The Buying Brain: Secrets for Selling to the Subconscious Mind

Chapter 16. The Buying Brain and Advertising

At the end of this chapter, you'll know and be able to use the following:

• Specific neurological best practices to enhance the effectiveness of advertising messages

• Four key neuroscientific principles that form the basis for the most effective advertising

• The importance of priming

Advertising Effectiveness Framework

Measuring the brain's responses to advertising is valuable to agencies and clients in several ways. The 10 elements of the Advertising Effectiveness Framework enable analyses that are unique and beyond what conventional audience research methodologies can deliver. These elements are:

1. Second-by-Second A-E-M Response: The core NeuroMetrics of Attention, Emotion, and Memory are gathered for every second of a commercial. This helps diagnose effective or ineffective segments of the spot and aids in understanding which elements are lacking. These deep diagnostics into which of the core elements of the ad are contributing or lacking—the attentional component, the emotional component, or the memorability—are very useful in improving the content and implementing best practices. These diagnostics are not available through any other testing methodology.

   Assessing the effectiveness of the ad in the first five seconds helps us determine whether the ad runs the risk of viewer flight or tune-out. Similarly, the way the spot ends is important, because brand logos and product messaging are placed near or at the end. Endings that are weak neurologically ...