Conclusions from tracking the effects of many hundreds of ad campaigns continuously, week by week, over a period of nearly 15 years in America, Asia, Australasia and Europe. Ad campaigns for companies like Gillette, Campbells Soup, McDonalds, AT&T, General Motors, Kodak, Shell and Qantas.
Draws on academic research into communication psychology and buyer behavior but reduces the 'fog index' to make the findings clearer and more actionable.
Dr. Max Sutherland is an independent marketing psychologist and consultant in the U.S.A. and Australia, a regular columnist for trade publications and Adjunct Professor of marketing at Bond University. Co-author, Alice K. Sylvester is Sr. Vice President, Account Planning Director at Foote Cone and Belding and a former chair of the Advertising Research Foundation in New York.
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15th July 2008
Acceleration of Communication. Destination Competitive Advantage
To circumvent biologically enforced, perceptual speed limits, exploit the subtle dimension of time by ‘compressing’ communications into a template. Just as you can build a mind template for your brand, so too can you do the same thing with your ads. Accelerated communications let you cruise along at unrestricted speed enjoying a significant communication advantage over competitors. Read more...
When changing messages, construct a mind bridge between the old ad campaign and the new one so that consumers can use it to ‘cross over’ - from one to the other.
When an existing attribute (e.g. ‘the great taste of Pepsi’) is well established in mind, any change of message can face resistance and take considerable time to ‘wear-in’. That’s because the new one has to displace the old.1
However if you use a mind bridge, this doesn’t have to happen. Read more...
The NY Times says that iff you’ve got AIDS, cancer or erectile dysfunction, this group of big advertising networks "are going to promise not to remember that you read sites about those topics and remind you (or others using your computer) of your condition with ads for related drugs as you surf the net. But if you have Parkinson’s disease, congestive heart failure or warts, the ad companies have decided it may well be acceptable to keep track of your interest in medical subjects and fill your browser with ads for helpful products from pharmaceutical companies." more at NY Times...
Search-engine queries and visits to websites generate a potential goldmine of market research information. It is used to aim ads at us with increasing pinpoint precision. Few people have any idea that they are being tracked, profiled and targeted in this way. The worry is not so much that it is happening as that it is happening in a near-vacuum of regulation. ...more
6th November, 2007
'Subliminal' ads for Toyota, Chupa Chups, KFC & Others.
I said in my May column that subliminal ads, like Energizer bunny, just keep going and showed links to a couple of on-air examples. This month during the television presentation of the Australian music industry awards (ARIAS), 'subliminal' flashes for the sponsors including Toyota, KFC and Chupa Chups occurred. Watch them here and check out the 'answers' given to the ABC program Media Watch when it investigated. (These were guaranteed to stir controversy and 'get attention'. Was that the real objective? What else could these people have been thinking?)
In a follow up interview, the Channel Ten Network denies that 1-4 frames per second is subliminal and used the defence that it was part of a method called "rapid cuts" commonly used in music presentations. Note that KFC 'has form' with using this sort of controversial advertising. Last year they told USA consumers that there was a hidden password in one of their TV ads. Discover the password and you win a free KFC sandwich. More KFC examples in the earlier column.
Buying, laughing, yawning and graffiti are all socially contagious. Now research says obesity is too. This has nothing to do with the power of suggestion or keeping up with the Joneses. To be influenced by others is genetically programmed in us and is an evolutionary hangover.more...
Turn-off tactics used in anti-smoking and road safety campaigns are being co-opted to get people to reduce their consumption of oil, energy, gasoline, water etc. Based on the latest research, here is a very simple turn-off tactic that might help address the energy binge.Read more...
29th May, 2007
Subliminal Advertising, Like Energizer Bunny, Keeps Going… and Going.
Do subliminal ads really work? Like the Energizer bunny, the brouhaha surrounding subliminal advertising just keeps going… and going. In the last few years, heavyweights such as McDonalds and KFC have been accused of using ‘subliminal advertising’. As has George W. Bush. Why? What's behind all this?
On cable TV during an episode of Iron Chef America on the Food Network, a frame of the McDonalds golden arches was discovered in the program. And when George W. Bush was running for President against Al Gore, the Republicans were also under fire, accused of using subliminals in their ads. View these ads and the full story on subliminal advertising... here.
12th May 2007
A Real Ad...What Were These People Thinking?
Can you believe that this is a real ad for a fast food chicken outlet?
A trusted source, who sent me the link, swears he saw it on free to air TV last week. In my years of tracking many hundreds of ad campaigns throughout the world, I have never seen anything like this. About 50% of the ads that I tracked, didn't work and some even had a negative effect. You can bet this is one of those that sends sales down.If the the communication target, the brand user, is mothers, then they are being asked to identify with this image of an on-screen user who is a table-top dancer! That should enhance their self-image and their image with the family. Unbelievable!!
12th April 2007
Acknowledging a Wart - Profiting from Honest Advertising
Sometimes a politician emerges who resonates with voters because he or she is disarmingly frank and doesn’t couch every answer in political-speak. In marketing too, ads that are disarmingly honest can make a brand resonate with potential buyers. New evidence indicates you can profit from honest ads that ‘acknowledge a wart’.
When we first landed on the moon, Volkswagen ran a brilliant ad depicting the moon-lander with the headline: “It’s ugly, but it gets you there. VW”.
Two things made this such a great ad. First, it gains huge attention by slipstreaming a high-profile event – indeed, the most watched event in history. Second, it also stands outbecause it is disarmingly honest.
It earns points for honesty and gains credibility for VW because it articulates what many people were actually thinking at the time; Volkswagens were ugly.
In other words, it ‘acknowledges a wart’. Read more...
21st March, 2007
Neuromarketing: What's it all about?
In opening up a whole new world of understanding of the mind, neuroscience will deliver increasingly powerful, marketing insights. Its immediate application to marketing requires businesses to tread carefully and disentangle the scientific substance from the promotional hype. Businesses prepared to exercise this caution and engage with it now, have an opportunity for early-mover advantage - before neuromarketing gets regulated. Read more.
28th January, 2007
New Twist in Turn-off Tactics
Here's a new twist. Nicoderm is promoting its skin patch by positioning quitting smoking as a beauty aid. (Original at adrants.)
On 16th February 2007, the Brain Sciences Institute (
Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne Australia) will hold its
1st Annual Symposium on Neuromarketing - The Neuroscience of
Consumer Choice. Click here to download the program details.
Back in Feb, 2001, I first wrote about the SSPT brain wave measurement technology developed by Professor Richard Silberstein and his team at the Brain Science Institute. That column, New Hi-tech Ad Testing Method, can be accessed here.
Mind on High, Thoughts on Fast Forward and Brands on Speed.
Ever had difficulty going to sleep because your thoughts are racing and you feel you are on a mild high? Speeding up mental processing generates some weird effects - even for ads and brands – and this has implications for fast-cut commercials.
We are often oblivious to the way our mind works because of the speed at which it operates - i.e. faster than our speed of introspection. We make sense of what we see too quickly to be conscious of the underlying processes involved, yet speeding these up can have profound effects. As brands gets recognized more rapidly, some curious things happen. ....Read more
3rd November 2006
Bricks and Mortar Retailers Continue To Gain in Web Search
In my September column Web Search Terms: A Window on the Social Mind, I noted that four bricks and mortar retailers were increasingly searched on the web. All seemed to be heavily into product placement in TV shows and had been improving their web search position for months. Their investment in product placement seems to be paying off. Here is the comparison 2 months later and it shows all of them continuing to gain. (Maceys is still conspicuous by its absence.)
Web Search
Position Aug 2006
#
Web Search
Position Oct 2006
#
Home Depot
45
42
Wal-Mart
50
46
Target
90
89
Sears
103
97
Source: Wordtracker top 200 list for last 90 days
30th October, 2006
Slogan as a Brand Précis
How do you come up with a great brand slogan? Its role is broader and more fundamental than just communicating a benefit claim or an advertising sign-off. A slogan should précis the very meaning of the brand and act as a verbal watchdog to help maintain its future focus. ...more
Here is a clever ad for Ikea. (Thanks to Russian reader, Alexander Repiev who sent it.). You don’t even have to be able to speak the language to get the message as the visual does such a great job of communicating it. Because people are often only half paying attention, visual reinforcement of an advertisement’s verbal message is important to effective communication.
It is not what you say but how you say it. And it is not what you show but how you show it. The ad not only reinforces (what I presume is) the verbal message that Ikea’s furniture is strong, it does so in an eye catching way that makes it a two-second hooker.
A number of Ikea ads do visual reinforcement of verbal message in a way that grabs attention. Here’s one of their TV ads that does a nice job of visually reinforcing the message that you can “Find Your Style” at Ikea.
15th September, 2006
Web Search Terms: A Window on the Social Mind
Web search terms are a window on the social mind; they reveal what the other half of the world is thinking about. The media help agenda-set what people are interested in and this is revealed quickly in the search words that people type into search engines. A regular list of the top 200 search terms is available (free by email) and armed with this list, the task of appearing cool becomes a breeze! ...more download.
26 August 2006
Google of Late Moves to Protect Trademark.
Update on my January column, Google: $ Billion Brand in Peril?, about Google's risk of being declared generic and losing proprietary control over its own brand. It is a mystery why the company has been curiously slow in getting off the mark to guard against this. However, this month it stirred and fired off a series of legal letters to the media asking them not to use the expression "to google" generically (to refer to search by any search engine). See "Thou Shalt Not Google". A long line of trademarks have become generic this way, including kerosene, trampoline, nylon, thermos and linoleum. What were once valuable brand names are now just words in dictionaries owned by no-one and available to all. Google must fight to fend off the same fate.
24 August, 2006.
"Just Do It'". Did Nike Slipstream Clairol?
Further to my August column, Celebrity Slipstreaming: Pop Stars & Pop Expressions thanks to Stephen Holden (of Bond University) who sent in this Clairol ad from 1982 that may have been the first use of something like the Nike ad slogan. It appeared six years before Nike's "just do it".
21 August, 2006
Celebrity Slipstreaming: Pop Stars & Pop Expressions
Why not hitch your brand to a pop expression and slipstream it? Like Budweiser did with ‘wassup’. Pop expressions (Yesss!, Duh, Hel-Lo?!) stop us in much the same way that seeing a famous person does. So get your free attention magnet, here! .. more..download (139k)
13 May 2006
Advertising Turn-off Tactics
Can advertising turn people off, as effectively as it can turn people on?
Click here to view a range of ads that use different psychological appeals to turn people off smoking or stop them from taking it up.
New graphic health warnings on cigarette packs are the latest turn-off tactic being used in Canada, Brazil and now Australia. They visually depict risks of smoking. One risk is gangrene and this pack warning is backed in Australia by a TV commercial showing a surgeon amputating a diseased smoker’s foot (See the TV ad here. Read more about the Australian campaign here). Don't forget to check out the range of psychological appeals here.
23 April, 2006
Imagined Actions: Another Way to Create Advertising Impact.
Last month we explored the psychology of double-meaning and word-play and how they increase the impact of an ad (see A Pun is its Own Reword). Now, here’s yet another way to engage the audience - using imagined actions. Imagined actions tap into the broader tendency of our minds to use whatever information there is around to self-complete what we are seeing or hearing.. more..download (193k)
25 March, 2006.
A Pun is its own Reword
What Aristotle called rhetoric, advertising calls creativity. The impact comes not just from what you communicate but how you communicate it. Here's the psychology of how double-meaning and word-play increase the impact of an ad. Just as we appreciate a public speaker for a clever delivery, so ads that endear themselves to us have the potential to wash-over onto our feelings about the brand advertiser. more..download (163k).
10 March, 2006.
Spitzer Urges FCC To Act On Payola
My Nov. 2005 columnshowed how, without making direct claims or assertions, people are influenced by payola, product placement, push polling etc. I pointed out how the regulators 'look the other way' if there is no overt claim. New York Attorney General, Elliot Spitzer (March 8) has now urged the FCC to take stronger action, against payola at least . He said: "Almost a year after payola was exposed in significant detail, the FCC has yet to respond in any meaningful way".
12 February, 2006.
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS):
Brain Science Breakthrough.
Everyone knows about brain scanning, but most of us have never heard of a new device called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Non invasive and painless, it can temporarily inactivate an area of the human brain to let brain scientists study the effect. A treatment for depression, a tool for war, or a chance for us all to exhibit our more creative side? You decide. However one thing is for certain. TMS is an exciting breakthrough in brain science that you are going to be hearing a lot more about. more...download.
10 February, 2006
Superbowl Ads Evaluated with Brain Scanning
21 of the Superbowl 2006 ads have been evaluated using fMRI brain scanning. Full results are at FKF Applied Research. The Disney ad "NFL Dreamers" and Sierra Mist’s “Airport Security" seemed to perform well on the brain scans while Bud Light’s “Secret Fridge” and FedEx “Caveman” seemed to show little effect. Hmmm. (Thanks to Chris Middleton for pointing this out.)
13 January, 2006
'Generic' Google -Postscript
Further to my January column, if Google were to be declared generic and lose proprietary control over its own brand, there could be a touch of poetic justice in it for some trademark owners like Lois Vuitton, AXA and Geico. Google’s ‘Adwords’ market place 'sells' thousands of words (that people search for every day) to advertisers who bid for their ad to show up when people search on that word. The problem is that (unlike Yahoo) Google also includes trademark words. Corporations like Lois Vuitton, AXA and Geico object to Google including their trademarks amongst the search words that Google 'sells' to the highest bidder (including their competitors). A number of legal actions have been launched against Google on this and the issue is working its way through the courts. (Comment Feb 28: listen to a good explanation of the issues from NPR radio 8th Feb.)
5 January, 2006.
Google: $ Billion Brand in Peril?
The names ‘aspirin’, ‘escalator’ and ‘windsurfer’ were once proprietary brand names, but each one lost its trademark protection because the name drifted into general usage and became generic. Is Google headed the same way? more...download.
Dec 25, 2005.
Brands Mentioned in Pop Songs 2005:
How disturbing is this? Making it into the top 10 brands of products mentioned in popular song lyrics in 2005 was the AK_47. Weapons are the fastest growing category with Beretta pistols "the hottest new entry".
THE TOP 10 BRANDS IN SONG LYRICS OF 2005
1 MERCEDES BENZ
2 NIKE
3 CADILLAC
4 BENTLEY
5 ROLLS ROYCE
6 HENNESSY
7 CHEVROLET
8 LOUIS VUITTON and CRISTAL
10 AK-47
The Brandstand report also notes that this year, branded lyrics have moved into more pop-oriented tracks. (Before 2004, they were the almost exclusive domain of hip-hop music and then they began to spread over to R&B tracks -and now pop-music generally.) More at Agenda.
November 30, 2005
Messages in Masquerade, Communications in Camouflage
To get under people’s evaluative radar, messages are increasingly masqueraded as news and entertainment, or camouflaged as questions in push polls. We know a lot more these days about how to influence people without making direct claims or assertions. Here’s how it works and why a stronger, regulatory brake is called for. Read more..download
November 02, 2005
Europe Buckling on Product Placement Regulation
My October column on Product Placement (see below) reported that the existing regulations in Europe are buckling under the pressure of imported American programs full of product placements. More information in an informative piece, from The Economist "Lights, Camera, Brands" (27th Oct., 2005). It reports that the European Commission will soon alter its laws to allow product placement. [Thanks to Prof. Stan Glaser (UWS) for pointing it out.]
October 31, 2005
Product Placement Accelerating on a Slippery Slope.
When companies make undisclosed payments to push their brands into the public’s awareness, it is called ‘product placement’. When record companies do the same thing it is prosecuted as payola! While regulators ‘look the other way’ as to ‘who is paying the piper’, we are accelerating down a slippery slope. Ultimately regulation of product placement seems inevitable. Read more ... download
September 30, 2005
Making Clever Ads Work: Overcoming 'Attention Deficit Disorder'.
Last month we looked at humorous ads. This month we move from the ‘ha-ha’ to the ‘ahaa’ and take a look at ads that are liked because they are clever rather than funny.When ads present a token ‘challenge’ to the reader to discover their full meaning they are capable of delivering a mild reward akin to solving a crossword puzzle clue. When done well their effect is to reduce counter-arguing, increase recall and create more impact on brand attitudes than straight ads. Holding attention long enough for people to get to the ultimate ‘reward hit’ that comes from discovery is a major problem in making them work. But cut-through techniques help ride to the rescue. Read more
August 30, 2005
False Alarm Theory: How Humorous Ads Work.
It may seem blindingly obvious why funny ads grab attention, why we laugh at them and why we like them. But humor is full of surprises and the bits and pieces of research that I outline here converge on a surprising theory that is not entirely intuitive. It is an explanation of humor that has its roots deep in our evolutionary origins. It helps us understand not just ads that make us laugh but also a wider class of ads that involve closure. Read more.
July 29, 2005
Spot Removal and Whitening of Image: Making Past Messages Fade
Normally we want to hold on to the mental territory we capture but there are times when things change and it becomes strategically desirable to have a past message fade. The key laundering ingredients are commitment, planning, patience and finesse. Read more...download
June 22, 2005
Worm-holes of the Mind. June 2005
There are ‘worm-holes’ in the mind through which it is possible for even conflicting information to enter. They are created by latent knowledge. Knowledge that has been gained in the past becomes latent if not used, and dims to a distant memory. Such knowledge is still there but it becomes less readily accessible and creates a potential ‘worm-hole’. This is an open portal through which inconsistent information can enter our brains.Read more...download
Acceleration of Communication. Destination Competitive Advantage.jpg)
Buying, laughing, yawning and graffiti are all socially contagious. Now research says obesity is too. This has nothing to do with the power of suggestion or keeping up with the Joneses. To be influenced by others is genetically programmed in us and is an evolutionary hangover. 
Turn-off tactics used in anti-smoking and road safety campaigns are being co-opted to get people to reduce their consumption of oil, energy, gasoline, water etc. Based on the latest research, here is a very simple turn-off tactic that might help address the energy binge. 
Do subliminal ads really work? Like the Energizer bunny, the brouhaha surrounding subliminal advertising just keeps going… and going. In the last few years, heavyweights such as McDonalds and KFC have been accused of using ‘subliminal advertising’. As has George W. Bush. Why? What's behind all this? 
Sometimes a politician emerges who resonates with voters because he or she is disarmingly frank and doesn’t couch every answer in political-speak. In marketing too, ads that are disarmingly honest can make a brand resonate with potential buyers. New evidence indicates you can profit from honest ads that ‘acknowledge a wart’. 
Neuromarketing: What's it all about? 
Here's a new twist. Nicoderm is promoting its skin patch by positioning quitting smoking as a beauty aid. (Original at 
In my September column 
.jpg)
Here is a clever ad for Ikea. (Thanks to Russian reader, Alexander Repiev who sent it.). You don’t even have to be able to speak the language to get the message as the visual does such a great job of communicating it. Because people are often only half paying attention, visual reinforcement of an advertisement’s verbal message is important to effective communication.
.jpg)
Why not hitch your brand to a pop expression and slipstream it? Like Budweiser did with ‘wassup’. Pop expressions (Yesss!, Duh, Hel-Lo?!) stop us in much the same way that seeing a famous person does. So get your free attention magnet, here! .. .jpg)
Can advertising turn people off, as effectively as it can turn people on?
Last month we explored the psychology of double-meaning and word-play and how they increase the impact of an ad (see .jpg)
What Aristotle called rhetoric, advertising calls creativity. The impact comes not just from what you communicate but how you communicate it. Here's the psychology of how double-meaning and word-play increase the impact of an ad. Just as we appreciate a public speaker for a clever delivery, so ads that endear themselves to us have the potential to wash-over onto our feelings about the brand advertiser. 
My Nov. 2005 column
transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Non invasive and painless, it can temporarily inactivate an area of the human brain to let brain scientists study the effect. A treatment for depression, a tool for war, or a chance for us all to exhibit our more creative side? You decide. However one thing is for certain. TMS is an exciting breakthrough in brain science that you are going to be hearing a lot more about. 
The names ‘aspirin’, ‘escalator’ and ‘windsurfer’ were once proprietary brand names, but each one lost its trademark protection because the name drifted into general usage and became generic. Is Google headed the same way? 
How disturbing is this? Making it into the top 10 brands of products mentioned in popular song lyrics in 2005 was the AK_47. Weapons are the fastest growing category with Beretta pistols "the hottest new entry".
To get under people’s evaluative radar, m
Last month we looked at 
There are ‘worm-holes’ in the mind through which it is possible for even conflicting information to enter. They are created by latent knowledge.