The other day I needed to run to the bank during my lunch time. I took a quick glance out the window. The sky was blue and inviting. It looked like a perfect spring day. I thought I would walk to the bank since it is merely three blocks from my office. Why not walk on such a great day? I had not walked a half a block before it started to snow. This was not a light snow either. My light jacket was caked with the white stuff. "Where did this come from?” I thought to myself. There was not a cloud in the sky when I first looked out the window. I was totally surprised by this sudden springtime snow blast.

When was the last time you were caught by surprise? There is something about the human brain that makes us stop and take notice when something out of the ordinary happens to us. When you are caught off guard, your brain quickly tries to distinguish whether the surprise is good or bad. If you are walking down the street and a man jumps from a doorway in front of you, he could be a mugger or he could be an old friend who is in town. Your brain is stimulated to either put up a fight, run away, or to take a deep breath, smile, hug your friend and laugh. This sudden stimulation is the talk of psycho-therapists and brain science gurus. But what does it have to do with marketing? Plenty.

In advertising, it is important to catch the attention of your audience. One way to do this is by surprise. Doing something they did not expect will use the brain’s natural stimulation from surprise to your advantage. Let me give you an example of this. Snickers candy bars had a great surprise ad that ran about a year ago. It had old-timers Betty White and Abe Vigoda playing a pick up game of football with a bunch of 20 something guys. When one player tackles Betty White and slams her in the mud, I could not help but be shocked by what I was seeing. "You are not you when you’re hungry…Snickers satisfies,” so the tag line went. It was a great surprise. My brain was totally stimulated. The ad made me laugh - a product of that quick stimulation from being surprised. It made me remember what I was seeing and hearing which left me in a good mood. It is exactly what the advertiser wanted from the audience.*

With so much marketing stimuli pushed upon us daily, it is easy for your audience to tune out your message. They can be watching your 30 second video, reading the page where you placed your ad, listening to your audio spot, but be totally disengaged from your advertising message. Being present in body does not guarantee being present in mind. This is where surprise can help capture the attention of your audience.

Here are a few tips about including surprise in your advertising.

1. Make sure you have a well-placed, short, memorable line that reinforces what you are selling. There are a lot of funny, short videos on the internet these days. Many companies have turned to amateur filmmakers to produce their ads. (Doritos has made a contest of this for the past few Super Bowls.) The problem is, if I laugh at your commercial, but I cannot remember who you are or what you are selling, you have wasted the effort.

2. One man’s surprise is another man’s scorn. Make sure your surprises do not cross a line of being in bad taste. A few years back, a business in Boston put LED lit signs advertising an upcoming animated movie along Highway 93, in the subways and on bridges. The signs were mistaken for explosive devices and traffic was diverted until the bomb squad could make certain they were harmless.**

3. Humor is but one way to surprise your audience. I have a client that has a large, portable grill. There are times when the sales and marketing department will show up unannounced and start grilling for their clients. Nothing like the smell of bratwurst right before lunch to get your attention.

4. Make sure your surprise is touching a good emotion and not a bad one. Just as our brains are geared to decipher what is happening when we are surprised, it is also acting quickly to tell us what to do next. Sometimes a quick response may be negative rather than positive. Remember that emotions are heightened after a surprise and you dare not put your client in a situation that makes them act out in a way that would embarrass them.

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How The Brain Handles Surprise, Good and Bad, ScienceDaily (Sep. 20, 2007)

*Snickers ad on YouTube http://youtu.be/X1Sv_z9jm8A