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WHY SCIENCE IS TAKING US OF ADVERTISING

\ “DUH” SCIENCEHARNESSING THE POWER OF SCIENCE TO PROVE STUFF WE KIND OF KNEW ALREADY

Tuesday, 15 April 14

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AGENDA STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS


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COMPANIES USED TO TRUST US AS GUARDIANS OF THEIR BRANDS


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WE ARE WIRED FOR SELF-DECEPTION

\ There’s always a difference between owner-run businesses, where the decision maker is allowed to be subjective...

...and shareholder owned businesses, where the decision maker has to justify their decisions

\ The types of businesses who are able to take leaps of irrationality achieve amazing success

MEET EARNST DICHTER \ THE FATHER OF MOTIVATIONAL RESEARCH

You don’t need to make your cars faster...

...if you make the spring under the accelerator stronger, it will feel faster


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TODAY, THINGS HAVE CHANGED

\ Most CEOs believe we live in “marketing la-la-land”


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BUSINESS IS ALL ABOUT THE SPREADSHEET

\ If something comes out of a spreadsheet, it’s an easy decision to defend

\ No one ever loses their job for behaving “rationally”


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THE RISE OF SPREADSHEET THINKING

\ Business prioritises objective, rational, economic value over psychological, intangible value

”Eurostar spent £6bn to make the journey time slightly shorter. For a tiny fraction of that, they

could have installed free wifi and massively improved peoples’ experience”

- Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman, Ogilvy


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ART VS SCIENCE

There’s the rational, logical stuff of business...

...and then there’s the fluffy, creative, intuitive stuff of advertising


We know there’s more to persuasion than information and logic...


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HUMAN DECISION-MAKING IS FAR FROM RATIONAL

Branded paracetamol reduces pain more effectively... ...than non-branded paracetamol


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OUR EXPERIENCE OF PRODUCTS IS FAR FROM RATIONAL

This tastes like chocolate

So does this [even when it’s vanilla with food dye]


...but we’ve never been able to codify this stuff

We’re playing a game without really knowing the rules


Enter neuroscienceThe communications industry is flooded with experts, each spruking their own take on “neuromarketing”...

...and clients love it


But, beware “neuro-bunk”

Even the scientists don’t really know what’s going on yet

The amygdala - a part of the brain that controls anger - is also

responsible for lust and attraction

The brain is too complex to find a silver bullet for marketing

Source: Beware Neuro-Bunk, Molly Crocket, TED, 2012Tuesday, 15 April 14

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So far, science isn’t telling us much that Bernbach didn’t know in the 50’s It’s actually backing up what we’ve always intuitively believed is right...


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“They [scientists] have to prove the obvious — and prove it again and again — to influence perceptions and policy.”

- Unknown member of the scientific community


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“They [scientists] have to prove the obvious — and prove it again and again — to influence perceptions and policy.”

- Unknown member of the scientific community

This is what we need to do as marketers - influence the perceptions and policy of the bean counters!


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THERE’S A LOT GOING ON IN OUR MINDS THAT WE’RE NOT AWARE OF

Freud popularised the psychological distinction between the conscious and the unconscious minds nearly a century ago...


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MOST OF THE BUSINESS OF LIFE HAPPENS QUITE UNCONSCIOUSLY

Conscious mind [5%]

Unconscious mind [95%]Drives almost all behaviour


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WE LIVE IN A DELUSION

\ We think the conscious mind is everything because it’s the voice in our heads


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WE CREATE BELIEVABLE STORIES TO RATIONALISE WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO


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RESEARCH ASKS PEOPLE TO REVEAL INSIGHTS THEY THEMSELVES DON’T KNOW


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THIS IS WHERE THE OPPORTUNITY LIES FOR MARKETERS

“In each of us there is another whom we don’t know”

- Carl Jung


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OUR MODERN SKULLS HOUSE STONE-AGE MINDS

3. Neocortex [the rational mind]The voice in our head that weighs up options, does calculations, imagines outcomes...

1. Reptilian brain [the physical brain]

Drives our strongest, most basic instincts

and primal urges

2. Limbic system [the emotional brain]

Controls our emotions and memories

\ The brain is an inelegant series of adhoc solutions heaped like ice cream scoops over millions of years of evolutionary design

\ Our primitive brain and its workings hasn’t disappeared. It continues to act as the home of our unaware, emotional and intuitive thought processes

\ The rational, thinking mind depends on the primitive, unconscious, emotional mind underneath


2. Limbic system [the emotional brain]

Controls our emotions and memories

Limbic system assigns value to things by attaching emotional tags - this is how it encodes and recalls the value of things

HippocampusEncodes the details

and facts of an experience, converting

information into long term memory

AmygdalaTags that event with a specific emotion. It imbues experiences with emotions, associating a feeling to a thing or event


Our brain values feelings more than logicHippocampus

The hippocampus recognises the

product as coke from its shape, colour, font and

classic logo...

Amygdala...but it’s the amygdala that tells you “I like Coke” based on a lifetime of memories and emotions associated with Coke


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DAMASIO’S DISCOVERY

\ Damasio recalls a patient that damaged the part of his brain responsible for emotions...and became stuck in this endless loop of indecision about everything [even something as simple as which restaurant to go to]

\ “A brain that can’t feel can’t make up its mind”


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WHY SCIENCE IS TAKING US OF ADVERTISINGDUH

\ Emotions drive our decision-making \ We make decisions primarily on emotions and then post- rationalise our decisions \ Injecting emotion into brands makes them more memorable and meaningful


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DANIEL KAHNEMAN \ THERE ARE TWO MODES OF THOUGHT IN THE BRAIN


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Fast, instinctive, emotional, unconscious thinking

SYSTEM 1


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SYSTEM 1

Slower, more deliberate, reflective, logical thinking

SYSTEM 2


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The emotional part of your brain has a LOT more

bandwidth - always perceiving, interpreting,

learning unconsciously...

...doesn’t provide a clear and objective view of the world,

but rather works to edit, filter and interpret it

SYSTEM 110,999,9960 BIT SYSTEM

2


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SYSTEM 110,999,9960 BIT

The logical part has less bandwidth and takes more energy to use - we avoid using it where possible

SYSTEM 2

40 BIT


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SYSTEM 110,999,9960 BIT SYSTEM

240 BIT

Filter, feel and act first with the emotional, intuitive System 1...

...cross-check / post-rationalise decisions afterwards with System 2 [if at all]


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SO BASICALLY...


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OUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE: OVERCOMING HOMER’S INDIFFERENCE

\ It’s System 1 that shapes and interprets the way we perceive the world

\ If we want to reach people, it’s our older, more primal, more emotional nature we need to connect with


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EVOKE AN EMOTIONAL RESPONSE

“Just move me dude”

- Dan Weiden


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UNEARTH AND TAP INTO GENUINE TRUTHS AND TENSIONS

Cultural truth: beauty today is manufactured.Dove believes in real beauty.

Cultural truth: facebook has given us acquaintances not real friends


“STOP INTERRUPTING WHAT PEOPLE

ARE INTERESTED IN AND BE WHAT

PEOPLE ARE INTERESTED IN”

- LEE CLOW

BE PART OF WHAT INTERESTS PEOPLE


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WRITING ADS FOR SYSTEM 1

Samsung: Product, tech, features, specs, specs and more specs

Apple: A story about peoples’ passion for learning


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HOW PEOPLE CONSUME ADVERTISING


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HOW PEOPLE CONSUME ADVERTISING \ PROBABLY MORE LIKE THIS

\ Half-closed eyes\ Half paying attention \ Less-than-half-caring

\ System 1, not System 2\ Sub-conscious, not conscious


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WRITING ADS FOR SYSTEM 1 \ IMPLICIT COMMUNICATION

\ Most advertising works on an implicit, subconscious level

\ Ads create networks of associations in the brain through visuals, sounds, symbols, music, gestures, context and a host of other things

[Designed for System 2]

[Designed for System 1]

Associations

Associations


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WRITING ADS FOR SYSTEM 1 \ SONY BRAVIA

Associations\ Spectacular\ Vivid colours\ Mesmerising

Implicit out-take\ Simply the best\ Worth paying more for\ Desire


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LIKE HOMER, WE FAVOUR THE PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE

Cognitively and behaviourally!


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HEURISTICS \ UNCONSCIOUS RULES OF THUMB

\ There’s always a difference between owner-run businesses, where the decision maker is allowed to be subjective...

...and shareholder owned businesses, where the decision maker has to justify their decisions

\ The types of businesses who are able to take leaps of irrationality achieve amazing success

A simple rule of thumb or algorithm that’s used to perform complex operations

\ Fast, efficient and undemanding\ Sometimes better than rationality\ Contextual - determined by environment \ situation\ Often operate beneath conscious awareness\ Social and contagious

Have a disproportionate effect on everything

\ Perception\ Value and costs\ Decision making\ Behaviour

^ To nail a high 5, watch the other guy’s elbow


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SYSTEM 1 HEURISTICS AND COGNITIVE BIASES


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FRAMING \ WE’RE INFLUENCED BY HOW THINGS ARE PRESENTED

\ Objective: Increase consumption by dispelling pork’s fatty reputation

\ Solution: Reframe it by tapping into a common heuristic - white meat is lean meat

Source: Unconscious BrandingTuesday, 15 April 14

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PROCESS ENDOWMENT

\ Framing a task as one that’s already started makes people more likely to

complete it

\ Carwash customers who received pre-stamped cards were twice as

likely to buy the additional eight

Source: Decoded - The Science of Why We BuyTuesday, 15 April 14

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CERTAINTY

The single best thing the London Underground did in terms of boosting satisfaction was putting dot matrix displays on the platforms

\ Psychologically, what makes a wait annoying isn’t the duration but the degree of uncertainty

\ Framing\ Certainty

\ Immediacy\ Loss aversion\ Social norms

\ Tangibility

Source: Perception is Everything, Rory Sutherland TEDTuesday, 15 April 14

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IMMEDIACY

\ What if you could impulse save “in-the-moment” like you spend?


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LOSS AVERSION

US energy company Opower ran two versions of a campaign: save $200 vs lose $200...

...framing the value as a loss was much more motivating [and successful] than framing it as

a gain


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SOCIAL NORMS \ WHEN IN DOUBT, COPY OTHER PEOPLE


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\ “Help save the environment, please recycle your towel” - 35% response


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\ “Most people recycle their towel” - 50% response


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\ “Most people recycle their towel” - 50% response

\ “Most people who stay in this hotel recycle their towel” - 75% response


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Why are people speeding?\ Young guys

Why are young guys speeding on our roads?\ Because it’s socially acceptable

How do we make speeding socially unacceptable for young guys?\ Insult the masculinity of young guys who speed


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WHY SCIENCE IS TAKING US OF ADVERTISINGDUH

\ Talk to the heart, not just the head\ Base your thinking in powerful truths and tensions\ Be part of what interests people\ Recognise the power of implicit communication \ Shift your focus from the explicit message to the out-take of the advertisement as a whole\ Tap into the mental shortcuts [heuristics] that people unconsciously use in life


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WHY SCIENCE IS TAKING US OF ADVERTISINGOF COURSE, WE ALREADY KNEW THIS...BUT NOW WE’RE CLOSER TO PROVING IT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZCUkFDfe2Q




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