Dichotomy Consulting

In many Miami Ad School classes, a great deal of time is spent getting across a very simple yet incredibly crucial bit of information: that communication has to be memorable in order to be effective.

The genesis of this seems simple enough to grasp—that a message not remembered has no power over time. However, creating that very memorability is what makes this principle so easy to understand, yet so very difficult to internalize and put into practice.

The human brain develops new connections in response to stimuli. It is these connections that are the basis of what we call memory. In fact, it is the growing inability to form these new pathways that marks the onset of Alzheimer’s Syndrome in the aged.

Contained in the previous paragraph is the key to memorability. New, as in “new connections” and “new pathways.” It stands to reason that the best remembered experiences are, by definition, new ones.

Miami Ad School President Pippa Seichrist has a great way of driving this point home. She’ll ask a class if they remember their first kiss. Invariably, every hand will go up. Everyone will remember when it was, who it was with and will have a very vivid recollection of the event. Then she’ll ask “Does anyone remember their 352nd kiss?” Invariably—again—no one remembers this one. It is the fresh experience that forms the new pathway and therefore creates the most meaningful impression.

In order for your work to be memorable it must provide some measure of that “first kiss” experience. It must create that “never seen/heard before” impression that is present in the best films, the best music, the best art, and the funniest jokes.

Take this example: eleven years ago, a graduating team from the South Beach location had a wonderful campaign for an electric shaver that featured a print ad depicting a Saguaro cactus shorn of it’s needles, ostensibly by the shaver. Within the context of the time, circa 1998, this was original, fresh, and memorable. It lives vividly in the minds of those who saw it then. If you were to see the very same ad for the first time today you would have a very different reaction. Over the years you have been exposed to similar ads using similar visual metaphors many times. Therefore, your “first time” with this genre of ad happened a long time ago. There is no room in your brain for a fresh pathway; only one more connection in the memory bank your brain has assigned to visual ads, which is chock-full of very similar images. In short, the experience is not new to you and therefore does not create a memorable impression. Very much like that 352nd kiss. Well, actually, it’s not as good. Kisses being what they are, each of them is enjoyable in it’s own way. Played-out ads, jokes or songs just make you groan.

In order to be relevant, pertinent and effective, communication needs to give the viewer a first-time experience. That is why this business is so demanding and the job so difficult and so rewarding.