How your brain takes in printed vs. digital information

Posted by Direction Printing on Thursday, February 6, 2020

How your brain takes in printed vs. digital information

We came across some interesting articles on an industry publication website (PrintCAN) and the related Canada Post blog entry about how your brain works when exposed to marketing messages. A team of neuroscientists looked at how subjects interacted with direct mail (printed pieces) vs. various digital marketing and how they can work together. This is reportedly a first in this this kind of study and their 2 main questions were:

What is the best media mix to optimize consumer attention, engagement and response?
What sequence works best when using digital and direct media channels?

A review of their resulting whitepaper, “A Bias for Action”, PrintCAN boiled down some key findings:

1) Direct mail is easier to understand and more memorable than digital media. It takes 21 per cent less thought to process, and creates much higher brand recall. 

2) Direct mail is far more persuasive than digital media. Its motivation response is 20 per cent higher — and even better if it appeals to senses beyond touch, such as smell and hearing.

3) Direct mail gets the message across faster. Our brains process it quicker than digital media. An important difference in an era when goldfish have longer attention spans than the average human.

4) Direct mail is more likely to drive consumers to act on your message than digital media.

Generally speaking, the study found that the combination of traditional print marketing with digital marketing in the right order can increase the effectiveness of the marketing initiative significantly.

For the full article on Canada Post’s website, please follow this link:

https://www.canadapost.ca/blogs/business/marketing/the-brain-doesnt-lie-neuromarketing-study-looks-at-sequencing-and-channel-combinations/

For the PrinCAN article, please follow this link:

https://printcan.com/news/2019/20191030876.shtml

For the full PDF of the study, “A Bias for Action”, please follow this link:

https://www.canadapost.ca/assets/pdf/dm/neuro/connectivity_whitepaper_en.pdf