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Rina Chandran

Advertising that violates the operational principles of the brain will not work well, says Mr Coburn.

Jaipur , Nov. 13

IS advertising all in the brain? Well, Noel Coburn, a publisher, thinks so — and he has the science to prove it.

A former maths and science teacher in South Africa, Mr Coburn also worked in advertising and media research, before taking over Caxton Ltd, which today is the largest regional newspaper publisher in South Africa.

He became interested in studying how advertising worked to get more business for his newspaper. "My partners and I had been school teachers, so we felt that if someone paid us to put in ads, they had to work, or we'd feel like we were stealing their money," Mr Coburn told Business Line. "So we started to study how readers handled media and how they behaved."

He applied cognitive neuroscience — the study of how our brains function — to arrive at some conclusions, summed up thus: Advertising that violates the operational principles of the brain will not work well. Certainly, Mr Coburn is not alone today; Harvard University, the London Business School (LBS) and other academic institutions are engaged in the science and many multinationals are putting serious money into research in the area.

In fact, LBS has done brainwave measurements (EEGs) to prove that strongly salient brands — or those that the consumer knows and is prepared to buy — are bought more often than weakly or non-salient brands.

Now, advertising essentially seeks to create positive memories inside the brain, which sends out certain nerve signals when it is aroused or interested, which can be detected and measured.

Neural networks are the record of a consumer's experience of a brand, and advertising creates part of the record, Mr Coburn said. "A brand is a set of neural networks — and the ease and speed of accessibility, and the complexity of the set are a measure of how strongly or weakly we are aware of the brand," he added.

So for an ad to work, it must effect physical changes in the brain. The ad must be "recorded," and the memory — hopefully, a favourable one — must be triggered when the consumer sees a pack or hears the brand name, Mr Coburn said.

But while the creation of great ads still relies on great creative work, ads also must contain material that is relevant to the recipient, or which involves or intrigues them, he added. In addition, the brand must be centre-stage in the ad and be `cued' early with music, a character or the pack shot.

But most TV advertising "commits terrible crimes," Mr Coburn said: "Advertising with a lot of conflicting visual attractions may cause the eyes to move to the incorrect stimulus, causing the brain to record the wrong message.

"Also, if there are multiple images, or if the images change too rapidly, the brain may not have enough time to scan the images and make sense of them. Even loud music can distract the viewer. So, by its very nature, TV ads are more confusing to the system."

He said that print advertisements, because they are static, has fewer chances for miscommunication — people have time to process and understand the message, and reflect on it, leading to greater recall.

Studies have shown that advertisers who are significant print users have a 20 per cent more market share, and that print is three times more cost-effective in creating awareness. But even a print ad would first need to grab the attention of the recipient, and studies have shown that print and TV together work better than just either on its own, Mr Coburn added.

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