A memorable moment lasts about 6 seconds — the length of a short Facebook ad, a short pre-roll ad, or the time an average magazine reader will engage with a print ad. What happens during that moment, when working memory integrates sensory inputs with familiar patterns from memory, is how meaning is made.
The capacity of working memory to process information is limited and is related to what psychologists call cognitive load. Psychologists distinguish between three types of cognitive load: intrinsic, extraneous and germane.
Intrinsic refers to the actual level of difficulty of the task the mind is trying to accomplish, the information it’s trying to process. Watching a professor at a blackboard do a complex proof in mathematics has a high intrinsic load, while watching someone wash their hair in a commercial selling a new kind of shampoo has a low intrinsic load factor for cognitive processing.
Extraneous cognitive load refers to the way in which information is presented. In ad terms, it’s the distinction between the idea and the execution.
Reading makes higher demands on working memory in terms of extraneous cognitive load than watching a video — which is why, in media terms, we make the broad distinction between “lean forward” media (e.g. reading a magazine) versus “lean back” media (e.g. watching TV).
But more generally, extraneous cognitive load refers to the amount of unnecessary information, or clutter, that the mind has to filter out in order to focus on relevant content. For example, in order to minimize the demands of extraneous cognitive load on working memory, and reduce distractions from the central message, effective ads will frequently make generous use of “white space.”
Germane is the third type of cognitive load — The amount of working memory that needs to be devoted to fitting the new information obtained from the experience of the moment into existing patterns or belief systems based on prior experience.
To illustrate how working memory does its job in six seconds, let’s look at how two six-second ads attempt to construct branded memories — a memory that builds the brand in the mind of the consumer.
This Tide ad does a great job at limiting cognitive load, giving it the opportunity to create a memorable moment:
Intrinsically, the information the ad wants to convey is quite simple, “Tide Rescue whitens.” The message is delivered with little extraneous information. The alignment between the images, the superscript, and the voiceover further reduce extraneous load, as does the orange background for the product which fits Tide’s existing brand identity.
The imagery is germane to existing belief systems and memories. Most people, whether they have dogs or not, probably believe that a dog jumping on clean white sheets can lead to stains. And Tide is a brand associated with clean laundry. So this imagery is easily processed by existing consumer memories.
The ad’s cognitive ease contributes to its strong performance on key measures:
In contrast, this Yellow Tail ad intentionally adds extraneous cognitive load as a backdrop from which the message, “Perfect summer white,” is supposed to emerge. However, a creative concept that adds clutter backfires when you only have time to deliver one message — a.k.a. create one memory:
Meaning, as you can see, is not communicated to, but rather is constructed in, the mind.
By: Chuck Young (chuck@ameritest.com)
Chuck is the founder of Ameritest, an international advertising and brand research company.
For more information on how your advertising can make memorable moments, please visit www.ameritest.com.
