The Science of Advertising Show

#9 How To Form Deep Memory Structures

October 20, 2020 Jonathan Rolley, Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath Episode 9
The Science of Advertising Show
#9 How To Form Deep Memory Structures
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Mosh | World Vision vs Save The Children | Wrigley's 5 Gum

On today's show, we begin with a new release from Mosh—tackling men's health issues in a humorous way. In Compare the Pair we have two well-known charities facing off with Save The Children vs World Vision. Our Classic Creative this week will stimulate your senses with a Wrigley's classic—"How it feels to chew 5 gum".

***

The Science of Advertising Show

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***

If you want to know how we can help you with your advertising, contact Direct Response Media at https://www.directresponsemedia.com.au/

00:00

welcome to episode 9 of the science of

00:02

advertising show the show where we

00:04

disclose the advertising secrets that

00:06

brands use to influence and persuade

00:08

human behavior on today's show we have

00:10

dr

00:10

jared cooney horvath the pre-eminent

00:12

expert of his field of educational

00:14

neuroscience with a focus on memory

00:16

formation learning and attention and

00:17

your host

00:18

jonathan rowley

00:19

[Music]

00:28

welcome dr jay oh thank you

00:32

number nine we're almost to double

00:33

digits this is going crazy

00:35

it is oh bring it on and welcome to the

00:38

covert here as well it is impressive

00:40

still not getting better i saw i was i

00:42

had to drive to the store yesterday and

00:43

i saw a sign that said haircuts

00:45

and i thought oh sweet like black market

00:47

haircuts no

00:48

they're they're still clothes then it

00:49

said covert clothes so nothing

00:52

got like my hopes up for a moment there

00:53

just pulled out the kitchen scissors and

00:55

had

00:55

a red hot crack at that i'm thinking

00:58

about it but i'm too scared i'll just

00:59

let it keep going it kind of looks like

01:01

kevin costner from uh

01:02

dances with wolves okay that's one way

01:04

to look at it but uh

01:06

mate we've got a big show today and

01:09

i think there's a bit of a theme that

01:10

may emerge

01:12

first up we have a new creative that's

01:15

straight and it's a relatively new brand

01:17

as well and it's from a men's health

01:20

brand called

01:20

mosh so i'm really keen to get your

01:23

thoughts on this one because it's an

01:24

interesting piece of content

01:26

so here's the 30 second creative from

01:29

mosh

01:31

come on guys it's time to lift you're

01:33

just not performing like you used to

01:36

i mean where have you been lately not

01:38

here

01:45

at mosh we're all about men's health

01:46

made easy chat to aussie doctors to

01:49

treat sexual health

01:50

hair loss skin care and mental health

01:52

it's all online

01:53

discreet and affordable and the

01:55

treatments get delivered to your door

01:56

right doc that's right head to

01:58

getmosh.com today you

02:01

the latest from mosh there we have it dr

02:05

j

02:05

do you want to take it am i going to

02:06

have it where are we going to go

02:08

let me just i'll let me let me kick this

02:10

one off here for you so it's funny

02:12

because last week we were talking about

02:14

um a weird ad where you could have split

02:16

the beginning in the end completely

02:18

there was like a running joke it was the

02:19

one where they were pumping gas

02:21

and he tried to land it right on the 20.

02:23

since mark what was it um

02:26

[ __ ] twenty dollar was yeah

02:28

heimlings.com.homeowners.com

02:30

so you're in kind of a similar boat here

02:32

where you've got a joke at the beginning

02:35

and then you've got the product at the

02:37

end

02:38

but where this separates itself from

02:40

that last week's one is the joke

02:42

is directly relevant to the product in

02:44

this case the it's not just

02:45

a random joke and now hey home loans.com

02:48

the joke is about penises and the

02:52

product is about

02:53

penises in addition to other things so

02:55

actually this was an example of using

02:57

how you can split an ad into two

03:00

so long as that front end a is attention

03:03

grabbing and in this case if you're

03:04

trying to get

03:05

guys to think about their junk and their

03:08

health you probably comedy's not a bad

03:10

way to go in

03:11

but you take that comedy and that leads

03:13

directly into what your product is going

03:15

to be and say

03:16

so i actually think compared to last

03:18

week's version of this

03:20

i think they they handled that joke into

03:22

reality transition much smoother

03:25

yeah look i i totally agree i think

03:27

they've done a brilliant job i really

03:28

like this creative again

03:30

the first eight nine seconds is the joke

03:33

the reason i like this this style

03:36

is several reasons one it's locker room

03:38

so it immediately screams

03:40

guys you know that's the sporting

03:43

mindset as well

03:44

and mind you most of the tv or a lot of

03:46

tv and the big audience from tv comes

03:48

from sporting type of programs

03:50

so it will also slot quite nicely in

03:52

terms of their media strategy

03:53

but slight humor you know blow up

03:56

penises

03:57

you know going a little bit soft gets

03:59

your attention regardless

04:00

but then it's a nice segue and i really

04:03

like the segway

04:04

but the the thing i really love about

04:07

this ad where it works

04:08

you've got my attention you've you've

04:10

got me then what are you going to do

04:12

with it

04:12

you have a trusted advisor as such even

04:15

though he's more like the patient

04:16

but he's a young vibrant male that you

04:18

can associate with

04:20

but then they transition to the doctor

04:23

as well

04:24

and he presents sharpest attack and this

04:26

goes back to getting the right talent

04:28

is crucial to the setup like the

04:31

doctor's warm he's friendly he's also

04:33

demonstrating the service

04:35

which is a video call so you've kind of

04:37

got this sequence of events that

04:39

that are that tells the story as it

04:41

needs to be told

04:43

this particular strategy is a very

04:45

traditional

04:46

direct response style ad so what do you

04:49

mean go go deeper

04:51

so direct response that is the structure

04:54

really starts with a grabber

04:56

you've got to get attention a grabber

04:58

usually

04:59

could be three to four seconds because

05:01

literally 80 cents in the dollar is

05:02

spent

05:03

in the first three to five seconds

05:05

because if you don't have a tension

05:06

there

05:07

the rest of the admin is it doesn't mean

05:10

anything or

05:11

you can't do anything with it because

05:12

you don't have attention then you go

05:14

through

05:15

paying pleasure or problem solution so

05:18

in this particular one it was

05:19

problems in the bedroom was actually the

05:21

problem they highlighted

05:23

or a flaccid penis such so

05:26

that's that's the pain or the problem so

05:28

if you correlated with that

05:30

which dr j i'm sure you have no issues

05:32

there so oh

05:33

never know i know though having huge

05:36

problems

05:38

so if that was you that'll talk to you

05:40

so you're a male

05:41

it's talking to you in the locker room

05:43

it's taking you down the story of

05:45

i've got a problem here then you've got

05:47

an individual talking you through

05:49

their journey and the solution that is

05:51

which is going online and talk to

05:52

someone to get some help

05:54

so like it is rather pain pleasure

05:56

problem solution

05:58

and then you've got a call to action on

05:59

the end of it so a harder hitting

06:02

direct response ad would actually have

06:03

an offer a call to action

06:06

a discount code or something like that

06:08

this call to action was just a website

06:10

which for me is more than enough if

06:12

you've got a problem

06:13

i'm seeking out information and i think

06:15

you're right they did with the

06:17

trusted advisor the guy they picked was

06:19

perfect because

06:20

it's a tricky topic but this guy came

06:22

with energy with

06:23

zest normal dude like the kind of guy

06:25

you didn't feel intimidated by him he

06:26

didn't feel embarrassed by him just a

06:28

dude talking you're kind of like yeah

06:29

all right i'm with you

06:31

dr good and what i what i like about it

06:33

and i was thinking they may have

06:35

missed an element here but in actuality

06:38

they've built themselves an element was

06:41

right now they've got the penis joke but

06:43

when they're

06:44

explaining their website they say we can

06:46

do sexual problems

06:48

we do health problems we do hair

06:49

problems we do

06:51

skin problems anything with guys now

06:54

what they've just done is they've opened

06:55

themselves up to

06:57

any number of opening jokes that can

06:59

then lead into that same kind of outro

07:02

so they've hit the penis but they've got

07:04

10 other things they can do

07:05

next time it's going to be some bald

07:07

dude and they're going to have a joke

07:08

about that

07:08

going back into this so they found a way

07:10

that even though it's just about men's

07:12

health

07:12

they've actually piecemealed it in a way

07:14

that now they can keep hitting one

07:16

message per ad don't overwhelm me with

07:19

with ideas and

07:20

evidence but then bring in the ad and

07:22

understand what the business what the

07:23

company's going to do at the end so i

07:25

at first i'm like oh men are only going

07:27

to think this is about sex

07:28

but the more i watch it the more i

07:30

realize know the way they had set up

07:31

that structure

07:32

they can make a dozen of these ads about

07:33

a dozen different things

07:35

and they're still yeah look look i'm

07:37

really excited for this brand i think

07:38

this brand has a huge

07:40

huge potential i think it's only just

07:42

warming up so it's definitely one to

07:43

watch

07:44

and it'll be interesting to see how they

07:46

they evolve their creative moving

07:47

forward because i don't know they do a

07:48

lot with hair

07:49

product and sponsoring talent on uh

07:51

footy style programming

07:53

and they endorse it openly on as content

07:56

as well so is that math

07:57

care products yeah yeah it's the same

07:59

brand oh i didn't know

08:00

that well that's interesting as hell so

08:02

i like that they're differentiating but

08:04

it's it's funny we always kind of come

08:05

to this point where

08:06

after you see a good ad we always say i

08:08

can't wait to see what they do

08:10

next because if and i think there's a

08:12

good point to be made in there that

08:14

a good ad is a good ad that opens the

08:16

door

08:17

for you to go further but that's not

08:19

where anything ends you've now got to

08:21

draw that bow that line it's like making

08:23

a really good film now you can make a

08:25

franchise

08:26

but if film two in your franchise sucks

08:28

or if you totally change gears and now

08:29

the characters are different

08:30

you've totally lost that momentum from

08:32

that first piece yeah

08:34

there's probably some branding elements

08:36

that could have been strengthened in it

08:37

but for me it was a direct response ad

08:38

they're just trying to drive traffic

08:40

traffic and acquire new customers so for

08:42

me it ticks all the boxes like really

08:44

good ad

08:44

yeah super excited to see where they're

08:46

going but if we're looking at now

08:48

changing gears in a very different

08:50

direction

08:51

we've got compare the pair boom and on

08:54

today's lineup

08:56

we've got a big focus on charities i

08:58

actually love this compared to the pair

09:00

this is really good

09:01

yeah so we've got charities so the two

09:03

charities we've got world vision we've

09:05

got save the children two of the larger

09:06

not-for-profits globally

09:08

in charities we know they play such an

09:10

important role

09:11

in raising funds for people that are in

09:13

desperate need so let's look at the two

09:15

creators we've got

09:17

so the first world vision and then we'll

09:19

cut to

09:20

save the children and we'll discuss

09:22

what's good what's bad and we'll also

09:24

have our cast out vote all right over to

09:27

you jake

09:27

world vision save the children here we

09:34

go

09:39

imagine for a second you saw a child who

09:41

is vulnerable well

09:42

half of the world's children face

09:43

violence that's unimaginable they're

09:45

frightened

09:46

exploited and hurt it's unacceptable

09:49

we can help stop this now and make a

09:51

child's hope

09:52

achievable for every child you help four

09:55

more are made

09:56

capable if you believe all children are

09:58

educatable

09:59

defendable and incredible help end

10:01

violence against vulnerable children

10:03

if you are willing they're able sponsor

10:06

a child

10:07

today this is a report from save the

10:11

children

10:13

these scenes at chiamala hospital in

10:15

central africa

10:16

may look like an emergency but we see

10:19

this throughout the world

10:20

every single day

10:22

[Music]

10:25

among the new arrivals we found cayenne

10:30

bay

10:33

so frail he can no longer stand kayembe

10:36

is almost

10:36

two years old but his weight is less

10:39

than half that of a healthy child his

10:43

agent

10:44

of the malnutrition needs food

10:48

and he needs medicine urgently

10:51

these are the basic things that you can

10:53

help us provide

10:54

by calling the number on your screen now

10:57

and giving just two pounds a month

11:00

save the children know what it takes to

11:02

save a child's life

11:03

but we need your help because tomorrow

11:07

we'll see more children arrive and the

11:10

next day

11:11

i see how far i

11:18

[Applause]

11:21

please pick up the phone now and call

11:24

0800

11:25

035 6330 or visit our website

11:28

and give your two pounds a month for a

11:32

child as critically ill as cayenne bae

11:34

a single phone call can make the

11:37

difference

11:41

there we have it two ads from world

11:43

vision save the children so they're a

11:45

little bit old now but

11:46

uh for me i just think it's such a great

11:49

topic to talk about

11:50

it's it's a space that i've played very

11:52

heavily in

11:53

know it well and the conversation i'd

11:55

really like to have is not only the ad

11:57

that we think

11:58

is going to have the best performance or

12:00

the ad that we know has the best

12:01

performance

12:02

i want to dig in and i want to get neuro

12:06

i want to go there okay okay what do you

12:09

kick out so i think what a good

12:11

thing to point out is and i think the

12:12

audience got this

12:14

the big difference is they're go they're

12:16

shooting for the same exact target

12:17

it's just one of them has gone with a

12:19

positive message here's the change you

12:21

can make and what it will look like

12:23

the other has gone with the in your face

12:25

message here's how

12:27

bad it is right now here's what's going

12:29

on and that's why we need you

12:31

so why don't you you you start off with

12:33

your understanding of

12:35

those two themes with this kind of ad

12:38

and how they typically work

12:39

those themes are important because if

12:41

you're looking not for profits

12:42

they have moved in the direction of a

12:45

positive feel-good ad

12:47

for two reasons it's a where they want

12:49

to go from a brand

12:50

style perspective there's also some

12:52

legislation

12:53

there's some policy around it as well

12:55

that they can't actually

12:57

leverage some of the hard hitting

12:59

imagery they they once could

13:01

more so in australia not so much

13:03

globally but in australia there's

13:05

definitely some

13:06

some policy around that but for me when

13:08

you're looking

13:09

at this then i'm looking to raise funds

13:13

how do i do it

13:17

from when when i look at this it's

13:19

really obvious

13:21

this is all about emotion this is about

13:23

allowing the audience to

13:25

feel what is going on and to resonate

13:28

with it

13:29

i want them to feel pain yeah

13:32

what's the number one way a viewer is

13:35

going to feel pain

13:37

if i'm looking not for profit is a child

13:39

in distress

13:40

a child that is in a situation that they

13:43

should not be

13:44

in for me i'm like oh that is horrible

13:48

that should not be happening i am now

13:50

charged up i want to do something

13:52

i want to have an impact that was safe

13:56

with the children yeah you resonate with

13:58

the calls

13:59

and they flip so the structure for this

14:01

ad is pain pleasure

14:03

pain pleasure so they show you problem

14:06

solution problem solution

14:07

so the problem is very graphic it's very

14:10

visual they use all the sensors

14:12

there's visual the music goes along with

14:14

it to tell the story

14:16

the voice over is very important to

14:18

allow you to feel it

14:20

and sit in it and it takes you on the

14:22

journey then it takes you to

14:24

a positive this is what happens when we

14:26

do the right or you support us

14:28

back to pain let's get you back there

14:30

let's get the cortisol pumping around

14:33

let you feel it let you feel the stress

14:35

and the tension then we'll take you to

14:37

pleasure again

14:38

but if you want pleasure the real

14:39

pleasure is supporting this cause and

14:41

supporting the kids

14:42

on the flip side if you look at world

14:44

vision

14:46

they have some imagery in there that

14:48

could be a little bit painful

14:50

but the music all the way along is this

14:52

happy track

14:54

you know and it just does not correlate

14:56

and it does not allow

14:57

the viewer to feel the pain so there's

15:00

no pain there's no leverage

15:02

no leverage meaning there's less action

15:04

so if you're looking at direct response

15:06

as such

15:07

you want more people to take action not

15:10

less

15:11

which means i want more people to feel

15:14

and then they can take action

15:15

the solution also needs to be simple so

15:17

the solution is just

15:19

10 a month a really simple solution

15:22

it's something within everyone's realms

15:24

they contribute

15:25

and i really like your quote it's

15:27

actually out of your book

15:30

so if you're looking at tv contextually

15:33

tv predominantly is a relatively happy

15:35

place do you know apart from the news

15:37

especially with what's going on now

15:39

but in a sea of sadness joy stands out

15:43

being in a sea of joy sadness wins

15:47

boom so it's the shift it's the

15:50

uncertainty the unexpected

15:52

that gets you to you so let's let's

15:54

break this down now

15:56

neurologically what's going on inside

15:58

the brain so i i guess you've got kind

16:00

of

16:00

several mechanisms here the big ones the

16:02

primary one is going to be

16:04

your empathetic resonance mechanism so

16:06

you've probably heard of this concept of

16:08

mirror neurons this idea that whenever

16:11

you watch

16:11

an action a behavior happening you start

16:14

to imitate that in your own mind as

16:16

though you're doing it

16:17

now if you've ever heard of the term

16:18

mirror neurons throw that out of your

16:20

lexicon there is no such thing

16:22

as a mirror neuron um that was just a

16:24

theory we were playing with

16:25

in actuality it's just that we cannot

16:27

stop ourselves from imitating other

16:29

people when i move my hand like this

16:31

if i could take a picture of your brain

16:33

it would look as though you're moving

16:35

your hand just like this

16:36

that's how we develop empathy now

16:40

hit me with a kid having a good time

16:41

drawing coloring boom i'm going to feel

16:43

that i'm going to look like that i'm

16:44

going to pretend i'm doing it myself i'm

16:46

having a good time

16:48

hit me with a kid who's dying oh my

16:51

goodness

16:52

now i'm gonna try to feel like that but

16:54

it's gonna hurt way

16:55

too much and what's gonna happen is now

16:57

i'm gonna trigger a stress response

16:59

my body because i'm imitating this pain

17:02

is going to start trying to protect

17:05

itself

17:06

and one of the first things that happens

17:07

when you hit that stress response and

17:08

you all felt it when you saw that kid

17:10

in the beginning of that ad with the

17:12

ribs you all felt it guaranteed

17:14

that initial jolt that goes to your body

17:16

that's cortisol flooding through your

17:18

system

17:19

and what happens is in your brain

17:21

cortisol moves straight into the memory

17:23

centers and it says whatever the heck

17:24

just caused this

17:26

form a deep memory for this so there's a

17:27

whole mechanism that goes into it but

17:29

all you need to know is when you have

17:30

that cortisol in a short term

17:32

boom that's something you're going to

17:34

remember longer it's a safety mechanism

17:36

your system is built to say if something

17:38

causes you stress

17:40

remember it so that you don't make that

17:42

same mistake in the future so you can

17:43

avoid it

17:44

later so we've got this kind of dual

17:47

thing where

17:48

show me a kid who's having a good time

17:49

i'm having a good time i've been having

17:51

a good time all night watching my tv

17:53

shows it's probably going to come and

17:54

it's going to go

17:55

see you later show me a kid who's

17:59

about to pass away not only is that

18:01

going to stick out but now i'm going to

18:02

have a real deep memory and it's going

18:03

to be

18:04

real hard for me to get rid of that

18:05

because of that stress response

18:07

so just at the level of memory this kind

18:10

of

18:10

change of pace into pain huge memory

18:14

boost for everyone it's hard to forget

18:15

those things

18:17

the problem is

18:20

people hate stress so what tends to

18:22

happen is

18:23

after we get a stress response we try

18:25

and avoid that stress we try and shut it

18:27

down as quickly as possible

18:28

i'm not kidding there was a an ad just

18:31

like this one

18:32

on tv last night with animals i can only

18:34

get about

18:35

10 seconds into it and i have to turn

18:36

the station i will not keep watching it

18:39

because it feels too uncomfortable for

18:41

me

18:42

so if you're running an ad where you're

18:44

running that stress

18:45

that's your book you do very much run

18:48

the risk of people in the moment saying

18:50

nope nope

18:51

shutting down going away from it if i

18:53

can't deal with this stress

18:54

immediately i might not deal with this

18:56

stress at all and instead i'm just going

18:57

to try my best to avoid

18:59

this stress so i'd be really curious to

19:01

see

19:03

intuitively my thought would be

19:06

that a very painful harsh message to see

19:10

like the save the children one

19:12

is would intuitively be more powerful

19:15

than the vision australia what was the

19:16

other world vision

19:18

at the front end but if you actually saw

19:21

the returns

19:22

on the medium of tv i'd be really

19:24

curious to see which is doing better

19:26

because i know live if i'm walking down

19:28

the street and you show a

19:30

dead kid to me and you say you can help

19:32

this kid by giving me ten dollars

19:33

i'm gonna give you ten dollars right

19:35

away because that's how i absolve myself

19:37

from the stress and i keep moving

19:39

forward

19:40

on a tv ad i can't get rid of it

19:42

immediately i have to call somebody i

19:43

have to go online i have to do something

19:45

with it

19:45

and if all i'm trying to do is get away

19:46

from it i don't know if that's going to

19:48

lead me down the track to do

19:50

this extra work so live and in person

19:53

works really well on tv i'd be curious

19:56

to see if it works as well as doing that

19:57

kind of painful stress stuff

19:59

in a live situation do you have any data

20:01

or evidence on that john

20:03

this this for not for profits is and

20:05

historically been

20:07

one of the most powerful new client

20:10

acquisition

20:11

or donor acquisition platforms yeah yeah

20:13

direct response tv is phenomenally

20:16

powerful

20:16

but where people get it right it is

20:18

amazing where people get it wrong

20:20

it falls on its face real fast so

20:23

and it's interesting you so your

20:25

response to that ad was to switch off

20:28

yeah i can't i hate it i hate looking at

20:30

that imagine

20:31

thinking imagine that and you'd seen it

20:33

and been exposed to it 10

20:35

15 20 times after three or four times

20:38

you're probably just like oh i've

20:39

switched a few times i'm just going to

20:40

roll through it

20:41

yeah yeah so this is where you say the

20:43

frequency of these ads

20:45

that's what she does tv that's when i

20:48

always see these suckers

20:50

well that's what they are because you've

20:51

got a much higher response rate during

20:53

usually off-peak tv or daytime tv

20:55

so i'd be curious to see you you'd have

20:57

to come with the pleasure if you've got

20:58

the pain you have to come with the

21:00

pleasure otherwise those ads might

21:01

backfire

21:02

harder because think about like the

21:03

global warming when they started coming

21:05

out with all these ads

21:06

that were just pure global warming what

21:08

they found is the more pain they show

21:11

most people don't do anything they need

21:13

a different route because they just

21:15

start to feel overwhelmed like they

21:16

can't do anything so

21:17

as long as you have a call to arms and a

21:19

kind of positive at the end

21:21

so he here it is with with pain he's a

21:23

really interesting one

21:25

the pain has got to be easy to

21:26

understand and digest

21:28

the solution or the pleasure needs to be

21:31

very very simple so this is where

21:34

malnutrition

21:37

is the best performing because i go they

21:40

just need some food or

21:41

so food or water is a very easy solution

21:45

as soon as you start getting into

21:46

complex topics like

21:48

child sex trade or child labor it's like

21:51

oh that is like really uncomfortable to

21:54

watch and understand and see what's

21:55

going on

21:57

the solution is not what's my ten

21:59

dollars really going to do

22:00

can you actually help someone like what

22:01

is that actually really going to do

22:02

whereas food and water and sort of your

22:04

basic needs

22:06

it it changes the game quite a bit so

22:08

that's where you got you got to elicit

22:10

the pain it's got to be simple

22:12

but the solution has to be easy and

22:14

simple as well and that journey's got to

22:16

be fast

22:16

yeah so online straight there and you're

22:18

donating in a matter of minutes

22:20

rather than a complex client acquisition

22:23

funnel as well

22:23

interesting you say that because when i

22:24

was growing up i'm so i'm in education

22:27

of course so we used to watch ads

22:28

to support a kid and so that's what i

22:30

would always donate to

22:31

your ten dollars to sponsor a kid who

22:33

can't afford

22:35

school gear or whatever it's gonna be

22:37

and you reckon your 10

22:39

is going to buy this kid school supplies

22:41

now that i'm older and i'm actually in

22:42

the profession i realize that 10

22:44

ain't going anywhere near that kid

22:46

buying school supplies and it's a much

22:47

broader issue it's not so i can't with

22:51

knowledge

22:52

i've been unable to kind of accept that

22:55

argument anymore but

22:56

before i had any deeper knowledge i was

22:58

like yep it was the very simple ten

22:59

dollars i can help i'm going to help you

23:01

absolutely

23:02

and that's a challenge with

23:02

not-for-profits these these problems

23:05

they face

23:05

are incredibly complex yeah it's not

23:07

just about providing food or water

23:09

that is part of it but it's only a a

23:11

part of it

23:12

um there's there's so much more to it

23:14

but if you can lock that down like you

23:16

said if

23:16

focus on the foods focus on malnutrition

23:19

we can tackle the rest

23:21

in the back but during an ad when i'm

23:22

trying to get people here

23:24

let's have a clear set boom one thing

23:26

we're looking at

23:27

the one thing you said there was a

23:29

sudden or powerful emotional shift

23:34

that i want to focus on yep

23:37

so if you go back to what we're talking

23:39

about that stress response with cortisol

23:42

turns out that memory mechanism

23:46

will kick off any time you have a sudden

23:48

emotional shift so if you go from

23:50

sad to happy and that's why we were when

23:53

you were saying earlier in a sea of

23:54

sadness happiness wins because

23:56

any time you shift emotions you're gonna

23:58

get that

23:59

um and even if you shift within an

24:00

emotion so if you go from kind of

24:02

basically happy too ecstatic or kind of

24:04

sad to pure depressed

24:07

huge emotional swings or emotional

24:09

shifts trigger off this exact same

24:11

mechanism it doesn't require cortisol

24:12

past this

24:14

so it's a different memory mechanism up

24:16

there neither here nor there but the

24:17

idea is that

24:18

yes if you can change my emotions boom

24:20

you're going to trigger my memory

24:21

mechanism i'm going to hold on to

24:23

something a little deeper a little

24:24

stronger a little better

24:25

so is that where the pain pleasure

24:27

really comes in or if you hit me with

24:29

pain right at the outset and then show

24:31

me

24:32

now that this kid is really happy and

24:34

doing well is that shift enough

24:36

to get me it's interesting because like

24:38

nobody efren

24:39

is sort of the chemical that you're

24:41

you're referring to yes norepinephrine

24:43

yeah yeah

24:44

so it's easier just to say adrenaline

24:46

we'll just adrenaline

24:47

yep adrenaline so when we're looking at

24:50

these ads as well and especially being

24:51

on the tools and seeing these

24:53

the shorter form ads so being 30 60

24:56

seconds

24:57

they never performed anywhere near as

24:58

well as either like a 90 or a 120 or a

25:01

longer form so you've got the story arc

25:03

in there that you can tell the story

25:05

but it's nearly like you really need to

25:07

let the audience feel it

25:10

and immerse themselves in it and then

25:11

also take them to the solution so

25:13

it's a longer form so that's kind of why

25:16

and again you go

25:17

it's a simple message you get their

25:18

attention from the outset but it's

25:20

literally by that

25:21

sudden or powerful emotional shift yeah

25:24

and if you i wonder if if you're right

25:27

is

25:28

in a 10 second in a 30 second ad can you

25:30

feel the counter emotion i i know i can

25:32

feel

25:33

disgust in 15 seconds because i feel any

25:36

time i see that kid or those

25:37

dogs getting hurt i feel disgust

25:39

immediately

25:40

can you swing my disgust into joy

25:44

in 30 seconds probably not because

25:46

disgust is a huge

25:48

emotion can you flip it in 60 seconds

25:50

you got a much better shot because you

25:51

have a lot more time

25:53

to actually show me the benefits and get

25:55

me to forget that disgust

25:56

as quickly as you can so i it's it's

25:59

it's

26:00

possible to do it on the fly and we do

26:02

it all the time i mean if you ever

26:04

are just walking on the street you see

26:05

some dude slip and you start cracking up

26:06

that's a huge emotional shift so it

26:08

happens on the fly all the time

26:11

it's just really hard to set up an

26:12

emotion and then

26:14

really quickly switch that emotion on

26:16

something totally on the

26:18

i'll add this as a caveat though so if

26:20

you're not for profit and there's a

26:21

disaster going on

26:22

or something there's an event that

26:24

people are familiar with or aware of

26:26

they already have an emotion attached

26:28

with it so right now if you go

26:30

covert in a third world country they

26:32

know covert and they just go wow the

26:34

impact of that

26:34

so the setup of the ad can be quite fast

26:37

yeah so

26:38

or it's a earthquake or it's a tsunami

26:40

people aware of it they've already been

26:42

educated on it so it's just boom i'm

26:44

already there

26:45

then set up the solution so for me you

26:47

can absolutely deliver that in a 30

26:48

second creative

26:49

because you don't really need to bring

26:51

them into this deep dark world or shift

26:53

them in this powerful way because you've

26:54

got

26:55

i'm aware of that problem i want to

26:56

support it and i want to get behind it

26:58

so that's very good

26:59

with not-for-profits yeah well i'm

27:01

wondering

27:02

we should take a look at the well i

27:04

guess they're older ads but

27:07

if everyone is switching into the more

27:08

positive there must be a reason for it

27:10

are they finding better returns on the

27:11

positive or is it just a movement

27:14

movement they're definitely not finding

27:15

better returns that is for sure

27:17

dang because it's it's hard to get some

27:19

if someone's feeling good it's hard to

27:20

get them to donate money

27:21

it's more around we don't want to show

27:24

you know especially children as

27:25

objects of pity or you know it's kind of

27:29

leveraging them

27:30

in they're using them to try and raise

27:32

funds like

27:33

it's a it's a it's a very big

27:35

conversation but that is the growth that

27:36

they're exploiting kids

27:38

to raise money for yeah and it's

27:40

interesting too i think there's another

27:41

big

27:42

whole side movement beyond that where

27:45

recently we've come to recognize that a

27:46

lot of the bigger

27:48

charities your money wasn't going into

27:51

the kids at all like 80

27:52

of it was going to salaries to keep

27:54

fundraising

27:55

and so there's with that kind of

27:57

pushback i think a lot of companies have

27:59

now realized we can't

28:00

we've got to kind of change the entire

28:01

image of this system we can't keep doing

28:04

the same otherwise people will think

28:05

we're one of the big charities we're

28:06

just stealing your money see you later

28:08

yeah absolutely but the one thing that

28:10

everyone should take away

28:12

is when you're looking at emotion you've

28:14

got to allow the audience to feel

28:17

so the more they can feel the more they

28:19

can resonate but also you're talking

28:20

about memory

28:21

you know the deeper the memory and as

28:23

we're talking about feelings let's look

28:25

at one of the

28:26

classic creatives so this is five gum

28:30

oh we went with five gum we've gone five

28:33

gum

28:34

so we're talking about feelings and

28:36

allowing the audience to

28:39

[Music]

28:43

for a feel from the past

29:10

so

29:12

[Music]

29:36

five gum and the bouncing balls jared

29:39

this was your suggestion from the other

29:41

week we've pulled it out of the archives

29:43

if you have a chance go watch all the

29:45

510 there's there's dozens of them or

29:47

five gum there's dozens of them

29:49

and this is what they do go back to our

29:52

mirroring we feel things we

29:54

empathize and last week we were talking

29:57

about the juicy corn

29:58

if you see an arid desert with some

30:00

juicy corn squishing out

30:02

you can actually if i can look at the

30:04

sensory portions of your brain

30:06

you are tactilely feeling that you are

30:09

tasting that corn in that moment

30:11

not as extreme as if you were actually

30:12

eating corn but enough that the brain

30:14

starts to change and adapt as though it

30:16

were real

30:17

five gum did the best of this all they

30:19

did was tap into as

30:20

many different senses as they could with

30:22

a really low rumbling base in this

30:25

instance

30:25

base really smooth balls it was all

30:28

about the texture of those balls

30:30

you could see this dude's hair blowing

30:32

the coolness

30:33

when it's happening you've never felt

30:35

that before

30:36

but you have you've laid on a trampoline

30:39

before you've played with the

30:40

you know what it's feeling like and they

30:43

say there you go that's your five gum

30:44

all we're gonna do is get you to

30:46

feel sensorily feel sensations and we're

30:49

gonna then say

30:50

that's what it's like and i think that's

30:51

such a cool cause you can't tell me what

30:53

your gum tastes like

30:54

so what are you gonna do instead i'm

30:55

gonna give you a whole different

30:56

experience and just say now

30:58

link that to my gum and go have a good

30:59

time i i don't know a single person when

31:01

these were coming out

31:02

there were some that had liquid like

31:05

splashing through

31:06

filters to get onto people's faces and

31:08

you're always like oh i could taste that

31:10

oh my god that's incredible and they did

31:13

it the fact that they did it so

31:14

repetitively too

31:15

what does it feel like to chew five gum

31:16

at the front

31:18

five gum from wrigley at the end now you

31:20

can put anything you want in the middle

31:22

and it became a meme

31:23

people just started putting random [ __ ]

31:25

so online they would have the opening

31:27

what it feels like to chew five gum

31:29

then they would cut to a clip of their

31:30

friend getting kicked in the nuts then

31:31

they'd say

31:32

five gun from wrigley anything that was

31:34

about sensations started to just be

31:36

plugged into this format

31:38

and i honestly when this started coming

31:39

out i don't remember i don't know anyone

31:41

who didn't

31:42

go buy five gum i remember talking about

31:44

it in the office i was in boston

31:46

and we all tried it it was nasty i only

31:48

i only tried it once it wasn't a good

31:50

product

31:51

but we all had to go try it because

31:52

those commercials were just so

31:54

dang compelling they were and like just

31:56

to echo what you said then

31:58

like the one that really burns in my

32:00

mind was i think was the

32:01

the cinnamon gum that came out but in

32:03

the ad it was this lady like in free

32:05

fall and she was over all these fire

32:07

jets and you can see her face just

32:09

starting to go a bit red

32:10

but as you can do it and they're talking

32:12

about the cinnamon flavor and it's

32:13

slightly hot and

32:14

this is how it feels and you just i feel

32:16

my whole body just sort of warm up but

32:18

immediately i'm

32:19

kind of tasting this this warm cinnamon

32:22

in my mouth as

32:23

she starts to glow and you're just like

32:26

wow the obvious

32:27

way would have been just someone walking

32:29

down the street and you see this

32:30

explosion in their mouth

32:32

yeah because what they've done is

32:33

elicited all the senses in your body to

32:35

feel it everywhere

32:36

rather than just focus on the taste buds

32:38

and it's interesting how you can do that

32:40

without being sell over and it shows you

32:43

how you

32:44

start watching paying attention to good

32:46

films versus

32:47

mediocre films the good ones you will

32:49

feel

32:50

like the temperature like if you're in

32:52

the arctic they'll find ways to make you

32:55

feel that coldness and it doesn't have

32:57

to be like you said like this dramatic

32:59

snowstorm just seeing the crystals of

33:02

snow

33:03

while hearing wind and then maybe

33:05

someone's hand coming in to scoop it up

33:07

when you start to get the tactic and

33:10

again at some point

33:11

there has to be a human being there for

33:13

you to start mirroring it so if all you

33:15

do is show me a cold spot i can think

33:16

about cold cool

33:17

but if you show me a person in cold how

33:20

they're reacting their skin bubbling up

33:22

now i will start to mirror that and

33:24

that's how i start to feel that chill i

33:26

immediately just thought of is it sore

33:27

where they're trapped in a room

33:28

and they've got to try and get out yeah

33:30

yeah and they've got these horrible

33:32

things where they're like cutting off

33:33

their own legs and everything else like

33:34

that

33:35

and they all have gross like i remember

33:37

one of those songs there's like 10 saw

33:38

movies now where one was like

33:40

in a bunch of pig guts and stuff but you

33:43

because now you're getting disgusted

33:44

because it's in his mouth and stuff

33:46

you're like no

33:46

no that's what we do it's a way i always

33:50

think about it like this is people say

33:51

okay film

33:52

is a visual or an auditory medium and

33:54

all i say is no just go

33:55

watch any clip of a kid wiping out on a

33:57

skateboard

33:59

everyone's reaction will be oh that's

34:02

not

34:02

because that's what we're trained to do

34:05

that's because in that moment you don't

34:06

have a choice you're mirroring that kid

34:08

when the kid falls off the skateboard

34:10

you flinch at the pain you didn't get

34:12

the pain but you flinched at it because

34:13

your brain was trying to send it to you

34:15

film is a sensual medium as well as

34:18

anything else if you play it right we

34:19

will mirror your actors who

34:21

mirror your characters you can get us to

34:23

taste smell things that don't exist

34:25

because you've done it well on screen

34:28

and that's and that's why i think they

34:29

did so well here

34:30

so does that just be before we wrap up

34:32

so talking sudden and

34:34

powerful emotional shift does that have

34:36

to do with

34:37

like a feeling emotion like does that

34:40

just for everyone out there does memory

34:43

the deeper memories form when emotion is

34:45

present or

34:46

it's the emotional shift where deeper

34:48

memories form

34:49

yeah so you tend to say emotions are

34:52

always on

34:52

so emotion itself doesn't lead to deep

34:55

memories

34:56

it's the mechanisms behind those

34:57

emotions when you do emotional shifts

34:59

that kicks off the mechanism off you go

35:01

when you click into stress

35:02

that kicks off the mechanism off you go

35:04

so anyone who says emotions are

35:06

everything

35:06

not when it comes to memory not really

35:09

it's the emotional shifts

35:11

or what those emotions cause you to do

35:13

that then later lead to that deep memory

35:15

a good rule of thumb is is this is

35:20

let's say you have a car wreck today you

35:22

have two events you got in a car wreck

35:23

and you bought a new hat what are you

35:26

more likely to talk about with your

35:28

friends tomorrow when they say hey how

35:29

was your day

35:30

you're going to bring up the car wreck

35:33

that recall

35:34

of that memory is what led to the deeper

35:36

memory and why were you more apt to

35:38

recall it because

35:40

during the wreck you had enough of

35:42

emotional boost

35:43

that triggered this memory system and

35:45

now that said kind of imprinted it and

35:46

said

35:47

i want you to recall think about this

35:48

later so it's not the

35:50

i know this sounds weird but it's not

35:53

the emotion itself it's what does that

35:55

emotion cause you to do later

35:57

is where we get our deeper memories and

35:58

if the emotion doesn't cause you to do

36:00

those things

36:00

you can have the most emotional thing in

36:02

the world and you won't remember it but

36:03

just on the emotion so is it just the

36:05

emotion or sorry the shift but do you

36:07

also need say

36:08

stress and then safety to

36:12

no when it comes to stress stress can

36:15

stand on its own

36:16

disgust can stand on its own um and

36:18

largely

36:19

anger can stand on its own but the other

36:21

ones

36:22

joy sadness surprise kind of require

36:27

actually i would put surprising instead

36:29

of anger sadness happiness anger

36:31

require more surprise is enough that

36:34

that can kick off a mechanism

36:35

discuss is usually enough to kick it off

36:37

on its own too um

36:39

but yeah so that's why we think if

36:41

you're if you're dealing with attention

36:42

it's all kind of about to grab the

36:44

attention the surprise because if you

36:45

can get that

36:46

surprise jolt congratulations you have

36:47

me but if you're trying to play with

36:49

something like

36:50

joy or sadness or depression you've got

36:52

a lot more you have to do the swing you

36:55

have to have the pain pleasure to

36:56

form that deeper memory very very

36:59

interesting well dr

37:00

j as always thank you for your

37:02

contribution and also just helping

37:04

educate everyone in terms of what's

37:05

going on inside our brain

37:07

as we're exposed to these type of

37:08

creatives so episode 9

37:11

it's a wrap thank you for tuning in

37:13

jonathan rowley

37:14

dr j tuning out till next time

37:22

[Music]

37:38

you