Right Brain: the Right Brain?

Right Brain: the Right Brain?

It is not a secret to anyone that the two parts of our brain are not identical – but what does it have to do with the advertising industry?

Orlando Wood

Orlando Wood, Chief Innovation Office at the System 1 Group and Honorary Fellow of the IPA has dedicated his time over the past few years to studying effectiveness in advertising and how it is shaped by a combination of neuroscience, cultural history, visual arts and the massive technological changes that we faced in the 00s.

Orlando’s latest work, „Look Out!”, has a lot to do with the brain and how its two halves perceive our surroundings. While the left brain focuses on little details (more like the effects of a pet cone), the right brain is where creativity is being born and challenged.

By drawing parallels between classical art and vintage ads, Orlando recalls a loss of humour in advertising: we forgot how to tell stories and how to paint the big picture. At some point in time (think heavy tech disruption), people stopped relating to the situations and relationships shown in ads – their attention span diminished and their smiles disappeared. Basically, we started processing information using our left brain only.

Orlando is a strong advocate of using more of the right brain: not only we need to turn it on so that we can create meaningful ads, but we also need to re-enact the connections in our audience’s heads and imagination. We need more human connections in the advertising world.

This eye-covered book is not just a laugh – pun intended. It’s being backed up by real data, provided by the IPA Databank and it clearly shows that ads with right-brained features are more effective when building a brand. 

EACA had the pleasure of welcoming Orlando Wood to the first edition of EACA Chats on 20 January. In less than one hour, Orlando mesmerised more than 120 people with his findings, beautiful imagery, a walk down memory lane via good ol’ ads and a flashing warning sign: Look Out! 

You can find out more about Orlando’s work by clicking on the pictures below:

Image
Image