The Live Moment Effect: How Emotion in Live Sports Boosts Brand Recall
New research shows that brands aligned with emotionally heightened moments in live sports can improve ad effectiveness.
Live sports have long commanded premium advertising budgets for one simple reason: they capture attention at a scale few other media environments can still deliver. But attention, as new research suggests, is not static. It rises and falls with the emotional rhythm of the game itself.
A near score, a decisive turnover, or a momentum-shifting play can heighten audience focus in ways that extend beyond the action on screen and into the advertising that follows. For brands, that changes the equation from merely buying reach to understanding emotional timing.
New biometric research from Genius Sports, conducted with MediaScience, shows that ads delivered immediately after emotionally heightened moments in live sports can double unaided brand recall. The study, The Live Moment Effect, finds that advertising effectiveness is significantly influenced by a viewer’s emotional state immediately before an ad is shown.
The Live Moment Effect
The Live Moment Effect is the impact that high-intensity, in-game moments have on how fans process and remember advertising in the surrounding periods of time.
When emotion peaks during a game, that energy carries forward, increasing attention and improving unaided brand recall for advertising.
For example, in controlled biometric testing, ads shown after high-intensity sporting moments, such as near-scoring plays or crucial momentum shifts, delivered approximately double the unaided brand recall of baseline conditions.
“The sports advertising playbook is being rewritten around the moments when fans are most emotionally engaged,” said Josh Linforth, CRO at Genius Sports.
“Brands should be present across the full fan journey — pre-game, in-game and post-game — because every stage of the sports experience creates an opportunity to connect. Within that always-on presence, this research shows that certain moments carry extra impact.”
The Moment Before the Ad Matters
The research challenges long-held assumptions about media value, showing that not all impressions are equal.
Live sports remain one of the last entertainment formats with large-scale audiences. According to Sports Business Journal, sports accounted for 96 of the top 100 most-watched US telecasts of 2025.
But scale alone does not make every impression equally valuable. Fans’ attention rises and falls with the action, making the moments immediately after high-intensity plays especially powerful for advertisers.
Cutting through requires knowing when those moments occur and being ready to reach the right fans in real time with messaging tailored to the moment.
“Our research continues to reinforce a principle we’ve observed across the media landscape: context matters,” said Phillip Lomax, CRO at MediaScience.
Key Research Findings
The study highlights how emotional context directly influences attention, memory formation, and advertising effectiveness during live sports viewing. Here are some key findings
- Emotional context determines advertising impact: Viewer emotional state immediately before an ad break determines how well the ad registers and sticks.
- Pre-ad break mindset affects attention and encoding: Mindset at the ad break entry shapes how deeply content is processed and how strongly it forms in memory.
- Live sports create fluctuating attention environments: Live sports shift emotional intensity in real time, creating natural windows of heightened audience attention.
- Not all impressions are equal: The same ad in two different emotional contexts can perform very differently — placement timing and proximity to an emotional moment are the variables.
- Emotional carryover boosts memory: High-emotion moments make the brain more receptive, lifting unaided brand recall.
- The first 4 spots in a pod matter most: Right after a big moment is the peak attention window, lasting through the first 4 ads in the next pod.
- Context beats creative (in the moment): Emotional intensity before the ad drives unaided brand recall more than the ad itself.
A Shift from Buying Media to Activating Moments
The findings point to a fundamental shift in how sports media should be planned and valued. The research shows that recall is concentrated around moments of peak emotion. As a result, aligning ad delivery and ad messaging with real-time game context can significantly improve campaign outcomes.
“When a momentum shift, near score or decisive play changes how fans are feeling and focusing, the message should change with it,” added Josh Linforth.
“In live sports, emotionally heightened moments prime audiences differently, changing their cognitive and emotional state before an ad is even delivered. When an advertisement aligns with that moment, the context and the creative converge to strengthen memory encoding and significantly amplify recall,” said Phillip Lomax, CRO at MediaScience.
“That creates a meaningful opportunity for brands to improve performance through real-time, moment-based activation rather than simply increasing media volume.”
The research analysed viewer response to advertising across varying levels of emotional intensity during live sports, measuring attention, cognitive engagement, and brand recall in controlled environments.
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