Author: Aniruddh Naik

You usually do not go and tell the supply chain team which model they should use for forecasting. Or the CFO what type of accounting she or he should do.

Or question a tech guy on why python and not, say, C++.

Or a management consultant why this framework?

Because intuitively we tend to take whatever they say as the truth, cast in stone.

Cometh marketing meetings on brand and media, everybody including the one whose job is to only ship couriers in office seem to have a view.

They tend to tell you what should happen in your ad, where you should play the ad and why you should use the giant-sized billboard on some highway because you pass through it daily.

In my experience on promoting a commercial on IPL, the common question in the office is, “is it worth promoting in the IPL.”

“There’s so much of clutter.”

“Will people notice us?”

And so on. Yet, when you go ahead and promote, the questions changes, “I saw the ad, but not sure if it will register.”

Why? Because there’s clutter. And how much can we remember?

This persists within the marketing and advertising teams as well.

Many are non-believers in going for big-ticket items to promote your advertising. If it is a question of lack of funds, then fine. But if you can stretch the budget, then clutter SHOULD NOT be the reason to AVOID.

 

Lack of Research Usage

The whole point of my grouse was this- we do not use enough research in advertising and media from let us say psychologists or neuroscientists.

Why? Because we tend to dismiss it as ‘subjective.’ FYI, when Bill Bernbach says it took a million years for man’s instincts to develop. It is fashionable to talk about the changing man, but we must be concerned with unchanging man.

Let us explore that.

 

The Traditional Advertising View

That an ad must make the person take notice, command attention and then, land the message about the most brilliant features of your product.

Assumption: Lack of attention = No Impact. So, the one who watches the ad, should be conscious.

 

Does the human brain work like that?

Yes. Only if you believe our brains, all the time, make conscious decisions.

That is not true. Only 5-10% of decisions the brain makes are conscious. The rest without our conscious brains realising that.

 

Come to IPL. Please.

#1 Yes, a moment. Dr Robert Heath study and research says advertisement, unlike the popular opinion, is a LOW INVOLVEMENT PROCESSING.

Watching an advertisement, with our attention elsewhere, can still lead to us absorbing the advertisement. So, an ad playing in the background can bypass our conscious mind and be sub-consciously taken inside without you knowing.

How? By associations. A neuroscientist’s definition of branding would be something like advertisement is an exercise in designing associations.

If you are a Coke–Happiness

If you are a Nike–Athletic Motivation

If you are Rebill–Thrill & Adventure

 

#2 Research by Ipsos in the Brand Immortality Study assessed 97K subjects with 512 commercials from 47 companies, the results were interesting.

7.3 % brand uplift in people who were attentive to ads.

2.7% brand uplift in people who could only recall the ad when described.

1.2% brand uplift who could not recall the ad.

So even with low recall, there is a brand uplift of 1.2%.

 

#3 What if people Skip or Fast Forward the ad?

Research by Innerscope assessed people who watched the advertisement live, who fast forwarded and people who didn’t.

Result? The fast-forwarded group recalled and recognized twice as many as the group who had not seen. Obvious, is not it. The point is despite fast-forwarding, they saw the ad.

Why? Because our brain captures, connects and stores visual information in eighty milli-seconds!

Showing the advertisement, even in a cluttered environment, can make your brand recognize (during the buying process or buying situation. You will end up feeling familiar).

 

Finally, why does that happen?

A famous experiment uncovered a phenomenon called Blindsight. A blind person with pupils unharmed was put in a room full of obstacles and asked to go to the other end of the room. He did so without touching the obstacles. And the experiment was repeated.

When asked how, he said he had no idea. That is because the eyes picked up the stimuli and navigated without making his rational side of the brain recognise.

These visual cues are linked to amygdala that processes fear and emotions. Now can you connect RedBull with thrill and adventure, Coke with happiness?

The connection will happen even if we do not see the entire ad of Coke. Our brain subconsciously picks up a family sitting around, laughing faces, food on the table, and bottle of coke in hand. That is all.

The onus is on us. How good can we associate the things that will make the brand quickly noticeable and store information in the brain?

It is not the media clutter in IPL. It is how good are you at hacking the subconscious part of the brain!