In Brief

If you want your communication to work, to be effective, it needs to get lodged in consumer’s memories so that they can act upon it later.

A simple enough premise, made more important today as advertising receptivity declines.

In a landscape of abundant content, alternating attention and endless ad inventory- how?

Neuroscience reminds us that there is a strong link between memory encoding and behaviour. Through the lens of this advancing discipline, we’ve taken a fresh look at communications effectiveness to reveal some guiding principles for brands.

Pulling together the wealth of current thinking from around the world in this continually advancing discipline we outline the 3 key drivers of memory: narrative, emotion and personal relevance and reapply them to today’s media landscape.

To discover how these elements work, how to activate them and see some examples from brands who have successfully deployed them read our new report ‘A fresh take on communication and the brain’.

Key Findings

• Consumers have built-in defence mechanisms that prompt them to reject messages that seem to be overtly trying to manipulate or sell to them. Don’t rely on shouting loudest – dare to be a bit more subtle

• Deliver messages that elicit strong and positive emotions, this primes the brain to remember it

• Emotion alone isn’t enough; we are more likely to file something away in our brains when we find it interesting or potential useful – when it has a purpose for us. This means personal relevance is key.

• Magazine reading, be it in print or online, is associated with positive emotions and high levels of personal relevance.(Source: Moments that Matter, Metrics that Matter, Pay Attention)

Implications for Advertisers

In the context of memory encoding publishers are well placed to provide an effective environment for advertisers due to high levels of relevance and positive emotion in relation to both the content and the advertising.