ANCHORING

In 1903 a Russian psychologist, Ivan Pavlov established the basic laws of ‘conditional reflexes’. He did this by training dogs to link an unrelated stimulus, a bell ringing, to the promise of being fed. Because the bell was repeatedly sounded prior their meal, the dogs learnt to associate the sound of the bell with food. After a while at sound of the bell, the dogs would respond as if the food was there. So Pavlov proved that it was possible to make a mental association between two unconnected events. The concept of bell ringing = food had been anchored into the minds of the dogs. For the dogs the bell meant food was imminent.

In this respect human beings are no different to dogs. We also associate specific and often unrelated stimuli with feelings or events. There will be music that when you hear it you are transported back to a specific event, we all have anchors. They are hard wired into all of us, a way of remembering important events. Anchors can be created instantly if the stimulus is powerful enough, or over time through constant exposure.

The theory of creating anchors is fairly simple. And they will work in all media.

1. Decide on the type of anchor. It should be sensory based, so a sound, visual, smell, touch or taste. Ideally it also needs to be memorable and unique.

2. Next you have to create the state that you wish to anchor. At the height of that state fire the anchor. Repetition of this process will just strengthen the link between the two.

This process is the most powerful process you can use it to link your brand or product to a value, feeling or emotion because in essence a brand is a means of associating with a feeling, emotion or set of values. All great brands are really anchors, which when fired fill the audience with the brand’s values.

Cadbury’s “Gorilla”; why it was so successful and why the new 'Trucks' ad won't be.

The Cadbury’s “Gorilla” ad was one of the top five most viewed advertisements on youtube in 2007. Not surprisingly it uses the same ‘running anchor’ structure as the Guinness ad and has a highly distinctive storyline, which is then anchored to the brand.

“Gorilla” is one of the most talked about, most viewed ads today. It’s also been very profitable, helping Cadbury’s Dairy Milk to steal market share from it’s rivals. So much so that Cadbury’s Sheffield plant increased production by 25% to cope with increased demand. In October alone, sales increased by 15% and in November Cadbury’s announced “the gorilla phenomenon continues, sales growth is nothing short of staggering.”

Cadbury's boss Todd Stitzer wasn't sure the ad should even run; “To be perfectly honest, I saw the advert in several stages when it was first revealed to me, so I was somewhat sceptical, in the end I trusted the creativity and research and it has paid off."

In fact, with the benefit of a systematic process that measures and identifies structural archetypes, we could have predicted the positive response to the “Gorilla” ad. It features a  number of engaging, motivating and responsive elements. And although the “Trucks” ad attempts, like the 'Gorilla' ad, to deliver a smile in its expression of “Joy”, the subliminal messages it contains are very different.

For example, in “Gorilla”, we are very associated with the gorilla; there is proximity and facial connection. Not so with “Trucks”. Not only are they mechanical and dissociated, any possibility of an anthropomorphic Herbie-type connection with the vehicles themselves is confounded when we get glimpses of darkened, anonymous human drivers. Who exactly is experiencing the “Joy”?

Also, “Gorilla” uses an open loop technique as the viewer waits to find out how the extraordinary scenario resolves itself; there is a gorilla; a gorilla listening to Phil Collins; sitting at a drum kit; in a studio. In “Trucks”, the scenario is broadly recognisable from the start; the airport trucks are going out to race around the airport. While the Phil Collins track builds to a well-known and anticipated climax at the drum break, the Queen track has no such features. Visually, “Gorillas” builds with a slow progression to that anticipated resolution, whereas “Trucks” has lots of busy cuts and no progression.

And of course, “Gorillas” has the running anchor of the studio décor that matches the Dairy Milk wrapping. Used correctly, anchoring can have a very real and very immediate effect on the bottom line. “Trucks” has no running anchor.

Based on all the structural archetypes our system has identified, some of which we have referenced here, our prediction is that “Trucks” will not have the same effect on the target audience as “Gorillas”.