Target the reptile brain with data, the mammal brain with art
Two pieces that I read early this morning collided in my head: first, I enjoyed Russell Scott’s whimsical but insightful article on advertising jingles (today’s cover story at iMedia Connection), and then I read Brian Morrisey’s blog post about a 212 event that he moderated last night where Canoe CEO David Verklin — a guy I like and respect — argued that, “Data is the new creative,” and that Canoe would bring the acute relevance of online behavioral targeting to cable television advertising, among other interactive features. No more media waste, no more dog food commercials if you don’t own a dog.
But what if I’ve just begun to think about adopting a dog? Don’t the good people at Purina want me to know about their products then? And what if that Purina ad is the thing that finally tips me over the edge into calling the nice pet shop down the street or animal rescue. Or, what if I’m not consciously making a decision to adopt a dog, but something in my life has changed to make a dog a more possible addition to my life? Shouldn’t Purina be there? (Full disclosure: if my Welsh Corgi Dexter could read his ears would flatten with worry.)
When I’m researching a product or purchase, I want to know all the relevant information about it NOW, and I am annoyed by extraneous nonsense. That’s lean forward, information acquisition mode… what (as Verklin noted) John Battelle dubbed “the database of our intentions.”
Let’s create another term for this: reptilian advertising. Dan Gilbert, a Harvard social scientist, once quipped that, “The human brain itself is essentially a reptilian weenie, wrapped in a neocortical bun.”* The neocortical bun is the mammalian part. Reptiles look for food when they’re hungry and warmth when they’re cold– sort of like men shopping. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not dissing lizards– reptiles are hardy survivors who have thrived for eons longer than mammals… notwithstanding that whole ice age, dinosaur extinction thing.
Unlike when I’m researching a product for a defined and conscious need, when I’m watching a video online or on my living room couch, walking down the street thinking, having lunch with a friend or doing any activity that is not acutely focused, then I’m open in different ways– open to thinking about my life to come rather than my life right now.
Targeting ONLY the reptilian weenie ignores the mammalian part of the brain, and that’s the artist part of the equation which no algorithm has yet cracked. Things can be relevant without being IMMEDIATELY relevant. Just think about the crashing wave of memory that comes back suddenly when you smell something from your childhood? (Proust fans, I’m talking to you here…). Or think about the moment of confusion when you meet a work friend while out with your family, or vice versa– “wait, who am I right now?”
Context is everything, but context is non-linear, faceted and sometimes confusing. Relevance is not a straight line between two dots: it’s an ever-expanding cone. The edges of that cone are like the “here be dragons” white spaces on old maps, and those white spaces are lands that strong brands can colonize in the mammalian brain. (See Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson’s fascinating 1995 book Relevance: Communication and Cognition for more on this, but only if you have a lot of time on your hands.)
We are not entirely rational creatures. If we were, then songs wouldn’t get stuck in our heads; we wouldn’t make impulse purchases; we wouldn’t eat that WHOLE bag of salty chips, wouldn’t forget to exercise, keep smoking or drunk dial an old flame at 2:13am.
Data is only the new creative if you’re talking about Mr. Data on Star Trek the Next Generation.
* Note that in the original post I misattributed the quotation and adjusted after a friend pointed out my error.
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