By Thomas Zoëga Ramsø, Mentuis Lumen Libris, 2024
Reviewed By James Forr
Head of Insights
Olson Zaltman
Columbia, Missouri
jforr@olsonzaltman.com
Over the next few weeks, try this: take note of how many ads place their brand logo in the lower right-hand corner.
In How to Make People Buy (2024), Thomas Ramsøy, CEO of the research agency Neurons, Inc. in Copenhagen, calls that spot “the corner of death.” He claims eye-tracking heat maps reveal that only 5 percent of consumers ever glance there. Yet, quite often, that’s exactly where a logo will appear, making it harder than necessary for consumers to connect the message to the brand.
In recent years, scholar Karen Nelson-Field has popularized a singular focus on attention as the central determinant of advertising success. Yes, attention matters—a lot. However, Ramsøy argues it’s useless if it isn’t properly directed.
Ramsøy introduces what he calls the 4-Power Model of advertising effectiveness, which consists of attention, emotions, understanding, and memory. Overlooking any one of these, he shows, can undermine a campaign.
Take, for example, Sony’s celebrated 2005 ad for its Bravia TV. The spot featured 250,000 colorful little balls dancing up and down the hills of San Francisco, set to a poignant, almost ethereal soundtrack. It won a shelf of awards and racked up millions of views. Yet, as Ramsøy points out, research later revealed the ad was ineffective in driving sales. While viewers were mesmerized by the amazing visual effects, most didn’t notice, and even fewer remembered, that the brand was Sony Bravia.
The author’s lesson is that the best ads are not merely interesting stories sponsored by the brand—they are stories driven by the brand. The brand must sit at the heart of the narrative.
Ramsøy is especially persuasive when he explores the role of emotion in decision-making. He takes readers on an imaginary window-shopping stroll through Copenhagen, illustrating how the things we see on our walk affect us emotionally. Those emotional responses unconsciously influence the countless micro-decisions we make during that journey, and in turn, those micro-decisions ultimately determine whether the journey leads to a purchase. He contends that traditional marketing models, which prioritize rational analysis and conscious deliberation, tend to wilt under the glare of modern neuroscience.
Beyond theory, Ramsøy offers important practical insights. For example, he advises creatives to design simple ads with few elements to allow the most important components to stand out. He encourages using angles and contrasts in ads, much like Rembrandt and da Vinci did with light and shadow, to guide the viewer’s eye and highlight what matters most. He also shares keys to mastering social media ads—keep them short, embed key information throughout, and tell stories from a first-person perspective.
Measurement is also a central part of Ramsøy’s book. He describes the strengths and limitations of neuroscience tools like fMRI and EEG, and previews emerging methods in marketing research circles, such as MEG and fNIRS.
I do disagree with Ramsøy’s skepticism toward metaphorical advertising. He suggests that such ads are hard to understand and, therefore, should be avoided. But many of the most iconic ad campaigns—Corona’s “Find Your Beach,” Apple’s “Get a Mac,” and Snickers’ “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry,” to name just a few—have a metaphor at their core, and the brands are memorable.
Ramsøy’s argument is like saying artists shouldn’t use blue paint because many bad paintings have blue in them. Obviously, it is important to avoid confusing metaphors; however, effective metaphors attract attention, aid comprehension, and stir emotion. In short, they do everything great advertising is supposed to do.
While I take issue with the author on that particular point, How to Make People Buy still offers both a sharp conceptual framework for understanding advertising effectiveness and a toolkit of practical insights marketers and creatives can apply when developing or evaluating new campaigns.
