4.4 Open-ended Assessment
Overall analysis revealed consistent feedback, both positive and
negative in sentiment, across organic and synthetic video types,
including expected critiques centered on both the argumentative
rationale for the business proposal and the spokesperson’s delivery,
suggesting that viewers were generally impressed and put off by the same
overall features and in with generally the same effect across video
types. While criticisms ranged from business specific questions to video
editing choices, these criticisms were applicable to all videos, given
that they were identical in content and form, save for the spokesperson
present.
However, another primary theme emerged in textual analysis of the
open-ended responses. Isolating the open-ended answers to the weakness
questions, partitioned to only those answers from respondents who rated
the effectiveness of brand-image below the general average, produced
useful unique additional data that identifies spokesperson’s performed,
delivered persona as a critical factor in pitch success.
More than 1 in 5 (22%) of respondents with sub-average ratings
commented in the open-ended weakness question that the spokesperson was
a weakness of the video. Over half of those responses (60%) explicitly
mentioned the synthetic nature of the avatar with comments such as
“felt like a computer talking” and “She was more like an AI robot”
and “It felt robotic or AI in sound and the man seemed very
disingenuous.” The other 40 percent commented more broadly on a flat,
disengaged delivery with comments like “weird voice” and “narrator
was monotone and boring” and “the announcer was stiff.” The explicit
focus on the spokesperson in these sub-average open-ended responses
suggests that the synthetic avatar as spokesperson is a mediating
variable.