How can companies use metaphor to make their advertising campaigns more effective?

University of Birmingham Business Club

In this breakfast with companies we will discuss language in business. Research has shown that the use of metaphor in advertising enhances brand recognition, recall and emotional attachment to the product. It is for these reasons that Esso famously invited consumers to ‘put a tiger in the tank’, and for their subsequent advertisements to feature a photograph of a tiger in the wild. In our study we have found that the amount, type and positioning of metaphor in billboards, magazine adverts and internet videos affect the appeal of the advertisements in different ways. We have also found that consumers from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds (English, Spanish and Chinese) appreciate metaphor in different ways. We would like to discuss our findings and explore ways in which they can help companies to produce creative yet culturally appropriate campaigns.

Whether you are an advertising agency or a business interested in brand management or would like to explore how best to use language to promote your business, this breakfast briefing is for you. University of Birmingham Business Club: Breakfast Briefing - March 2017 is on Tuesday 28th March at 07:30 and will run until 9:30.

To be led by:

Dr Paula Pérez-Sobrino - Marie Curie Fellow - Exploring Multimodal Metaphor in Advertising (EMMA 658079) project

Professor Jeannette Littlemore, Professor of English Language and Applied Linguistics

About this event

  • Tuesday, 28 March 2017 from 07:30 to 09:30 (BST)
  • BizzInn. Birmingham Research Park. B15 2SQ Birmingham.