Made You Look

How can you make your message stand out and stick in a world overwhelmed by information?

1. The Magic of Priming: Setting the Stage for Engagement

Priming is like preparing the soil before planting seeds—it sets the brain up to interpret what follows more effectively. By exposing the brain to specific stimuli ahead of time, you can make your communication more understandable and impactful.

There are four types of priming that grab attention and ensure retention. Perceptual priming uses sensory triggers like colors and images to enhance comprehension. Semantic priming, on the other hand, introduces related concepts to help establish connections. Affective priming appeals to emotions such as curiosity or positivity to encourage open-mindedness. Finally, repetition priming ensures that key points are remembered by presenting them several times.

For effective priming, it's essential to identify the core messages you need your audience to focus on. By integrating methods like visual elements, relatable references, or emotional cues, and repeating important elements, you can guide your audience to process your content quickly and retain it longer.

Examples

• Using a vivid image of a lush forest before discussing environmental conservation.
• Introducing food-related words like "harvest" and "garden" before launching a vegetable product.
• Repeating a tagline four times during a presentation to make it unforgettable.

2. Embodied Cognition: When the Body Knows Best

The idea of embodied cognition suggests that the brain evolved not for abstract thought, but to guide movement and interaction with the world. Our thoughts, memory, and language are deeply connected to physical engagement.

Research demonstrates that physically acting out information boosts understanding and retention. For instance, describing actions like "reaching" activates similar areas of the brain as actually reaching. Motor processes even overlap with functions we often think of as abstract, like math and geometry. This connection means that purely intellectual or static methods of communication miss an opportunity to engage the brain effectively.

To apply embodied cognition, communicators should incorporate physicality into their messaging. Hands-on demonstrations or encouraging movement during learning sessions can make concepts stick. Even mimicking movement through creative animations can engage the brain more fully.

Examples

• Letting participants assemble a DIY kit during a product introduction.
• Using gestures while explaining complex ideas to aid memory.
• Adding animations showing moving parts in a static presentation about machinery.

3. Pleasure and Rewards: Motivating Through Happiness

The brain's reward system, rooted in primal emotions, drives our attention and decisions. Wanting (anticipation), liking (enjoying), and learning (forming associations) form the foundation of what we feel and remember.

To engage audiences, intermittent rewards are highly effective. This approach, like a random bonus or unexpected humor, sustains attention. Incentive salience, or creating cues that hint at potential rewards, can also keep people interested. Additionally, tapping into social rewards, like fostering a sense of belonging or collaboration, appeals to human connection.

Craft captivating experiences by designing content that alternates between moments of anticipation and satisfaction. When people feel rewarded—emotionally, socially, or intellectually—they're invested and receptive.

Examples

• Including surprise Easter eggs in a presentation to keep viewers intrigued.
• Designing an office training around team-building, fostering camaraderie.
• Starting a webinar with an enticing challenge and unlocking clues throughout.

4. The Science of Repetition: Understanding Through Repeating

Repetition doesn’t just create familiarity; it eases mental effort. Repeating significant points helps the brain solidify connections, even if they feel overemphasized to the speaker.

Instead of frontloading or bookending with a summary, repeat core insights strategically throughout. A single exposure may go unnoticed, but four well-placed reinforcements can make an idea take root.

This method allows audiences to process complex concepts at their pace while building familiarity and memory.

Examples

• Reiterating a campaign's central message across different media touchpoints.
• Restating the same statistic in different sections of a report.
• Using slogans in advertising that stick through frequency of exposure.

5. Emotional Appeals: Speaking to the Heart

Messages are more memorable when they evoke emotion. Feelings like surprise, joy, or even curiosity activate the brain's emotional centers, making content easier to process and harder to forget.

Emotionally charged experiences capture attention and foster loyalty. By creating a connection that resonates on a human level, people are more likely to engage with your material deeply and act on it.

Inject emotion thoughtfully into your presentations by sharing relatable stories, highlighting challenges, or using positive framing to uplift and motivate your audience.

Examples

• Opening a charity presentation with a real-life success story.
• Designing promotional materials that use nostalgia-themed visuals.
• Staging simulated scenarios of a problem your product solves effectively.

6. The Importance of Hands-On Interaction

Active participation anchors ideas better than passive listening or viewing. Direct involvement through tactile or interactive formats allows people to connect personally to the content.

Letting audiences physically engage with a product or learn through real-life scenarios fosters both comprehension and long-term recall. This is beneficial in corporate, educational, or marketing settings.

Think beyond static slides or spoken words—give your audience something to touch, do, or experience physically.

Examples

• Offering a free trial for a new software tool learners can explore.
• Conducting live demonstrations during trade shows.
• Organizing role-play exercises during leadership training.

7. The Role of Surprise: Keeping Audiences on Their Toes

Surprise captures attention instantly by breaking patterns or expectations. When something unexpected happens, it triggers the brain's attention mechanisms and primes people to focus.

Incorporating surprise could involve clever storytelling twists, hints of novelty, or playful teases before revealing key takeaways. This simple change can turn mundane material into something awe-inspiring.

Surprise also boosts learning by creating memorable peaks that stand out from routine communication or monotony.

Examples

• Starting a presentation with a provocative, counterintuitive question.
• Where appropriate, using humor to spice up traditionally dry subjects.
• Hosting a “pop-up” event with unannounced giveaways to reward loyal customers.

8. Social Connection: Using Groups to Amplify Engagement

Humans are inherently social creatures, and we’re driven by rewards like recognition, status, and connection. Framing communication as an opportunity for collaboration or shared purpose fuels collective action.

Social rewards can involve simple tactics, like asking for input, forming groups, or giving credit publicly. People who feel part of a community tend to stay engaged longer and more willingly.

To inspire this connection, ensure your communication encourages participation and fosters group dynamics.

Examples

• Crowdsourcing feedback for a collaborative design project.
• Acknowledging top performers and contributors among peers.
• Inviting participants to co-create content, like webinars or brainstorming sessions.

9. The Role of Dynamic Experiences

Static content easily bores audiences, while content in motion mirrors our brain's natural preference for action. Creating a sense of movement gives life to your ideas.

Simple adjustments, like switching up formats, adding animations, or pacing transitions, naturally appeal to us. This liveliness generates interest and maintains focus.

Design with momentum in mind for your audience to feel the flow of progression rather than monotony.

Examples

• Adding animation to graphs within business reports.
• Pacing conversations or video edits like a story arc that builds tension.
• Alternating between formats (words, visuals, audio) to sustain interest.

Takeaways

1. Plan your communication with specific sensory, emotional, and repetitive components to enhance retention.
2. Engage physical and social connections during presentations or training to create memorable involvement.
3. Break predictability by using surprise or dynamic pacing to keep your audience focused and entertained.