🕳️ Th_ Gen_r_tion E_f_ct

Hello! Adam Thornhill here. ‘The Podcast Guy’ saving you 10 hours a week.

Enjoy the 83rd Podup with the best bits from Nudge Podcast.

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Have you struggled to assemble IKEA furniture? As it turns out, there’s a method to this madness. Phill Agnew and Richard Shotton shed light on two cognitive biases that marketers can use to their advantage - the generation effect and the IKEA effect.

Make viewers think

In 2019, Cancer Research UK launched a cryptic ad campaign:

O b _ s _ _ y is a cause of cancer

Instead of outright stating the cause, they hid the answer, forcing the viewer to make a guess. Almost everyone quickly figures out they were referring to obesity.

The campaign capitalized on the generation effect, a behavioral bias that enhances ad recall and conversion rates due to viewer participation.

Phill Agnew

Give customers work

The IKEA effect suggests the more effort you put into a product, the more you’ll appreciate it. One study found a 50% improvement in the value of an item if customers built it themselves.

This is interesting for marketers. There’s a tension here. If you want to change behavior, the simplest route to do that is to remove friction. However, if you want to change the perception of your product,  then there’s an argument for adding in a little friction.

Richard Shotton

Why it matters

By understanding how our minds associate effort with value (IKEA effect), and how audience participation improves recall (generation effect), marketers can foster deeper connections between customers and brands. Given customers crave immersive experiences, these effects can also serve as a roadmap to provide just that.

Next steps

Inspired by these insights? Here’s how you can apply them:

1. Leverage the generation effect. Engage your audience in an interactive way that enhances recall. This could be through puzzles, questions, fill-in-the-blanks or other participative content.

2. Harness the IKEA effect. Consider how you can involve customers in the creation or customization of your product or service. This could boost perceived value.

3. Balance friction and convenience. Based on your business model, find a balance between ease of use (behavioral change) and friction (perception change).

Your thoughts?

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Quotes were pulled at different points of the episode. Sentences were left out to make the narrative more concise. Podup is not associated or affiliated with any podcast.