Going off the Deep End: Roy H. Williams on the Brain
My inspiration for a ‘deep dive’ into science and philosophy as it affects executive communications (which I’m classifying as ‘Deep End’ postings) is ad-man extraordinary Roy H. Williams.
Before I launch into the first deep dive of my own, I’ll try and show how useful Roy’s insights derived from ‘complicated stuff’ can be.
Apart from his books, be sure to check out his archives of Monday Morning Memos – fascinating and instructive notes he emails every week.
Take as an example Chapter 21 of his book Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads
In four brief pages Roy clarifies the visual and auditory processing power of the brain and how two key areas are involved when people hear and see advertising messages: Wernicke’s area where the visual and auditory associations meet and we assign names to objects and comprehend spoken language; and Broca’s area where language processing, speech production and comprehension occurs.
Roy concludes the chapter by saying:
Describe what you want the listener to see, and she will see it. Cause her to imagine taking the action you’d like her to take, and you’ve brought her much closer to taking the action. The secret of persuasion lies in our skillful use of action words. The magic of advertising is in the verbs. Just ask Broca.
Having set this up, Williams then explains, in subsequent chapters, how to write compelling ads by ‘surprising Broca’.
Williams is not afraid to risk losing some readers in his detours into ‘advanced’ theories of neuroscience and medicine. The reward for those of us who stick with him is an incredible insight into the ways that communication works in the world of advertising.
My goal, in future Deep End postings, is to explore detours of my own and see what lessons can be learned.
Stay tuned.
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