Neuroscience Helps Advertisers Connect with Audiences

Neuroscience research is helping advertisers determine what catches the audience's attention, what people remember and why, what tugs at their heart strings and what makes them yawn.

For example:

• Print ads can stick in the memory because of the involvement in recognizing, comprehending, and processing words and symbols.
• Ads with emotional content are much more effective than those without.
• Ads embedded in mobile entertainment shouldn't interrupt the game before an important play.
• Ad content should connect with the audience's objectives.

At top, an example of what can make an ad engaging and memorable. It engages at multiple levels, as the audience sees the unusual image of a fashionable, fully-dressed woman in an updated version of the old-fashioned bathtub (notice the red swan instead of the usual yellow duckie in the bubble bath). The words are also engaging--few ads use language like "old lady." If you recognize this fashion plate "old lady," you'll really get the comparison. Even if you don't, you'll smile and be intrigued by the image, the words, and the comparison.

The store is Pirch, and the "old lady" is Iris Apfel, known for her distinctive sense of style. The CMO says, "We looked at this campaign from the approach of explaining and establishing Pirch as a lifestyle, experiential brand." An interesting ad that puts a different spin on "experiential" to attract attention.