Ads are shown in a clutter - is your message disturbed by the wrong emotional setting?

If you want your customers to remember your ads in an adequate way, make sure they have the right facial expression and get into the right mood.

The psychologist James Laird at Clark University let people read short texts - an article about dolphins getting killed and a funny story by Woody Allen.

While reading, one group got to hold a pen between their teeth – something that forces you to smile. The other group got to hold a pen between their lips – something that makes a smile impossible.

Afterwards they were asked to write down everything they could remember from the texts, and now the researchers discovered a stunning difference between the groups.

The ones who were smiling remembered a lot from the funny novel, but not as much from the sad story about dolphins. Those who had been forced to look a bit sad didn´t remember much from the Woody Allen story but a lot from the dolphin story. It turned out their mood (that was not natural, but created by a physical restriction of movement) had a direct affect on their memory, on what their conscious brain had chose to pick up.

This means you should get your consumer in the mood before presenting your message. If you want them to engage in a charity message, make sure they are crying before you grab their attention. If you want to sell light hearted products and make the consumers believe they will be happier owning them, make them smile. It´s all about the emotion you create, the way you make them feel. Watch out for the quick changes between 30 sec ads, where the viewers go on an emotional roller coaster - annoyed by one ad, aspiring for glamour in another, playfulness in the third... Up down sad happy angry concerned ambitious. Phew. Remember that your ad is shown in an environment, in a clutter, and that they might listen to your message after watching ads evoking the "wrong" type of feelings seconds before.

I guess this is why media placement can be so important. Media outlets are experts in bringing out feelings. Movies make us laugh our heads off or weep. The news turn us into serious responsible citizens, and when watching reality tv we feel deeply involved and self conscious. (Reality tv is like therapy...) By placing ads in the spots where the bullseye is touched, and not just the places the target is watching in terms of numbers, you can create magic. But by placing your message in the jungle of other ads you may fail badly, no matter how great the ad is.