The Von Restorff Effect
The weirder something seems, the more we remember it
What is the Von Restorff effect?
Also called the isolation effect or bizarreness effect, the Von Restorff effect is the proven psychological theory that the more something stands out from the crowd the more likely it is to be seen. For example in a bucket full of green apples we’ll remember the red one. And be more drawn to it.
The evidence it works
The Von Restorff effect is a phenomenon first coined by Hedwig Von Restorff – rejoice, a female behavioural scientist. She discovered in an experiment that when constructing lists of words, the one that’s different will usually be recalled more easily.
This could be that the word in question is longer than the rest, in a different typeface or language, emboldened, contains a number, is in a different font etc.
How it builds brand memorability
One of the key drivers of brand memorability is ‘Ease’.
If you make your brand easy to access, deal with and buy from, you’re going to build strong, positive connections that lead to memorability.
At the point of purchase, or during the journey to purchase, customer’s decision-making can be made easier by leveraging behavioural biases. And METRIC is our tool for harnessing the power of these biases - snap judgements that help the brain make quick decisions in context - for clients.
METRIC organises the biases into six categories - because these are the key ‘resources’ we always have to spend when make decisions. They are Money, Effort, Time, Risk, Individuality, and Conscious thought. Which handily spells METRIC.
So presenting choices in one of these six frames can tip the balance in comms.
How we've used it
Social distancing posters for retailers (during Covid)
‘Think cow’
We tasked ourselves with creating some memorable posters to help small businesses remind customers of the pandemic rules.
One was ‘Think Cow’, a bizarre visual representation of the 2m social distancing rule. Making it more noticeable and memorable for people entering the store. A great use of the Von Restorff effect that even got us mentioned in The Times.
Great examples of Von Restorff in marketing
Cadburys cup and a half of joy
Everyone remembers the ‘gorilla’ ad from Cadburys for one reason: it was truly bizarre and ridiculously entertaining.
The Three Pony
Three’s campaign was all about how the silly, funny stuff is the heart of our smartphone experience. So why not create their own videos to promote it?
