Pratfall Effect Read online A few months ago on Reddit, someone asked, "Is this the best Black Friday marketing campaign?" Personally, I think it's disingenuous garbage, but clearly, something about this type of ad resonates with some. And it might be because of the first two words. "We're sorry." In 2024¹ a number of researchers from Belgium ran four experiments. They tested what happened when a company apologised for a trivial mistake. In one study, participants were shown an email from a...

Price Transparency Read online I spent far too much time moaning about the price of pints. I'd harp on about the £3 ales I used to buy and how they're £5.50 today. And then I saw this image. Taken from The Times based on figures from Ukospitality and the British Beer and Pub association 13p profit!? Suddenly £5 for a pint seems quite reasonable. And there's evidence to prove this price transparency tactic works. In 2020, Harvard researchers¹ tested the effects of showing a product's...

Humor Effect Read online Are funny ads actually more 𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆? That's what seven Californian¹ researchers set out to test in 2014. A group of participants were instructed to remember a long list of words. 50% of the participants then waited for 20 minutes in silence. 🤫50% of the participants then watched a funny 20-minute video. 🤣The researchers asked both groups to recall as many words as possible. Those who sat in silence remembered just 20% of the words. 🤫For those who watched the...