The Psychology of Great Campaigns: How Ads Really Influence Decisions.

marshadvertising
Sep 8
4 min read

Advertising at its best is less about persuasion in the rational sense and more about shaping the conditions under which decisions are made. A campaign succeeds when it captures attention, connects emotionally, and embeds itself into memory in a way that feels effortless. In the modern attention economy, where audiences are fragmented and overloaded with messages, understanding the psychology behind great campaigns is critical.

Fast and Slow Thinking

Daniel Kahneman’s dual-process theory (2011) suggests that most decisions begin in “System 1”—fast, intuitive, emotional—before occasionally moving to “System 2,” which is slower and deliberate. Campaigns that align with intuitive processing—through simplicity, emotion, and familiarity—are more likely to influence behavior than those requiring conscious cognitive effort.

Fluency, Familiarity, and Repetition

Three cognitive biases are especially powerful:

Mere exposure effect (Zajonc, 1968): repeated exposure increases liking.
Processing fluency (Reber, Schwarz & Winkielman, 2004): the easier something is to process, the more it is enjoyed and trusted.
Illusory truth effect (Hasher, Goldstein & Toppino, 1977; Fazio et al., 2015): repetition makes statements feel more true.

These findings support the importance of uncluttered design, recognizable category cues, and the consistent use of distinctive brand assets.

Narrative Transportation

Green and Brock’s research (2000) shows that when audiences are immersed in a story, they suspend counter-arguing and experience the message as a lived event. Even short-form ads benefit from narrative arcs (goal, struggle, resolution), which outperform simple lists of product features.

Emotion as a Long-Term Driver

The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) database, analyzed by Binet and Field (2009, 2013), demonstrates that emotionally led campaigns outperform rational campaigns on long-term business metrics such as profit, share growth, and pricing power. Emotion not only drives immediate attention but also strengthens memory encoding (McGaugh, 2003).

Peaks and Endings

The “peak-end rule” (Kahneman, Fredrickson, Schreiber & Redelmeier, 1993) explains that people remember experiences based on their most intense moment and their ending, rather than the sum of every moment. Ads should therefore engineer a single powerful emotional peak and conclude on a memorable branded cue.

Social Influence and Framing

Robert Cialdini’s principles of persuasion (1984; 2021 update) remain relevant: social proof, scarcity, authority, and framing all shape decisions. In advertising, these elements work best when reinforcing a broader narrative rather than being the centerpiece of a message.

Distinctive Brand Assets and Mental Availability

Byron Sharp and colleagues at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute (2010; Romaniuk & Sharp, 2016) argue that brand growth depends on mental and physical availability. Distinctive assets—colors, shapes, taglines, mascots—act as cognitive shortcuts at the moment of choice. Campaigns that consistently build and refresh these assets increase their likelihood of being recalled and chosen.

Attention in the Digital Age

Recent attention-tracking studies (Teads & Lumen, 2022) confirm that eyes-on dwell time strongly predicts recall and choice uplift. Platforms such as YouTube and TikTok demonstrate that the first five seconds of content are crucial (Google, 2019). However, the challenge lies in balancing early branding with creative that doesn’t immediately feel like an ad. Native storytelling, creator partnerships, and vertical video formats are now essential strategies.

Frequency and Wear-Out

Contrary to the fear of “wear-out,” Kantar (2018) and Nielsen (2017) data suggest that strong creative often “wears in”—gaining effectiveness with repeated exposure—before reaching diminishing returns. The first few exposures matter most, after which frequency should be managed to maximize reach without oversaturation.

Modern Constraints: Privacy and Trust

The shift away from third-party cookies (Google, 2024) and Apple’s App Tracking Transparency framework (2021) has reduced micro-targeting precision. This amplifies the importance of creative quality and broad appeal: ads must be enjoyable enough that people choose to watch them. Moreover, trust has shifted toward peer recommendations and creator endorsements (Nielsen, 2021), reinforcing the value of campaigns built around authentic human storytelling.

References

Binet, L., & Field, P. (2009). Marketing in the Era of Accountability. IPA.
Binet, L., & Field, P. (2013). The Long and the Short of It: Balancing Short and Long-Term Marketing Strategies. IPA.
Cialdini, R. B. (1984). Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Harper Business.
Cialdini, R. B. (2021). Influence, New and Expanded: The Psychology of Persuasion. Harper Business.
Fazio, L. K., Brashier, N. M., Payne, B. K., & Marsh, E. J. (2015). Knowledge does not protect against illusory truth. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 144(5), 993–1002.
Google (2019). The First Five Seconds: How to Hook Viewers on YouTube. Think with Google.
Green, M. C., & Brock, T. C. (2000). The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(5), 701–721.
Hasher, L., Goldstein, D., & Toppino, T. (1977). Frequency and the conference of referential validity. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 16(1), 107–112.
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Kahneman, D., Fredrickson, B. L., Schreiber, C. A., & Redelmeier, D. A. (1993). When more pain is preferred to less: Adding a better end. Psychological Science, 4(6), 401–405.
Kantar (2018). Ad Reaction: The Art of Integration.
McGaugh, J. L. (2003). Memory and emotion: The making of lasting memories. Columbia University Press.
Nielsen (2017). Optimizing Ad Frequency. Nielsen Report.
Nielsen (2021). Trust in Advertising Study.
Reber, R., Schwarz, N., & Winkielman, P. (2004). Processing fluency and aesthetic pleasure: Is beauty in the perceiver’s processing experience? Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8(4), 364–382.
Romaniuk, J., & Sharp, B. (2016). How Brands Grow Part 2. Oxford University Press.
Sharp, B. (2010). How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don’t Know. Oxford University Press.
Teads & Lumen (2022). Attention: A New Media Currency. Lumen Research Whitepaper.
Zajonc, R. B. (1968). Attitudinal effects of mere exposure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9(2), 1–27.