Introduction
As Artificial Intelligence (AI), social media, and digital innovations transform the marketing landscape, marketing professionals must adopt new approaches to capture consumer attention. To do this, marketers should understand the neuroscience that underlies consumer attention and marketing strategies.
This article presents four modern marketing strategies and explores the neuromarketing science behind them to explain their success or failure. Through this exploration, marketers can learn how to apply neuromarketing principles to their marketing strategies to deliver effective campaigns.
1. Capturing Experience
Recently, a major bank launched an art installation at Miami Art Week to attract visitors and promote its brand¹. The company collaborated with world-renowned artist Hassan Hajjaj to create a pop-up event that featured Moroccan-style artistry and included decorated rooms that offered tea, an immersive dining experience, and a DJ after-party.
Unlike traditional marketing strategies, this installation sought to engage consumers through an unforgettable, interactive experience. On a neurological level, the installation's bright colors and vibrant artwork captured consumers’ attention and resulted in stronger memories of the installation after they left. Furthermore, the installation engaged multiple senses, including smell and touch, to create its exhibits. When a person processes information through multiple senses simultaneously, the neural response is greater than when combining the individual senses separately².
As a result, integrating multiple senses into an installation can enhance perception and memory in the brain, leading to improved recall of the marketing content³. For the company, the impact of bright colors and multisensory integration provided consumers with an unforgettable experience on a neurological level.
2. Winning Over a Culture
The new movie “Wicked,” which premiered on November 22, 2024, spent nearly $150 million on its marketing strategy⁴. Their approach relied on repetition: Through collaborations with brands such as Target and Xfinity, the marketing team was able to get its message across the U.S. and abroad through repeated advertisements. This repetition, in addition to loyalty to the original Broadway musical, made the marketing strategy of “Wicked” a hit, with an opening box office sale of $162 million globally.
From a neuromarketing perspective, the success of “Wicked” can be attributed to repetition and long-term memory. Repeatedly showing an image, such as in a movie trailer or commercial, increases the chance that it will be stored in long-term memory. When people remember a movie trailer, they are also more inclined to buy a ticket to see it⁵. Therefore, repeated exposure drives recall, ticket sales, and the success of movies such as “Wicked”. Additionally, the film adaptation of “Wicked” can evoke nostalgia in those who have seen or heard about the original Broadway play, which debuted in 2003.
Psychologically, nostalgia is associated with states of self-positivity and psychological well-being⁶. A connection between the movie and such nostalgic experiences can enhance the probability that someone will choose to watch the film due to its association with positive emotions. In this way, both long-term memory and positive nostalgic emotions led to the success of the “Wicked” movie.
3. Embracing the Absurd
In a recent strategy that has gone viral on social media, a large food company released marketing content that sought to appeal to Gen Z’s “brain-rot” culture⁷. In this strategy, the company created surreal videos that feature distorted characters and disconcerting sounds to reach a younger consumer audience. Despite backlash on the strange content, the posts have reached millions through influencers and social media.
This marketing strategy sought to capitalize on the brain’s response to unusual stimuli. By leveraging shock value, the content used sounds and images that were strange enough to be memorable for people who are continuously flooded with digital content. This phenomenon, known as the Von Restorff Effect⁸, clarifies why the company’s content gained such widespread attention and led to one million new followers on the company’s TikTok account after their posts. Although the emotions evoked by this content—including discomfort and confusion—may not be pleasant, it ultimately captures enough attention to win out in the end.
4. Recreating Classic Content
In a forward-facing move, a major beverage company recently launched an artificially-generated Christmas commercial that pays homage to its 1995 ad, “Holidays are Coming.” The commercial, which features red trucks and the iconic polar bear, was launched in November 2024 and developed using four different generative AI models. While the commercial received over 56 million views, it also received strong backlash from individuals who labeled it as "soulless” and “devoid of any actual creativity” due to its use of artificial intelligence⁹.
The company’s AI advertisement reveals insights into how humans perceive AI-generated artwork. While people often demonstrate a bias against this type of artwork, their neural responses indicate a preference for AI-generated pieces over those created by humans¹⁰. The backlash against AI-generated advertisements shows how our biases can override our preferences when they conflict with our deeply held beliefs. For this company, a campaign utilizing artificially generated images may be better suited for future generations who are more accustomed to artificial intelligence.
Conclusion
Neuromarketing principles can be applied to modern-day marketing strategies to help brands distinguish themselves from the competition. While some marketing approaches falter, others thrive with the aid of neuroscientific concepts. ThinkAlike Laboratories, LLC can help your brand succeed through neuromarketing principles. Our proprietary Cross-Brain Correlation (CBC) technology enables you to understand how consumers perceive your brand and how to create an effective marketing campaign. To discover more about how we can help, reach out to one of our team members and follow our blog to stay informed on the latest neuromarketing developments.
Author: Sophia Thanos