Invisible Advertising

Invisible Advertising

Choice Architecture in traditional terms means how things are presented to consumers. This can be done in many ways in advertising including the layout of advertisements, the range of similar products available, the amount of information available, the simplicity of this information or simply where it is displayed.

There is much more to advertising than most people know. In fact, there is a vast amount of psychology behind advertising which advertisers use to help them sell products.

Most people don’t realise that choice architecture influences their decisions every day. Think about a trip to the supermarket. This is a place where we can be influenced to pick one product over another. We are influenced by the product manufacturers through their labelling and the information they give us but also the supermarket themselves.

Supermarkets put products at eye level to sway decisions, put ‘SPECIAL’ signs on products to entice consumers to put one in their trolly, they create isle ends that usually include specials or bulk items, they often use the ‘buy one get one half price’ slogan to encourage yet another purchase, they put ‘impulse buys’ at the checkout usually involving sweets and chocolates so we grab that extra bit of food and they grab that extra bit of money. They even include catchy tunes and signs of lower prices to encourage consumers to buy products (think “down, down, prices are down”).

Advertisers also use choice architecture to sway peoples decisions toward their product. A good example of this is in the way they word things like ‘no artificial colours or flavours’, more often than not this information is very misleading. Or the meat that is ’95% lean beef’…  this sounds much better than ‘5% fat included!’ Advertisers very intentionally create and word all aspects of a product to try and make that sale.

Choice Architecture Online

Choice Architecture, in an online sense, is used by Google Remarketing and Facebook Pixel.

Google Remarketing is a clever way to connect visitors to a website who may not have made an immediate purchase or enquiry. Businesses can position targeted ads in front of consumers who have previously shown an interest in a website.

This is choice architecture because they are positioning repeated ads to try and get that prospective buyer to become a purchaser. The consumer is shown an ad or an item they previously clicked on in the hope they choose to visit the site again and make the conversion.

Facebook Pixel is a piece of code that is placed on a website to report conversions, build audiences and get rich insights into how people are using a website. This is a form of choice architecture because it allows businesses to build audiences whom they can then target an advertisements towards.

Choice architecture can be used through Google Remarketing and Facebook Pixel to persuade consumers to use a product or service. It is a way for businesses to ‘chase’ leads, help to make conversions and also hunt for new customers.

The Future of Choice Architecture

Advertising has always evolved to keep up with the times and the technology available. The future of Choice Architecture is where websites and digital interfaces will adapt and present themselves to consumers based on their character traits, likes & choices predicted by previous online behaviour, which is what Google Remarking and Facebook Pixel are starting to do. This is advertising with intelligence and is only going to get more powerful.

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Cheers Daniel