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Time to reboot your marketing strategy
Marketing is about ensuring people remember your brand, but what does is it mean to marketers when the nature of memory itself is changing?
Technologies, such as tablets and smartphones, are more than simply another communication platform for creating memorable brands: Instead, devices are altering the game entirely, by reshaping how peoples’ brains process and store information.
New research from Yahoo Canada—The Zero Moment of Memory: How Technology is Hampering and Helping Memory—is prompting marketers to rethink assumptions about how audiences digest and encode brand messaging.
“Consumers are not remembering as much because they don’t have to,” says Nick Drew, head of research, Canada. “It’s increasingly difficult for marketers to get people to remember, therefore more important marketers know the basic tenets of how memory works.”
The wide-ranging study, involving 1,500 Canadians, shows most feel overloaded with data: four out of five say it’s hard to remember everything, while memory is something people most want to improve about themselves.
Wanting to remember motivates behaviour and ‘The Zero Moment of Memory’ is the nano second in which a person has to remember something and decides whether to retain it or delegate it to technology.
Smartphone-loving Canadians use their devices as a key memory aid. However, the Yahoo research set out to find out whether, in fact, smartphones are making us less able to remember.
One element of the study outfitted 60 participants with an electroencephalography skullcap that measures brain response. Participants were asked to watch a number of videos in preparation for a memory test—half were allowed to use their smartphones to document the videos.
Then, of those who used their phones, half had their devices taken away before the test. Those with their phones performed 8% better in memory tests than those without a phone. However, those whose phones were taken away performed 14% worse than those who hadn’t used phones at all.
The EEG also measured concentration: Participants just watching the video concentrated more, while smartphone users paid less attention.
“It’s important because we see taking a photo helped them remember detail but it is not the same as remembering the stimulus they saw,” says Drew.
In measuring emotional response, however, those playing with their smartphones had a more positive experience: It made the ‘chore’ more enjoyable.
Savvy marketers will take these insights to create a future rich with more interactive ad formats.
Already, six in 10 Canadians say they make an effort to remember particular online ads—20% email themselves a link, while another 20% take notes. “People are remembering online ads by writing it down with a pen and paper—there has to be a better way,” says Drew, highlighting the importance of reaching online audiences through targeting and retargeting.
Another strategy is to build campaign alongside content people will come back to. For instance, Yahoo has a new a feature on its homepage that allows users to earmark and save news stories. There’s also potential to develop a save-ad function.
And don’t forget peoples’ fixation with photos—most take, on average, 12 a week—find ways to harness this habit in a stimulating way.
“Marketing is about memory,” says Drew. “We can like things on Facebook, take photos, view through Google, but these are examples of delegating memory. In order for consumers to remember a brand or message, consumers have to engage and pay attention. Think beyond the click: Focus on creating memories.”
For more insights and a detailed infographic, click here.
