The Buying Brain: Secrets for Selling to the Subconscious Mind (40 page)

We’ve identified these factors for brands, products, packaging, and retail environments. And we’ve found them for advertising.

Now that I’ve got blood pressure levels elevated in every creative department worth the title, let me clarify. We don’t dictate the creative process. In fact, we have the highest respect for it, because in many ways it represents what is finest about the human brain. Creativity is one of the hallmarks of our advancement as a species.

We are fans of great advertising, and admirers of an
art that actually
assists commerce.
We see the authentic effects that great ads can have on consumers, because we measure and report on those effects day in and day out.

Neuromarketing is not the enemy of creative enterprises. In fact, it is quite the opposite. It stands to become a central pillar upon which breakthrough advertising is built.

As we explain to advertising practitioners, done correctly, neurological testing delivers knowledge and insights that can help guide the development of the most effective messages. Adapting that knowledge, and applying those insights, is the responsibility, and the genius, of the most gifted creative people. In our view, science serves art and commerce in this regard. As consumers, we can all benefit from better advertising, if we define
better
as more relevant, likable, interesting, informative, entertaining, memorable, and, therefore, motivating.

So now that I’ve hopefully defused the mistaken notion that science and creativity are mutually exclusive fields, I’ll introduce you to motion, novelty, error, and ambiguity. And you will discover even more of the mind’s deeply hidden secrets.

Motion, Novelty, Error, Ambiguity

As far as formulas go, that’s a fairly perplexing one, isn’t it? From any perspective, it doesn’t seem to have any pattern and the words lack any obvious

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interconnection. And yet these four words
form the basic platform
upon which the most effective advertising and other messaging is predicated. How can I state that with such certainty? Because the brain says so.

Research in neuroscience laboratories worldwide has resulted in greater understanding not only of how the brain functions, but also the characteristics of the stimuli it notices and values. Four of the most important are motion, novelty, error, and ambiguity.

Motion

Our brains are built to seek out, recognize, process, and evaluate motion as a top priority.

Viewers’ subconscious minds will immediately focus on elements that are in motion in commercials. Static imagery draws far less attention.

From our earliest days in sub-Saharan Africa, we’ve attuned ourselves to our surroundings. The ability to perceive motion translated directly to survival—
see

the prey before it sees you
. Notice movement before it turns fatal. Identify quickly and accurately when activity is benign and when it is threatening.

We developed acute visual systems and coupled those with highly sensitive neurological systems for deciphering and responding to what we see. Now that we no longer have to expose ourselves to mortal dangers just to go and find something to eat (that is, unless you’re forced to take the freeway at rush hour for takeout), our brains retain those remarkable capabilities.

We are programmed to pay the highest attention to visual stimuli. That is the simple explanation for why TV advertising almost immediately became the most powerful form of commercial communication.
We’re geared to watch
.

So, communicate the most critical information in TV advertising through visual means; don’t rely on the sound track alone.

This also explains why mobile video advertising is emerging so rapidly as a global marketing force. We love our smart phones, in part because they reward us with what we are fundamentally built to want, appreciate, and value—activity in visual form that sparks responses in our subconscious.

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The Buying Brain

Narcissus fell in love with his shimmering but static self-image reflected in that pool. Just imagine how enamored he would be if he could watch nonstop videos of himself on his iPhone!

Now I want to get down and practical with this concept. How can you use motion to maximum advantage in advertising?

The Clock Face

I never understood just how elemental that phrase really is until I became immersed in neuroscience and neuromarketing. Now I find it positively profound.

We’re neurologically
designed to prefer clockwise motion
. So, if you’re concocting a storyboard or an animatic—especially if you’re planning on testing consumers’ reactions to them—design your material so that the motion flows in a clockwise direction (if you’re a cinematographer or commercial director, think in circles, too!).

Does that mean that you have to have your commercial populated by people or objects moving around the screen according to a strict 12-3-6-9 paradigm?

No, it simply means that when you’re setting out to map the action in a TV

spot, remember to avoid counterclockwise activity. Instead, keep the flow in a clockwise direction. It doesn’t have to be a fully circular motion (although that would be optimum, neurologically speaking).

A brief aside here: The other part of
the clock face
phrase that is so elemental is the “face” reference. Elsewhere you’ll read about how we humans are completely and utterly drawn to the human face. Again, this is because we’re basically neurologically wired that way.

Now I’m really going to get specific.

There is a guideline we offer advertisers, agencies, and entertainment companies about where to feature motion on a screen. This guideline applies to featuring motion on any screen, from TVs to computers to mobile phones, movie screens, iPads, video game platforms, and more. Our studies across multiple categories and platforms confirm the effectiveness of following this guideline.

You already know that motion that resolves clockwise is neurologically superior. Now you also know that motion in the periphery is also neurologically favorable.

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Figure 16.1

Motion at the periphery of the screen attracts the brain’s attention.

Source:
NeuroFocus, Inc.

I’ll take this one step further:

Motion from the periphery of the screen in toward the center is superior to motion from the center outward toward the periphery. The brain has certain specific preferences for the way in which stimuli are delivered. Matching those can mean that your material is given more attention and earns higher Emotional Engagement, better chances for Memory Retention, and higher levels of Purchase Intent at the point of sale.

Novelty

Depending on where you may have started reading this book, you have perhaps already encountered this fundamental discovery:

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The brain craves that which is new.

So what? So, by emphasizing what is novel, you automatically appeal to the brain’s priorities, and in doing so you help ensure that your messaging is accorded priority.

You encounter this concept again here because it is such a central tenet of modern neuroscience. In fact, it may help explain why modern advertising has naturally gravitated toward emphasizing newness:
We humans are built to seek what is novel in our surroundings.

The reason for that is twofold: First, being able to identify a change in the immediate environment has served us well in terms of sheer survival.