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Beating the Brain Game

Communications success in the new era of Neuroscience

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Which advert do you like best?

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Which advert do you like best?

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Which advert do you like best?

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Let’s ask the question differently:

Which advert is working hardest?

What does ‘working hardest’ actually mean?

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Contents

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1Learning from neuroscience 7

2Remember ‘memory’ 12

3Neuroscience ‘stamp of approval’

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4An additional layer of understanding 21

1Learning from neuroscience

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Current ‘industry standard’ measures

Purchase intent

Liking

Interest Believability

Recall Message Take-out

Sales focus Traditional AIDA framework Information-processing

model – clear message with strong recall and is believable and understood

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‘The Primacy of Affect’ – feelings come first

Poets have known this for centuries… Neuroscientists have long called for this truth to be embraced in understanding human behaviour

Wundt (1907), Zajonc (1980), Damasio (1996), Heath (2008), Ratnayake (2010)

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The importance of long term brand building goals

SOURCE : Binet & Field (2013) The Long and the Short of it – Balancing Short and Long-Term Marketing Strategies. Institute of Practioners of Advertising (UK) in association with Thinkbox,

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A holistic view of advertising success

Long term brand impact

Short term sales activation

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Standard industry measures are good at capturing the short-term sales impact of adverts –the ability to activate

Measures around the ad’s ability to build the brand based on the primacy of affect

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2Remember ‘memory’

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Memories aid decision making

Brand information associated with self-relevant, personal lifetime experiences. Results in hedonic brand choices over rational evaluations. Feeds into System 1 decisions.

Autobiographical memory

Brand knowledge about features and attributes with little connection to self-identity systems. Involves abstract information about the brand that leads to rational choices. Feeds into System 2 decisions.

Semantic memory

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Effective communications ease decision making by creating memories that embed the brand into meaningful, personally relevant contexts

Long term goal of ad: embed the brand in the autobiographical memory.

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Information that gets embedded into long-term memory has to pass 3 gateways

NOVELTYThe difference between expectations and reality

AFFECTIVE IMPACTThe affective value of the information (does it personally connect)

RELEVANCERelevant to current goals

SOURCE : Lisman & Grace (2005). The Hippocampal-VTA Loop: Controlling the Entry of Information into the Long-Term Memory.

‘To what extent, if at all, did this ad convey something better than you expected?’

‘How vividly, if at all, does the ad you’ve just seen remind you about things you personally care about?’

‘When you think about which <category> is best for you, to what extent, did this ad contain something that is relevant to you?’

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Two key questions

Are we able to reflect the unconscious response to the ad?

Do these questions ad an additional layer of understanding?

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3Neuroscience ‘stamp of approval’

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Research methodology

EEG

Twenty black female participants

Partnered with HeadSpace Neuromarketing*

Three mobile network adverts and three decoy ads (randomised)

Quantitative survey

Memory filter questions

Traditional questions

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*HeadSpace Neuromarketing is TNS’s partner in neuroscience research. We would like to thank them for their contribution to this research. :

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EEG shows Vodacom being a better all-rounder

Emotion

Novelty

Thought provoking

Engaging

Arousing

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4

Vodacom

MTN

CellC

Change in Energy Relative to Baseline

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Vodacom

AffectiveMemoryPotential

Novelty +Affective +Relevance

44%

Novelty +Affective

46%

Novelty

54%

CellC

AffectiveMemoryPotential

Novelty +Affective +Relevance

6%

Novelty +Affective

7%

Novelty

13%

MTN

AffectiveMemoryPotential

Novelty +Affective +Relevance

31%

Novelty +Affective

44%

Novelty

50%

Top 25% Below norm

SAMPLE SIZE: n. 72 // CUSTOM FILTERS APPLIED: (Q3. Race is Black), and (Gender is Female)

Memory filter questions reveal the same

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There is a statistical model fit between the EEG findings and memory filter questions

High Rating - Vodacom viewer baseline

High Rating – Vodacom viewer

Energy in the Alpha band decreases over the anterior regions.

Your textYour text40% of the variance explained in survey measures are explained by the changes in alpha power over the frontal regions

Statistical model fit

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4An additional layer of understanding

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Traditional survey findings

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Comparing open ended responses – traditional versus new

Traditional‘Tell me everything about ad’

New‘What things that you care about does the ad bring about?’

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SummaryTo embrace neuroscience, the industry should...

Fully nuanced, granulated view of the neurological effects.

Tap into passive, non-survey measurement systems (e.g. EEG, fMRI)

Develop survey measures that capture neuroscience truths

Affective memory filters to access the brain’s autobiographical memory.

Too much focus on sales activation; not enough focus on long term brand impact.Acknowledge limitations of

traditional measures

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