Where creativity meets behavioural science

As an agency, we put behavioural science at the centre of everything we do. Part of this has meant upskilling the entire team to be behavioural thinkers and creators. But how does this behaviour-led approach fit in with the creative process? We asked our Creative Director, Dorina D’Ambrosio the question: does behavioural science help or hinder creativity? Here’s her view:

Does behavioural science help or hinder creativity?

Behavioural science helps us to understand why consumers act the way they do – it’s one of those secret weapons that I wish I’d known more about at the start of my creative career. It offers that additional reasoning that goes way beyond just using your intuition – as creatives, we all want to create work that challenges us and looks great, but we also want to know it’ll be effective. Creatives tend to rely heavily on their intuition, and we’re often creating and designing things for someone else other than ourselves. So how do we make sure that we go beyond our gut feeling? Behavioural science allows us to do just that.

How has transitioning to an entirely behaviour-led approach affected the way you and your creative team work? 

We still have the same team ideation sessions to come up with the big ideas clients fall in love with. One of the key differences in the way we work now is that we know exactly which behaviour we want to influence, we refer to as the ‘desired behaviour’. Or in client’s terms its the real-world challenge they face. Establishing the desired behaviour allows us to pull the right levers in our creative work to help the comms achieve what it needs to.

What’s it like being at the forefront of behavioural led thinking?

It’s exciting! It’s always great to learn new things that will influence the way you think and design things. I was recently asked to brief a great bunch of 2nd-year creative students on a behaviour-led creative brief. The creative presented back was amazing, full of cleverly executed big ideas and the students had a real confidence in their work. I’m looking forward to seeing how they grow as creatives.

What success have you seen since using creativity informed by behavioural science?

Lots! Here’s just a couple of examples of our creative work that were born from a behaviour-led brief:

Well Pharmacy ‘The Pharmies’ Campaign

We positioned the new digital repeat prescription service as an empowering choice for managing repeat prescriptions. Showing this move to be simple and worth the effort. Customers respect Well’s pharmacists so we brought them to life to front the campaign, using the authority bias. We showed how they were still responsible for making sure customers safely receive their prescription.

To bring the pharmacists to life, we created a bespoke suite of illustrations building on their brand heuristics, that showcase the team as approachable experts – the perfect form of authority for this challenge. The TV advert shows them diligently managing prescriptions. The creative was optimised across all social channels.

Sharps ‘Hidden Space’ TV ad

Using anchoring, we showed Sharps Bedrooms beautiful fitted furniture next to make-do freestanding fitted furniture that doesn’t give people the storage space they need in their room. Sharps fitted furniture was featured in the ad as the ideal solution to this problem.

We created a TV ad campaign that depicts the characters finally doing something about the poor storage their existing wardrobes give them. They excitedly move around their room, getting rid of their old furniture and building their perfectly fitted furniture to fit the contours of their room.