April 2012: Life for brands is getting more and more complex. More choices about where and how to communicate, but thanks to the power of social, less control over the communication. Yet, at the heart of this complexity, a simple truth remains: great communications are a good story, well told. Our keynote speaker, Nick Southgate, will talk about how behavioural economics can help in this process.
Emotions we all know are important BUILD… And when we talk about emotions we’re not just talking about feelings, it’s more than that BUILD …It’s the physiological reactions throughout the brain and the body BUILD …Specifically it’s activities that take place in the limbic system (emotional centres) of the brain in response to stimuli … BUILD …that trigger autonomic responses in the heart, skin, face and throughout the body
They are certainly easy to evoke… …especially when you’re a child as in the examples I’ve been showing from Jill Greenberg’s End Times show where each child was given a lollypop, only to have it taken away again These are their reactions Children are very raw emotionally, it’s either off or on. Subtlety is not impossible but is harder to find with kids, and that’s where neuroscience comes in
WHY DO WE CARE ABOUT EMOTIONS? • It defines RELEVANCE
• Tells us which information ENGAGES…
• …And which is IGNORED
• Directs ATTENTION, enhances MEMORY and learning
• And INFLUENCES BEHAVIOUR
Presenter
Presentation Notes
But why do we care about emotions? BUILD …Most people are in agreement that emotions act as a relevance detector, it defines personal resonance… reminding you of things you enjoy, or care about, or fitting with your personal values BUILD …Emotions tells us which information engages BUILD …And which is ignored BUILD …Emotions direct our attention, enhances memory and ultimately learning, and most importantly of all… BUILD Emotions influence behaviour. Emotions are perhaps the most important aspect of marketing because they hold the key to brand preference and purchase behaviour But how do we measure them?
WE STILL NEED TO KNOW WHAT PEOPLE SAY AND DO (CONSCIOUS)
Survey
Conversations
Social Listening
Behaviour
Presenter
Presentation Notes
That’s not to say there isn’t validity in asking people questions, listening to their answers, listening to what they say to each other, watching what they do – all reflecting the conscious Their reactions Their behavioural responses Their rational thought Their processes Their Reasons ‘why’
BUT NOW WE ALSO KNOW HOW THEY ACTUALLY FEEL (UNCONSCIOUS)
Brain
Waves
Biometrics/
Eye Tracking
Facial
Expressions/ Body Language
Implicit
Associations (IAT TESTS)
Presenter
Presentation Notes
But now we can also marry that with tools derived from neuroscience, psychology and physiology (‘ologies always remind of the old BT ad… Anthony, you get an ‘ology’ and you’re a scientist) This means we can capture emotional nuance and unconscious response patterns Neuroscience gives us Immediate visceral reactions It’s highly discriminating The ability to zone in on specific areas of an ad rather than the sum of its parts And it measures emotional engagement and the emotions which really count in understanding the consumer experience I’m going to pick up specifically on biometrics in more detail later
Because it gives us something else It tells us something extra It says something new …and sometimes helps us to put together the whole story rather than hypothesise from stated responses
Because it gives us something else It tells us something extra It says something new …and sometimes helps us to put together the whole story rather than hypothesise from stated responses
BEST OF BOTH WORLDS • Ipsos has provided self-report
measures of emotion for several years. These are just the beginning…
• Now we can go beyond stated and accessible emotions (feelings) to those that are unstated and inaccessible
• Now we can offer conscious & unconscious understanding for holistic interpretation and better ROI
T ir e d / Wo r n O ut
H a t
r e d
/R ep u ls e d
S h
o c k
e d
H a r m o n y /
A C o n n e c t io n
F r e e /
U n r e s t r ic t ed
D is li
k e
A lo o f /
F e e l S u p e r io r
E x p lo it e d /
R ip p e d - o f f
S k e p t ic a l
S
h y
U p s e t
E m b a r r a s se d /A sh a m e d/ G uilt
A p a t h e t ic /
U n m o v e d
B o r e d
D is a p p o in t e d
Wo r r ie d /
C o n c e r n ed
I n t im id a t ed
I r r it a t e d
L o n e ly /
I g n o r e d
S a d / D e p r e s se d
A n g r y /
O u t r a ge d
S u r p r is e d /
A m a z e d
G r a t it u de /
R e lie v e d
E n t e r t a in e d/
P le a s e d
H a p p y
I n s p i
r e d /O p t im is t ic
A p p r e c ia t e d /
S p e c ia l
T
r u
s t
W a r m F uz z y
C o o l/ C a lm
L
o
ve
E a g e r /
E n t h u s ia s t ic
A t p e a c e /
N o r m a l
C o n f id e n c e P r o u d /
S e lf - R e s p e c t
C u r io u s / I n te re s te d
C o n f u s e d
T u r n e d - o n
A t t r a c t io n/
C h a r m e d
J
e
al
ou
s
/wishful
0%
0%
Presenter
Presentation Notes
We have been providing self-report measures on emotions or feelings for years. Our emotiscape was launched in 2004 which has 40 different emotional states represented not only linguistically but visually as well (and we include both face and upper body, which is needed to distinguish between the subtleties of some feelings) BUILD…But with neuroscience becoming more accessible, we can now go beyond these stated and accessible feelings and layer this with understanding of those emotions that are inaccessible and unstated. This means we get not only a deeper understanding of consumer response to advertising, which I’m focusing on today, but also a deeper understanding of all elements of people’s worlds including media and content, as well as advertising BUILD…And this then allows us to offer clients, ad agencies, media agencies a more holistic interpretation and ultimately better return on investment for their research,… and more importantly their brands and communications
So there’s a school of thought currently that suggests we just bin traditional research… let’s just chuck it away That we don’t ask people questions .. They post rationalise anyway don’t they. That we don’t listen to what they’re saying We’ll just watch what they do and measure what they feel subconsciously – that’s all we need to do We feel that wouldn’t be a good idea … you wouldn’t necessarily get to the ‘why’s’
“Bio / Neurometrics are new tools that expand marketing insights, but do not replace all learning provided by traditional research methods such as survey, qualitative and behavioural response”
36 QUESTIONS TO HELP COMMISSION NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH. COPYRIGHT ESOMAR 2012
Presenter
Presentation Notes
And leading industry bodies agree The Advertising Research Foundation, ESOMAR and Neuromarketing Science and Business Association…. state that it’s all about expansion of insights, not replacement. We can still learn a lot from the traditional!
So on to biometrics… what is it exactly? I’m going to give you a whistle-stop tour – it’ll quick and it’ll be simple. I'm definitely not an ‘ologist of any sort…
At a very basic level, emotions are experienced deep within the body Your body reacts It’s instinctive And as much as you might try to mask these on the surface, and we as adults are fairly successful in doing this some of the time… …You can’t stop your body’s reaction By the way, the kit is unobtrusive and is a medical grade medallion strapped round your torso and a finger strap. I could be wearing one now and you wouldn’t really notice. There’s no gels on the head, no silly cap, nothing restricting my movement What this equipment does it measure 4 things… and I'm going to give you 4 positive emotions reactions you might be having in each. It’s also in the language instinctively used BUILD ..The first is skin conductance – or GSR which stands for galvanic skin response (rather than gun shot residue which I first thought it was – I watch far too much CSI) This is all around your skin tingling in anticipation BUILD …The second – heart rate – your heart leaping with joy, a surge in emotional love BUILD …Breathing – around something taking your breath away BUILD …and motion is all about being physically moved by something You could also think about the negative reactions someone might be feeling if perhaps they had a phobia to something – like snakes, or public speaking perhaps, as I am… GSR – you’re sweating, you’ve got clammy hands Rapid heart rate, you’re not having a heart attack, calm down You’re taking rapid shallow breaths, you’ll pass out eventually, onset of a panic attack Motion – fighting the urge to run off the stage
And all of these bodily reactions help us as humans to decide whether we approach or avoid Whether we’re aroused Whether its relevant Whether we’re bored Is there tension there? Is it funny? Whether I’m going to lean forward or recoil from what I’m seeing or experiencing
And it’s the combination of these four areas and very importantly the synchrony of the group response which gives us the emotional engagement from biometrics
I’m going to show you the biometric feed from the recent Superbowl in US - the epic chrysler ad – it’s a 2 min extravaganza and as you watch the ad you’ll see a biometric engagement trace going across the screen… (Rashmi – we need to link to the chrysler trace from jenny – the one that perhaps worked? Or we need to get someone who has a mac (ethnography team does I believe) and get them to create a movie sp we can insert like the guy did at WARC)
I’m going to show you the biometric feed from the recent Superbowl in US - the epic chrysler ad – it’s a 2 min extravaganza and as you watch the ad you’ll see a biometric engagement trace going across the screen… (Rashmi – we need to link to the chrysler trace from jenny – the one that perhaps worked? Or we need to get someone who has a mac (ethnography team does I believe) and get them to create a movie sp we can insert like the guy did at WARC)
Here’s the summary. Anything in the yellow shows active engagement – people want to know what happens next. In the blue shows people on the edge of their seats and green is very high emotional engagement – it’s rivoting. It’s a strong biometric performance for the ad – there is a real emotional journey going on for viewers. Dips from active into passive engagement are great releases for the audience as the next part of the story unfolds and draws them back in. There is intrigue, resonance and in this case patriotic fervour The final 45 seconds of the ad keeps people in the highly engaged zone right through to the end and branding…which is quite a feat
• Online activity post Superbowl very strong (search, share, click)
• More active feelings
• Effect of ensuing controversy over ad and whether political (pro-Obama)
• Is it doing more for category than brand?
Presenter
Presentation Notes
BUILD ..So the biometrics showed a strong performance BUILD ..It’s strong on both cognitive and emotive power from our survey. It makes you both think and feel something BUILD ..Looking at online activity post superbowl we saw very high levels of people searching for the ad as well as sharing and clicking – great retransmission performance BUILD.. The stated feelings were more active than we normally see – people more turned on and eager rather than just happy/ content. There were some polarisation as well which all helps talkability. BUILD.. The main thrust of post ad conversations were around whether this was in fact a pro-obama politicised statement rather than an ad. This is the context in which the ad was viewed – I will touch on this briefly again next. BUILD..And finally the only word of caution was around this ad also doing a category job. Both GM and Ford are in Detroit. And the message is one of buy American which could positively affect their brands as well as Chrysler But overall – a very strong ad and it was really through the layering of analysis that we can see the full picture
So, just before I end I wanted to talk about context again It’s an ongoing discussion within those involved in neuroscience measurement about sensitivity and representativeness
This example was given to me by our Head of Neuroscience at Ipsos – Elissa Moses We must accept that people can respond to an ad differently in the context of the TV show it is in - hair care during the Oscars versus the Superbowl for example. Context can be personal as well – perhaps to do with the age of the model being used for me at my age vs. a teenage girl. There are lots of different examples of context… So in this example with the toilet - your emotional reaction is probably one of disgust, maybe fear about having to use a bathroom in this state. You probably would hold on to it rather than use a toilet like that.
But what about now? It’s still disgusting… but there is now a little bit of hope. I know it’s going to get better. I might even feel the brand who could help is a bit of a hero…
• … need emotions layered with state of the art conscious and verbal measures
• …be open to the possibility that biometrics can be more ‘accurate’ than survey techniques – sometimes
• …not necessary all the time
• …be aware of context and how this changes perceptions emotionally
• Follow Einstein’s dictum!!
Presenter
Presentation Notes
So to conclude… BUILD..The real value here is to measure emotions layered with state of the art conscious and verbally driven measures. Let’s not ask people to respond to questions they can’t possibly answer. Test vs. control is the only way in my opinion and then derive the impact. BUILD..You must be mentally open to the possibility that survey results and neuroscience can say different things and that biometrics can sometimes be more accurate when it comes to measuring emotions. But on its own it doesn’t tell the full story It doesn’t give us the what and the whys Layering with facial coding and survey data gives us that BUILD..You don’t always need to add neuroscience – some campaigns just don’t need it BUILD..Be aware of context and how this can change things emotionally BUILD..And finally remember that ‘insanity is doing the same thing over and over and hoping for different results’. We need to embrace the new accessibility of neuroscience. It’s complimentary to what we do now, if done correctly. And finally because I don’t want to leave lots of nasty images in your head of dirty loos and crying children….
As Deb mentioned, personal resonance can be driven by the kinds of emotions she was talking about. Emotions that can be extreme, subtle or somewhere in between. But why is it important to achieve an emotion-led impact? Why should you, as marketers, care? What are the implications for when you do deliver? And how can you do it better? These are some of the questions I’ll be exploring today
Now we, both marketers and researchers, are often guilty of looking at things from the brand’s point of view. We might talk about the consumer point of view but we often look at it through the lens of the brand’s strategy, goals and objectives.� I want the first part of this paper to focus purely on what’s going on with the consumer. Now we’re all consumers in this room Some of you might have bought yourself a cup of coffee on the way here this morning And assuming some degree of prior knowledge (i.e. discounting the wine list scenario mentioned by Nick earlier) what was it that drove your choice to go to Starbucks instead of Costa or vice versa? To many people, the decision is deferred to the heuristic that Nick spoke about – the “Starbucks is OK rule” But to others it could be a genuine brand-choice decision – one like we’re faced with several times every day. What I want to do is to explore what personal resonance has to do with all this.
To explore these questions, I want to introduce the concept of a “brand view story ” When a consumer thinks about a brand, we can think of them viewing it as a story – one that’s been written and added to organically ever since first contact was made. This then becomes their own “brand view story”. This story is NOT one that you, as a marketer, get to tell to the consumer. It’s not even a two-way conversation. This is a story that’s entirely written, defined and owned by the consumer and it’s up to them and only them to decide how strong that story is and how it changes over time. I’ll give you a personal example to illustrate what I mean: Today is April 19th and on this day in 1987 this yellow family made their TV debut in the US
The Simpsons might not be a brand in the traditional sense (although the merchandising arm of the Fox Corporation might disagree)….but I have a “brand view story” for it nonetheless. My first contact came through hearing snippets, little pieces of word of mouth.. As I watched more episodes and warmed to the show my “brand view story” grew with each interaction. I’d watch a great episode and the emotional attachment became that bit stronger every time. Over the years I became what you would call a loyalist The “brand view story” resonates very strongly with me and if this was an FMCG product on a supermarket shelf there would be very little competitor brands could do to swing me away from choosing my favourite We’ll see over the next few charts that this powerful sense of personal resonance within my “brand view story” is something that can really helps contribute to brand choice.
Now we all know that a consumer can interact with your brands in ways that are both controllable by you and uncontrollable. Here is my “brand view story” in the centre represented by both heart and mind It’s being influenced by both sides. Classic uncontrollable could be experience-based word of mouth or unplanned PR Well this paper isn’t concerned that; it’s not concerned with the uncontrollable. By definition there’s little we can do about it. I think this paper will be more helpful if we focus on the communications that ARE controlled by you.
When your marcomms activity is released, consumers add a new sentence, paragraph or chapter to their own “brand view story” depending on how impactful that activity is. Clearly this addition or amendment can be either positive (like every time I use my iPhone) or negative (like every time I use the horrible, slow and bloated iTunes) But in addition to sentiment, we can also define this addition to the story by timeframe:
Amendments to the brand view story can be a relatively minor short-term ones, where the “brand view story” quickly reverts back to the longer term status quo Or in some cases it can be a longer term, more permanent amendment where a brand interaction is powerful enough to fundamentally change the entire tone of the “brand view story” - this calls back to the Fragility of Reputation Nick mentioned earlier
• Fulfils deep seated values • High personal resonance
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Let me show you another way of expressing this idea The “brand view story” is always positioned at some point along this scale. When new interactions occur, consumers tend to assess at a very quick and high level, how it impacts their ongoing “brand view story” This is all natural and instinctive. It just happens. To all of us. Now here’s the key: The more emotional relevance their “brand view story” contains, the stronger the level of personal resonance between the consumer and the brand Or to put it another way, personal resonance is determined by how much something fulfils your motivations and is true to your set of deeply rooted values.�
Emotions Drive Personal Resonance Personal Resonance Drives Motivation
10%
26% 28% 35%
42% 46%
59%
0 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11+
Purchase Intent “Definitely will buy”
Emotional Relevance
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Ipsos ASI R&D Dec 2007, N.A.: 75+ brands across 15+ categories Why does any of this matter? Because we believe if a consumer’s “brand view story” has a strong level of personal resonance woven into it, they will automatically view the brand in a more positive light And crucially it makes consumers more likely to go the extra mile to use such brands. This chart is based on some R&D we’ve done covering over 75 brands across more than 15 different categories This is a measure of emotional relevance that comes from one of a number of techniques we can use to measure emotional strength using traditional survey methods. It’s clear that the higher the emotional relevance, the greater the claimed purchase intent. So if emotions drive personal resonance then personal resonance drives motivation
It’s important to say at this point that flooding your communications with emotional cues is not enough on its own! It would be wonderful if we could all improve sales by using children and puppies in all our communications….but life isn’t that simple We know that emotions often lead to engagement with the messages you’re communicating and sometimes this can lead to engagement with the brand….but that second part isn’t guaranteed!.
• Weak relationship between emotive power and retained brand associations
Emotional Impact
Bra
nd L
inka
ge
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Emotive Power as derived through Robert Heath’s CEP model Reach as defined by an ad’s ability to leave a brand associated impression, which is retained over time This chart shows that emotional impact doesn’t always equate to a strong brand link So we must therefore also try to ensure that these emotions are delivering a clear connection to the brand. So to summarise where we are at this point…
If you can combine emotional relevance with a strong and clear brand connection in your communications You improve the overall level of personal resonance between consumer and brand This places the “brand view story” further to the right on the spectrum I showed you earlier placing the brand more central and aligned to the consumers needs and values This in turn delivers you the best opportunity to be selected
Influence how consumers define their Brand View Story
Ones that will resonate at a personal and emotional level and deliver a brand connection
Presenter
Presentation Notes
So the ultimate goal is to influence (as much it’s possible for marketers to do so) how a consumer defines their “brand view story” – and the best way to influence this story in a positive way is by building compelling stories of your own that will resonate at an emotional and personal level with consumers. So to finish, I’m going spend a little time talking about how , as brands, you can tell better stories; and I’m going to do this using a reasonably well known campaign from 2008 -2009 as an example.
This is a picture of Gold Hill, a road of Shaftsbury, North Dorset If I am to believe the straw poll I took of 1 other person in the office, I’m betting that the majority of you know instantly from a picture of this road, what campaign I’m talking about
Now this campaign came out of a 2 year period of decline whereby their key competitor, Warburtons, has established a 20% lead on market share Retailers were not being supportive, the brand was seen as old fashioned and lacking in vibrancy or character. It was seen as increasingly irrelevant
Initially the famous 1974 Ridley Scott directed “boy on bike” Hovis campaign was seen as a giant millstone around the neck of further progress for the brand The ad seemed to stand for old fashioned values and even though I wasn’t born until 3 years after the campaign launched, it’s famous enough for it to be a big part of my own individual “brand view story” for Hovis. In the planning stages, they realised that rather than being a millstone, the brand’s history could actually become a central role in the new story Now there are many different models advising on how brands might build better stories but personally I quite this one ….
….by Greg Owsley, former marketing chief for the New Belgium Brewery – who are a bit like the Innocent of the US beer market He calls it the 6 R’s of Storied Social Change Marketing I’ll go through these as I talk you through the Hovis campaign but the first one he called “Roots” Roots means that a successful story must have a foundation built on key truths In the case of Hovis, further quantitative and qualitative research revealed that consumers were increasingly differentiating between “good bread” and “bad bread” Good Bread meant healthy and natural. Something that came from real bakers
This was the fundamental consumer truth – the “Roots” - that they based their story idea upon So Hovis realised that they could use their history (previously defined by old fashioned imagery) to stand for trusted baking credentials – showing that Hovis is as good as it’s always been In the case of Chrysler it might have been about the American have a sense of worry about their country
Establishing the Story Idea – “Relevancy, Reverb & Ripple”
“It [TV] simply says I want to create an
emotional resonance with my audience. I
don’t want to tell them anything; I just want
them to feel something” - David Golding, Adam
& Eve
Relevancy
Compelling facts
Reverb
Attaching these facts to a social truth
Ripple
Support through all marketing streams
Presenter
Presentation Notes
The second and third are Relevancy and Reverb Relevancy is about the facts and expressing them in a compelling manner in the communications Reverb is about ensuring these facts are attached to a greater social truth (which may or not be the “roots” mentioned previously) What’s interesting about this campaign is that the “big lead” (i.e. the TV campaign) did not include any compelling facts. Deliberately so. That’s summarised neatly in this quote from David Golding, founding partner at Adam & Eve [read quote] And in fact it was the “Ripple” , the 4th R, that did this job The Ripple is support delivered throughout all marketing streams Specifically in the Hovis campaign, the ” Ripple ” came in the form of a PR deluge, a “feel healthier or your money back” challenge, a link up with the Royal British Legion and a series of print ads that combined the warmth and nostalgia of old advertising campaigns with up to date product range and health messages
Establishing the Story Idea – “Remarkable, Rally Cry”
Remarkable
Standout messages and imagery
Rally Cry
Give a clear objective to the subject
Presenter
Presentation Notes
And the campaign delivered on the final two Rs as well Remarkable necessitates that the messages and imagery must stand out by being remarkable, memorable, provocative or disruptive And the Rally Cry is about giving a clear objective to the subject In this case the subject is the boy in the TV ad, getting the loaf of bread to his dear old mum, but not all campaigns necessarily need or have a subject and that’s fine These are, after all, guidelines, not rules The Hovis campaign delivered on these areas by using imagery packed with British history, using evocative music, impressive scale and using the non TV elements of the campaign to deliver messages that Hovis believed no other brand had the credibility to be able to deliver as well as they could, thereby producing something that stood out
So whether it was done consciously or not, this campaign delivered a great story to help move a lot of people further to the right on the spectrum of personal resonance And the result was a 14% y-o-y sales growth and a 5:1 ROI ratio for the campaign
When people consider brands, they do so based on how much personal resonance is in their “brand view story” at that time Brand owners can improve the chances of these “brand view stories” having more personal resonance for the consumer by telling better stories
Presenter
Presentation Notes
So to conclude and summarise in two simple sentences you can take away with you… We looked at how when people….. And we looked at how brand owners….
