AdNews and innovation agency UDKU take a different look at how decision science can be applied to marketing in this series. Read the other pieces in the series here.
Our Airtasker campaign has exceeded all expectations, it resulted in a 277% increase in user sign ups and 48% increase in tasks completed.
But how? Is there method to the madness or was it blind luck?
I outlined in the last article that 95% of purchasing decisions are made with the subconscious and that by understanding how these decisions are made, we can better predict outcomes and behaviour.
So, we use the understanding of these shortcuts to help guide the creative.
Emotional vs rational ad construct
One of our starting points was to look at what emotions to target. We turned to scientific research to guide the way. Firstly, an IPA study found that emotionally based ads outperform rational ads on every single business metric. Secondly, content that successfully elicits hilarity is the most highly shared. Pursuing humour is a high-risk, high-reward strategy as it can fall flat. Lucky we have a strong creative team.
Attention hijacking
It’s really hard to create work that cuts through. Even more so given Airtasker was a relatively unknown brand. However, we had a couple of tricks up our sleeve. Did you notice that the point of the ad with the highest amount of energy is straight after the completion of the task? Our brains release dopamine as a reward whenever we complete a task. We aligned the highest point of energy in the ad, with this significant moment in time. A sound effect is used to heighten tension before introducing music for the first time. The tagline that encapsulates the emotion, #likeaboss, pulsates to draw attention. We also utilise dynamic imagery by showing the characters dancing. The multi-sensory technique ensures we hijack attention.
Brand engagement
Overt branding vs subtlety is an age-old battle. We utilised a combination of techniques to draw attention to the branding. The opening shot features an individual with a voiceover “This is Airtasker”. This interrupts the brain due to the error in information as the brain expects to hear a person’s name introduced. Our brains constantly try to predict outcomes from information collected every second. When the prediction is wrong the brain pays more attention to correct it.
Memory recall
Too many times we see advertising that is engaging, but where the brand name itself is lost. That’s not effective advertising. Engaging two senses simultaneously has been proven to enhance memory recall. We combined showing the Airtasker logo whilst the voiceover reads the brand name, knowing this would aid recall. Studies have also shown that repeating the branding in an ad enhances recall further. By featuring a branded app screen, and workers wearing the Airtasker shirt we were able to seamlessly weave the brand into the story repeatedly to achieve four repetitions.
Decision sciences insight doesn’t just relate to advertising though, the next article will show how we teamed up with Sydney 360 to enhance the flavour profile and dining experience.
Read other pieces from UDKU here:
Great sportsmen don’t need to think, and neither do your customers