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Be Like Mike
Every day, each of us is bombarded with thousands of commercial messages, all vying for our attention. This battle for attention is arguably the most difficult endeavor an advertiser will engage in. People are not sponges, eagerly hoping to soak in all the information we possibly can at any given moment. Rather, we live in an environment of information overload where the only way we can maintain balance in our lives is through selective perception. Selective perception serves as a suit of armor for the mind, enabling us to tune in and out of messages based upon their usefulness to us.
The question of how to determine the "usefulness" of information holds a direct relationship to understanding the consumer. In order to simply gain the attention of the consumer, the creative execution must "speak" to them in such a way that he/she identifies a link between the scenario portrayed in the ad and their own life. This link may be established through lifestyle portrayal, cultural framework or illusion to identifiable past experiences. The following example of how one advertiser used lifestyle portrayal to its advantage in breaking through selective perception should help explain further.
Selective perception serves as a suit of armor for the mind... |
Gatorade's use of Michael Jordan's image in their "Be Like Mike" campaign not only drew the attention of many of the brand's regular consumers, but also a number of non-users as well. Jordan's high profile status was certainly one factor in gaining the attention of consumers (source credibility will be discussed later), but the use of the tagline "Be Like Mike" spoke to anyone who was striving to reach their physical potential. Viewers of this series of ads, from the casual weekend warrior to the fitness enthusiast, found something in Gatorade's message to identify with. Regardless of one's actual level of physical achievements, the relevance of these ads lies in the ability of each of use to identify with the experience of achievement at its highest level. We can identify with Jordan (and in turn, Gatorade) through our shared interest in refreshment after our athletic endeavors.
Once an ad has gained our attention, how does it make a lasting impression? Just because we have attended to a message, it does not necessarily "stick". Messages penetrating our selective attention barriers are then subject to the further weed-out process of selective retention. In many ways, the elements which cause us to attend to a message in the first place determine whether or not that message is incorporated to either short- or long-term memory. However, it is also at this point where frequency measures come into consideration. It is the rarest of commercials that makes such an indelible impression that one exposure is enough to insure retention. Most commercials must be repeated a number of times before the ad is first attended to and then (after subsequent exposures) retained in the mind of the viewer. There is no magic number to apply for determining effective frequency levels. Rather, the optimal exposure level should be determined by factors including the brand's stage in the product life cycle, the complexity and nature of the message conveyed and the level of creativity employed in the execution.