Three Reasons Why…Magicians And Marketers Have The Same Job

Botch a magic trick on stage and the audience leaves with emptier pockets and little desire to return. The curtain is lifted, the trick is revealed, and they’re filled with cynicism. Messing up an ad for a major brand is much the same, except the price tag is higher for all concerned.

And just as it’s harder for a magician to wow a grown-up audience, the digital age poses similar challenges for brands. As online advertising becomes ever more complex and consumers become ever more accustomed to constant scrolling, brands are faced with an uphill battle to reach real audiences and retain their attention.

VCCP's report ‘Hacking The Attention Economy’ clearly exposes this reality: despite a 400 per cent increase in digital media spend since 2008, 85 per cent of assets receive less than 2.5 seconds of active attention. And instead of making the fleeting seconds count, the study found that brands are wasting up to 66p of every £1 spent on digital ads. This amounts to a staggering £66bn loss each year.

Discussing how brands can patch up the attention-shaped hole in their pockets, Dr Karen Nelson-Field, media scientist and founder of Amplified Intelligence and VCCP’s chief strategy officer Will Parrish, argue that like magicians, marketers must master the art of subtle influence.“Magicians and marketers have the same job,” explains Nelson-Field. “Magicians are looking to control attention to change perception and end up changing behaviour, but so are marketers”.

The crucial difference is the direction of control. “Magicians are controlling your attention away from the magic. Marketers are controlling your attention towards the magic,” Nelson-Field says.

She argues that there are several ways advertisers can master magic to hold attention, and gain customers:

The art of the cue - Distinctive assets can help brands drive memory in just 1.5 seconds

Magicians use discreet cues - for example British illusionist Derren Brown uses verbal and visual cues to encourage audiences to pick a certain card. His cues might mimic the shapes and colours of the card such as “make the colour bright and vivid”, leading them to pick a red card. Using cues like this, in just fifteen seconds he can encourage an audience to pick a red, three of diamonds.

Similarly, brands can use simple and consistent cues - from sound to colour.

Examples include EasyJet’s bright orange, McDonald’s golden arches, or the shape of a Coca-Cola bottle - to assist audience recall.

Consequently, when consumers think short-haul, they think EasyJet. When they think purple they think Cadbury, when they hear a yodel they think Dominoes.

As part of the research Amplified tracked over 20,000 views of 72 digital video ads across eight major brands and found that even with limited view-time well-brand assets were 2.5 times more effective at driving outcomes than weakly branded ones. With distinctive assets in play the research reduced the attention memory threshold to 1.5 seconds.

While subtlety can hint at legacy it comes with risks. “If you’re too simple and you don’t actually brand the ad you risk misattributing it to the competitor,” highlights Nelson-Field.

Pick the right media format

Attention also varies hugely by platform - cinema, where audiences are primed for focus as the lights are dimmed and they gear up to watch a film, yields better results in terms of attention and memorability than an ad on the side of a social media feed. According to the report’s findings, there is a 66 per cent variance in attention hold based on media, versus 25 per cent based on the creative work.

For marketers looking to pull people away from their primary activity and gain their attention to tell a brand story, the challenge of attracting attention is especially tough. "Magicians usually have a big stage. For marketers, the opportunity for distraction is far higher,” says Nelson-Field.

She distinguishes between active and passive attention and argues that both can serve valuable purposes for brands if played well. The cinema or a TV campaign should captivate and drive awareness, while digital ads might be used to reinforce and nudge to buy again. “A good mix for a brand is really important,” highlights Nelson-Field.

Time – Legacy Pays Off

The findings also revealed that being distinctive pays off in the long run with exponential improvements in long and short assets.

Nelson-Field and Parrish add that “when distinctive branding is in place you can afford to change your structure”.

Not only does it help set out a distinctive tone from other brands in the category, Nelson-Fields says it helps speed up decision-making and improves understanding and mental availability.

Ultimately, marketing isn't just about clicks - it's about constructing a magical world that pulls you in. And cues are as crucial as artistry.