Nick Drew is as smart as they come. I first met him back in London during my Microsoft days, when he was part of the Microsoft Advertising research team, and we worked a lot on a number of research initiatives around search engine marketing and PPC.
Then he jumped ship and flew to Canada to work for Yahoo!
I’ve kept tabs on his work ever since, and when this article popped up in his feed talking about some investigation into the relationship between technology and memory, I felt compelled to share it with you.
In a nutshell, Nick teamed up with a psychology professor for the University of Toronto to explore whether technology was “helping or hampering” our memory.
I for one am a little embarrassed that I know none of my friends or family’s phone numbers or addresses anymore. Why do I need to? They are in my phone or somewhere in the cloud I can access from anywhere on any device, so am I right in thinking I’m freeing up my brain to store other facts and stuff?
Seems I’m not alone. 4 out of 5 respondents to their survey say that life is moving so fast it’s hard to remember everything, and nearly 70% of us say we’re fearful of losing our memories altogether (making me wonder if the other 30% are happy about that?!)
What’s clear for marketers (of course Nick had a relevant angle for Yahoo!’s advertisers!) is that consumers actually try and remember good adverts by emailing a link to themselves, taking a photo or even writing it down with a pen and paper.
What Nick and Steve Joordens have also succeeded in doing is proving the adage of involving and engaging through marketing succeeds in creating memorable experiences that obviously might result in someone buying your product.
So the next time you’re jotting down your next marketing plan, what’s the hook to get your target audience to feel they’re part of the campaign?
You can watch Nick’s whole presentation here.
I promise you won’t forget it!
