Orlando Wood, author of “Lemon: How Advertising that Entertains Us is the Path to Profit,” was in town this week to speak to a seminar organised by the branded entertainment agency Boys + Girls and the Marketing Institute of Ireland.
At the sold out event, Wood spoke about how his best-selling book, Lemon (IPA, 2019) articulates a change in advertising style that has occurred over the last 15 years and links this to falling advertising effectiveness.
Referencing the human brain and how it attends to the world, Wood revealed how an attentional shift in the 21st Century – in society, business and advertising – has led to flatter, more abstract and devitalised work and an advertising style that is diametrically opposed to effectiveness. Illustrating how the brain attends to art, sculpture, music – and advertising – Wood offered guidance on the type of advertising that moves and entertains audiences, and so achieves profitable growth for brands. This was further backed up by independent research into advertising effectiveness by the IPA in London.
Wood is chief innovation officer of the System1 Group, member of the IPA’s Effectiveness Advisory Board and author of the IPA’s acclaimed publication, Lemon (2019). He is also co-author of System1, Unlocking Profitable Growth (2017). His research on advertising draws on psychology and studies of how the brain works. He also led the IPA’s Creativity and Effectiveness research for Effectiveness Week in 2018 & 2019 and his work has influenced thinking and practice in the research, marketing and advertising, winning him awards from the AMA, ARF, MRS, ISBA, Jay Chiat and ESOMAR.
Boys+Girls founder Pat Stephenson, who introduced Wood at his first ever Irish appearance said: “Advertising is all about creativity and effectiveness – without them there is no engagement or resonance. Orlando’s thought-provoking book now makes marketers recognise the importance of entertainment as a means of profitable brand-building.”
