Cut to 2015 — scenario I. Communication networks are not confined to dreary four walled offices. Instead, groups of people forming agency tribes are on the move, walking from one client office to another or conducting meetings in open outdoor spaces. Clients too would expect agencies to walk around (driving to the client does not count) and not sit on their butts! Why all of a sudden this talk about walking around? Because as new knowledge about the brain unravels, agencies will be the first to accept and know that we function best when we exercise.
Picture scenario II. A client walks into an advertising agency for a meeting with biologists, experimental psychologists, cognitive scientists and developmental molecular biologists! If this sounds as though advertising agencies have morphed into mental hospitals, it is because an improved understanding of the brain has provided a great leap in communication.
New research has conclusively proved that exercising increases oxygen uptake by the brain, and improves mental sharpness. This is in sync with our evolutionary history. A hundred thousand years ago, we walked on an average 12 miles a day looking for new food sources and protecting ourselves from predators. Our brain therefore feels claustrophobic when it sits in a cubicle eight hours a day.
What implications will this have on strategies and brand building methodologies? Take for example, the fact that our brain can at best manage stress that lasts for 30 seconds. The task of advertising agencies will be to bookmark its communication in the consumer’s brain in spite of competing stress from other external stimuli.
Change is already happening. Advertising and research agencies use techniques like neuro-linguistic programming (which is an approach based on psychotherapy). Communication specialists, after consultation with evolutionary biologists have realized that our brain is the most sophisticated information transfer system on this earth. Understanding this while creating communication strategies may well be the thin defining line between failure and success in the future.
Think cellular phones or tablets – all devices that encourage computing on the move. Communications people will need to write a brief that has the mobile device or tablet in mind rather than the ubiquitous TV. They could walk around their agency neighborhood with tablets in hand and brainstorm to produce an awe-inspiring brief for their creative guys to run with (pun intended!). These modern day devices other than encouraging on-the-move ideation, also knowingly or unknowingly respect the sequential processing ability of the brain.
Our brain is not engineered for multi-tasking. How many times have you juggled talking on the phone, with updating Facebook and grabbing lunch? This increases the chances of errors by as much as 50 per cent. The brain loses large fractions of seconds trying to switch from one task to another resulting in errors. So communication professionals need to create non-interfering communication that succeeds in building subliminal relevance to the lives of consumers.
Since we are all emotional creatures, let us discard the rational image that we so assiduously create for ourselves. Let’s focus on creating communication that’s high on emotional equity and low on rational logic. Neuroscientists also tell us about a very powerful centre in our brain called the passion centre which makes us follow religion and builds undying passion for those Levis, or for that cute Beetle or the latest Philips digital mega screen with HD fine resolution. The next time we write a campaign, let’s stoke that passion center.
Also, we need not be so hard on ourselves for forgetting. The capacity of working memory is only 30 seconds and information has a habit of disappearing if not repeated again and again and again. Media planners are you listening?
Neuroscientists and molecular biologists are unraveling new and exciting discoveries every day. So don’t be surprised if you walk into a communication network office tomorrow and see a group of specialists standing in front of brain scan x-rays (fMRIs). It may sound like science fiction but could happen sooner than later.
(The author is President & Head, DDB Health & Lifestyle (part of the Mudra Group)
