Friday, March 16, 2007

brand sense and 'Here's to the people behind the numbers'


The other week I went to listen to Simon Harrop, Executive Director of BRAND sense agency. He was saying that in the 70's people would remember around 25% of the TV ads they saw, now it's only around 5% - so he's promoting use of the other non-visual senses in advertising, particularly 'smell' and 'ritual'. Apparently people used to enjoy sliding their fingernail down the foil between two pieces of the KitKat chocolate bar to break into it - and that was a ritual - lost when the wrappers became plastic. Have you heard/seen the new Yellow Pages ad? It's both ritualistic and deeply spiritual; 'here's to the people behind the numbers' (watch it here) - slowly, repetitively, the advert honours different people - it's almost a prayer. And apparently, suggests Harrop, we use vision and audio to screen stuff out, but smell, touch and taste to engage. So why not include a little ritual and multi-sensory in your prayer times? Light some incense, use some oil to prayerfully anoint yourself/a friend, light a candle, begin your prayer time with ritual eg. 'In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit'. Seems there's some sense in the ancient traditions after all...