Every week, Amárach and Future Proof Insights share exclusive findings from their PRIZM+ ad testing service, showcasing best practice creative advertising in Ireland.

Set in the recognisable thrill of Emerald Park, Flogas' summer campaign sets out to do something rare, make utility feel like amusement. The creative leans into the metaphor of energy as a rollercoaster, linking the excitement of a theme park to the reliability of Flogas’ dual fuel offering.

The tone is light, familiar, and confidently Irish, balancing domestic realism with surreal humour. Subtle, repetitive cues reinforce the brand’s identity: the “gas man” line is both a literal description and a playful nod to Irish vernacular, which is quickly refined to “the gas and electricity man.”

This correction builds continuity with previous Flogas campaigns and supports memory encoding through repetition, making it easier for viewers to retrieve the message later.

At a neural level, the ad performs well. Engagement builds steadily, with memorisation peaking precisely where it should, alongside brand assets and verbal payoffs.

Cognitive load remains mostly optimal, while emotional intensity is moderate but stable. Desire never surges, but that’s unsurprising given the product. What matters is that brand cues land cleanly and stay there.

High-Impact Scene 1: “The Offer” (10.0–15.0s)

We find the father figure at Emerald Park, poncho on, caught mid-splash. It’s a playful but grounded moment, and the main character, the gas man, delivers the offer: two free tickets for switching or renewing online.

Why it worked This is a reward moment. The viewer has now internalised the premise and gets a clear, direct benefit. The mix of visual humour and tangible incentive drives memorisation and anchors the brand to a positive moment.

Importantly, the context has already been clearly established by this point, framing everything that follows through a branded lens.

This makes subsequent scenes easier to process and primes the viewer to associate new information with the brand. Neural data shows strong encoding here, with steady load and high memorability.

High Impact Scene 2: “Gas Part of It” (16.0–21.0s)

Here comes the punchline. Our nervous dad rockets through a rollercoaster as the gas man quips, “The gas part of Flogas is only part of it.” Cue laugh. Cue brand lock-in.

Why it worked Humour plus branding is a proven formula. This scene delivers the conceptual closure the viewer's brain craves: the metaphor resolves, the line lands, and memory locks in. Impact reaches its highest peak here, accompanied by strong memorisation and desire metrics.

Cognitive closure is clearly at play, viewers are rewarded for following the metaphor through its full arc, leading to a release of mental effort and a spike in satisfaction.

This release primes the brain for encoding and retrieval. Because this emotional payoff is so tightly paired with a brand line and audio-visual reinforcement, the scene becomes a neural anchor.

Underperforming Scene 1: “Is That the Gas Man?” (0.0–4.0s)

Opening with kids at Emerald Park and a soft metaphorical line (“Is that the gas man?”), this scene is visually strong but neurologically quiet.

Why it fell flat…so far While the opening scene is visually appealing, it doesn’t trigger strong emotional or memory-related brain responses. But this is to be expected when introducing a new metaphorical framework.

The “gas man” reference is novel and layered with meaning, which requires viewers to cognitively work to connect the dots. That effort delays the emotional payoff but sets up a richer one later.

With repetition and context, as seen in later scenes, this framing becomes easier to retrieve and more meaningful. Over time, and especially across a campaign, this approach can build strong brand salience as audiences grow more fluent in its internal language.

Underperforming Scene 2: “Ice Cream Wind-Down” (22.0–30.0s)

The family winds down their day with ice cream, hair windswept and expressions content. The VO offers a final wink: “That was gas.” “Actually, it was electricity.” The brand tagline appears on screen: “Energy for everyone. Switch at flogas.ie.”

Why it presents an opportunity This closing scene delivers on clarity and structure, but it faces a common challenge by this stage, viewers sense the ad is winding down, and attention naturally dips. Holding back the offer or key product benefits until after the narrative arc resolves risks losing some viewers before the final message lands.

While there is a recency effect in play, the emotional intensity has already peaked. A more emotionally resonant or surprising final beat, or even teasing the offer slightly earlier, could ensure stronger retention and capitalise on the brand clarity already established.

There’s nothing structurally wrong here; it’s simply a case of missing the emotional follow-through to lock in the message.

Behavioural impact: motivation without urgency

Motivation scores were solid, particularly among younger families, those most likely to connect the Emerald Park context to their own lives. The offer resonated, and viewers understood what Flogas wanted them to do. This demographic also showed higher emotional resonance and memorability, suggesting the ad’s family-first tone aligned well with their lived experience.

Capability was also strong. The proposition, dual fuel, switch online, get tickets, was easy to understand and felt actionable. Older audiences also showed clear comprehension, though with slightly lower levels of emotional engagement.

Opportunity was the weaker link. The scenes play out at an individual or nuclear family level, and there’s limited broader social proof. As a result, the ad struggled to drive behavioural uplift among single-person households and older demographics without children. Including subtle cues of community use or endorsement could expand the ad’s relevance across a broader base.

What marketers can take from this execution

There’s a lot to like here. The ad is tight, funny, well-cast, and distinctly local. Its metaphor is clear (eventually), and it avoids overloading the viewer. The strength lies in timing: brand lines are paired with emotional or humorous release, which is exactly where memory tends to form.

What marketers can learn is that pairing verbal clarity with emotional payoffs helps encode brand meaning, especially when it comes after a build-up. However, early scenes in this ad require a degree of cognitive effort from the viewer without immediately giving something back.

While this is acceptable in a narrative arc, there's always a risk of attrition. A faster setup or even leading with a visual metaphor more explicitly might hold attention more tightly.

The core formula works: clarity, comedy, and benefit. But one clear watchpoint is timing. When the narrative arc resolves, viewers intuitively sense the story is ending, and attention begins to drop.

Delivering key product information or offers after this emotional peak risks missing those who have already mentally checked out. Marketers should consider integrating these offers into the body of the story itself, ensuring important information lands while engagement is still high.

To elevate performance further, marketers should consider how early context frames processing, how repetition helps memory, and how strategic timing of brand benefits, before attention fades, can strengthen behavioural impact.

For more insights from PRIZM+ on how neuroscience drives advertising impact, visit: futureproofinsights.ie/prizm-plus

(Pic: YouTube/Flogas)