’ by the final few seconds actually exceeded the industry average. As people listened to the content, they started to understand the premise more and were more inclined to stick around.”

Image courtesy of DAIVID, shared to author, October 2025

Brand recall was strong across the board, with Walmart benefiting from explicit mentions of its loyalty program. Purchase intent lifted for both brands – +6.4% for Amazon, +5.8% for Walmart – putting them well ahead of the average ad.

Using DAIVID’s Creative Effectiveness Score (CES), both campaigns ranked well above industry norms. Walmart posted a CES of 6.21, while Amazon edged ahead at 6.39, with its “Adam Driver, Dutch Oven” spot scoring highest at 6.47.

The lesson? Black Friday campaigns don’t have to be just about deals. Humor, when executed well, not only entertains but also boosts recall, strengthens brand affinity, and drives intent. Amazon and Walmart proved that a wink can sometimes work better than a shout.

The spokesperson concluded, “Viewers of the Amazon ads were on average 6.4% more likely to splash the cash after watching than the industry norm. In fact, all of the top five ads that scored the highest for purchase intent came from Amazon. Meanwhile, Walmart’s ads were 5.8% more likely to inspire people to reach for their wallets than the average ad.”

Looking Forward: What 2024’s Winners Tell Us About 2025

Looking back at 2024, three different data sources tell a powerful, complementary story:

• Pixability’s YouTube Insights demonstrate that planning and discovery start weeks before the sales, with shoppers relying heavily on video to guide decisions.
• YouGov’s Buzz scores show which brands were most talked about across categories – from Nike and Walmart to iPhone and Dove.
• DAIVID’s creative testing reveals why campaigns work, with Amazon and Walmart proving that humor can drive both engagement and purchase intent.

For marketers preparing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025, the lesson is clear: Success won’t come from deals alone. The campaigns most likely to win will be the ones that:

• Enter the conversation early.
• Align content strategies with the way consumers actually research and shop.
• Use creative storytelling to stand out.

In other words, Black Friday isn’t just a day; it’s a season. And the brands that treat it that way will be the ones topping the buzz charts, driving intent, and winning hearts in 2025.

More Resources:

Featured Image: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock