For Fame and Fortune, Embrace emotion

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The field of Behavioural Economics has been developing some fascinating insights on how we humans make decisions. According to Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel prize-winning behavioural scientist, we use two very different mental processes, or systems, to make decisions.

System 1 is perceptual and intuitive; it’s fast to react, automatic, associative, effortless and learns gradually over time. System 2 on the other hand is slow to react, effortful, analytical, rule-governed but flexible enough to assimilate and process new information. Studies have shown, however, that our capacity for processing information using System 2 thinking is very limited, and so for much of our decision making, we tend to go with System 1: gut instinct.

This has some fairly profound implications for how we think about advertising. The traditional view is that, in order to be effective, advertising needs to communicate a rationally persuasive message that gains the viewer’s conscious attention. But if behavioural scientists have taught us anything, it’s that many of our decisions and judgements are actually made using the intuitive System 1 gut-feel approach.

So how do we measure System 1 responses and could they be more predictive of real-world business effects?

BrainJuicer recently examined the predictive ability of both traditional System 2 advertising measures and BrainJuicer’s emotional measure, FaceTrace®, which uses pictures of a face in seven different emotional states (plus neutral), to elicit emotional response. Psychologists such as Antonio Damasio assert that emotions are an important component of System 1 judgements, not only influencing what we pay attention to, but also guiding the decisions we make.

Working with the IPA in the UK in 2009, BrainJuicer post-tested 18 TV ads with different levels of marketplace effectiveness from a number of different categories. The results are entirely in line with dual process theory. The ads performing well on the System 2 measures such as persuasion and cut-through were actually less effective in market than the ads performing poorly on these measures. This would suggest that designing the advertising to perform well on such measures may actively discriminate against effectiveness. Meanwhile, the nine most emotional ads delivered a much greater average number of business effects than the nine least emotional ads. Emotion also explained the efficiency of the ads in a way that the System 2 measures failed to.

In 2010 the IPA published a report demonstrating the superior effectiveness of creative, highly emotional advertising, the kind of adverts that get brands talked about. Game-changing success is unlikely to be achieved by performing well on System 2 measures that require people to evaluate an ad’s persuasive effect on them. As the evidence for the effectiveness of System 1-based advertising mounts, the value of highly efficient and emotional fame advertising becomes ever clearer. For efficiency, profit and share gain, aim for fame, think System 1 and embrace emotion.

Orlando Wood is Managing Director of BrainJuicer Labs, BrainJuicer®’s Research and Development unit. Orlando has won many awards for his work on emotion and advertising, including ESOMAR Best Method Paper (2007), Research’s ISBA Advertising Effectiveness Award (2007), MRS Best Conference Paper (2010) and The David Winton Award (2010).

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Posted: June 22nd, 2011 | Author: will.armstrong | Filed under: Customer Champions | Tags: , , , | Leave a Comment »

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