Perception of advertising with elements of surprise Automatic translate

Surprise is one of the most effective tools for capturing audience attention in modern advertising communications. The human brain reacts to unpredictable stimuli much more intensely than to expected events, making the element of surprise a valuable resource for advertisers.

Neurobiological basis of the perception of surprise

Studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging have revealed specific patterns of brain activation when confronted with unexpected events. The parahippocampal region, traditionally associated with detecting novelty, shows increased activity when perceiving surprises. This brain region is involved in the formation of a primary response to unanticipated stimuli.

The locus coeruleus releases norepinephrine in response to unexpected events. This neuromodulator spreads throughout various regions of the brain, including the prefrontal cortex, where planning and higher cognitive functions occur. The first surge of norepinephrine stimulates immediate action, while a second wave occurs after the event is over.

The magnitude of the second surge depends on the degree of unexpectedness of the outcome. When the expected reward fails to materialize or an unexpected stimulus appears, the locus coeruleus generates a more powerful signal. This mechanism helps the body adjust behavior based on experience.

The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex modulates neural responses to unpredictable emotional stimuli. Studies have shown that attention alters the activity of this region when processing unexpected emotional faces. The frontal cortex tracks surprises separately for different sensory modalities but utilizes a common inhibitory control mechanism.

Beta waves over the frontal cortex accompany unexpected events in the auditory, visual, and tactile modalities. These neural patterns reflect the rapid interruption of ongoing behavior when the environment does not meet expectations. The medial temporal lobe encodes surprises differently depending on the motivational context, creating different neural conditions for learning.

Physiological reactions to surprise

The startle response is the primary physiological response to unexpected stimuli. Its primary function is to interrupt current activity and refocus attention on a new, potentially significant event. This automatically redirects focus to new stimuli.

The process unfolds extremely quickly: information reaches the pons in 3-8 milliseconds, and the full startle response takes less than two-tenths of a second. For a brief moment, muscles tense, especially in the neck. Electromyography of the corrugator supercilii (the muscle that corrugates the eyebrows) records increased activity upon perception of unexpected information.

A high degree of surprise elicits stronger activation of the corrugator, indicating negative affect and mental effort. Activity in the zygomaticus major (the muscle responsible for smiling) and frontalis (the frontal muscle) remains relatively stable. This supports the primary negativity hypothesis: the initial reaction to uncertainty is negative, while positivity requires emotional regulation.

Emotional valence of surprise

The circuitry of the brain’s emotional center processes surprise separately from the aversive or rewarding valence of a stimulus. The same unexpected element can be perceived positively or negatively depending on the context. Researchers at Columbia University have begun to identify the neural pathways that differentiate these aspects.

The amygdala demonstrates a link to primary negativity. People with negative valence bias exhibit a pattern similarity between viewing surprised faces and maintaining negativity. These individuals do not exhibit normal habituation to overtly negative stimuli.

Brain regions involved in emotional reappraisal show greater activity for unexpected stimuli in people with a positive valence bias. This confirms that the positive interpretation of uncertainty relies on emotional regulation mechanisms. The perception of surprised facial expressions may demonstrate an individual’s valence bias.

Surprise and Memory

A meta-analysis of creative media advertising effects revealed that surprise, rather than perceived persuasive intent, is the primary mechanism of persuasiveness. Creative media advertising is more effective when using surprises and metaphors. Surprise positively moderates the impact of creative media advertising on the strength of brand associations.

Unanticipated events form stronger memory traces. Neuroscience professor Reed Montague of Baylor University notes that the brain’s reward regions respond most strongly to unpredictable sequences of pleasurable stimuli. The region activates like a Christmas tree in an MRI scanner.

Humans are biologically hardwired to crave the unexpected. Entire business models are built on this insight: Birchbox sends customers boxes of mystery beauty products every month, and Phish never performs the same show twice. These examples demonstrate the commercial value of unpredictability.

Campaigns that generate strong negative emotions demonstrate higher recall rates than those that evoke positive emotions. However, positive emotions have a greater impact on consumer engagement. Advertising campaigns that evoke a specific emotion show an increase in brand awareness from 74% to 78%, engagement from 82% to 90%, and action from 40% to 55%.

The influence of surprise on behavior

Unexpectedness alters consumer behavior. The concept of cognitive dissonance explains this mechanism: surprise introduces a person to new stimuli, which then must be reconciled with changes in beliefs and behavior. This process triggers a reassessment of attitudes.

Surprise creates an addiction-like effect on the brain. Researchers at Emory and Baylor Universities used fMRI to measure changes in brain activity in response to a sequence of pleasurable stimuli. The patterns of fruit juice and water delivery were either predictable or completely unpredictable. The brain’s reward pathways responded most strongly to the unpredictable sequence.

Unexpected rewards stimulate a more intense emotional response. Gregory Burns, a professor of psychiatry at Emory University, explains that the part of the brain associated with pure pleasure responds specifically to receiving something unexpected. A birthday gift is pleasant, but a non-birthday gift evokes a significantly stronger reaction.

Types of surprise in advertising

Both high and low levels of ad surprise attract more attention during targeted tasks and are associated with more favorable attitudes toward the advertising format. Advertisers should consider high levels of surprise when developing online messages. Pop-up ads, with their sudden appearance and movement on a webpage, are more likely to capture consumers’ attention than static banners.

Creative advertising with unexpected image descriptions was studied using event-related potentials. Participants viewed images that were difficult to interpret before presenting a description based on the original advertisement. Electrophysiological correlates of the experience of novelty in creative advertising revealed specific activation patterns.

Visual metaphors are widely used in modern advertising, but academic research on the topic is relatively scarce. A neurophysiological experiment revealed consumers’ unconscious reactions to advertising that includes visual metaphors. There is an inverted U-shaped curve between metaphor complexity and consumer positivity: complexity outweighs comprehension at a certain point.

This U-shaped relationship has been validated for advertising evaluation, advertising liking, and purchase intent using declarative measures. Despite the dominance of visual metaphors in modern advertising, relevant research remains limited. Proper use of visual metaphors maximizes their impact on advertising effectiveness.

Surprise in the digital environment

Unexpected online ads influence people’s attention and attitudes differently depending on their placement, degree of surprise, and the user’s task level. Researchers analyzed three levels of surprise: high, moderate, and low, during focused and free-browsing tasks. Eye tracking and attitude measurements were used.

Results showed that highly unexpected ads captured more attention in both tasks. "Banner blindness" occurs only when consumers are aware of the distractor and its characteristics, but can be eliminated if the ad’s salient features are unexpected and vary randomly. Advertisers should consider high levels of unexpectedness when designing online messages.

Floating ads and formats that appear suddenly and move on a webpage are more likely to capture consumers’ attention than static vertical banners. Pop-up ads can overcome top-down attentional control, especially during a free-browsing task. Low and high levels of ad surprisal were associated with more favorable attitudes toward the ad and less perceived intrusiveness.

Guerrilla Marketing and the Surprise Effect

Guerrilla marketing is a strategy that uses unconventional, often unexpected, tactics to capture audience attention. It relies on creative, memorable methods designed to evoke strong emotions, such as shock or awe. Unlike traditional marketing, which typically requires large budgets for mass media channels, guerrilla advertising operates on a smaller budget, relying on creativity instead of expensive media buys.

A study examining the impact of unexpected guerrillia marketing on customer behavior revealed significant effects. The analysis was based on 344 customer responses from three shopping centers in Jeddah. The results showed that both dimensions of guerrillia marketing (ambient marketing and sensation marketing) influence purchase intention and brand attitude.

Flash mobs, pop-up installations, or unexpected events suddenly appear in bustling city centers. These campaigns are designed to create memorable interactions. Ambient marketing utilizes the art of surprise in advertising, placing messages in unexpected places and contexts.

The strategy utilizes the shock factor as a way to promote brand visibility and recognition. The tactics employed focus on creating a memorable interaction between customers and the brand. The best part is the use of surprise, shock, and awe to gently interrupt the audience, drawing their attention to the brand.

Surprise and fear in advertising

Fear is one of the most compelling emotions and an excellent strategy for motivating viewers to action. Using surprise and fear becomes a winning advertising formula: the viewer’s attention is first "captured" by an unexpected event, then motivated to take action when confronted with something frightening or disturbing. Even if the action is simply remembering the ad or brand.

An ad that skillfully uses fear to build tension before the big reveal effectively keeps viewers engaged throughout the ad. Fear and humor are excellent emotions for increasing ad recall. Adding a surprise at the end can be risky, as viewers may lose interest before the end, but in some cases, it works thanks to the masterful use of fear.

Research has shown that when surprise is combined with other emotions, such as joy and fear, viewers are more likely to remain engaged throughout the ad. Marketers use this technique to retain viewers. The combination of emotions creates a multi-layered impact on the audience.

Surprise and joy in advertising

People react more intensely to joyful events when they’re unexpected. That’s why combining joy with the unexpected is so powerful in advertising. Joy has one of the most significant influences on viewer engagement, video completion rates, message recall, purchase intent, and overall advertising success.

One of the best ways to delight and surprise viewers is to use humor. Humor is also highly engaging and increases the likelihood that viewers will watch the entire ad. Unexpected and funny storylines create memorable advertising messages.

Advertising campaigns that trigger some form of emotion, whether positive or negative, greatly impact their effectiveness. Positive emotions, such as joy, demonstrate a higher impact on engagement, while negative emotions can create stronger memory traces. The balance between these elements determines the overall effectiveness.

Measuring the effectiveness of surprise advertising

Traditional approaches to measuring the effectiveness of advertising campaigns include specific key performance indicators (KPIs) such as click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and sales growth. Using customer surveys and A/B testing, along with consumer insights, can provide valuable insights into advertising efforts.

During the review phase, impressions and reach are measured to assess the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. To track engagement, click-through rate (CTR) and social shares are monitored, focusing on conversion-based goals such as sales or leads. Key metrics vary depending on the marketing campaign’s objectives.

Leading indicators, such as add-to-cart rates and product detail page views, can signal the quality of engagement an ad is generating long before conversion. For a client in the electronics industry, a benchmark for add-to-cart rates was set at 12% for the category. When the new campaign’s rate dropped to 9% despite a strong CTR, this was identified as a sign of creative fatigue.

The emotional effectiveness of advertising is measured in terms of people’s unconscious emotional reactions, based on cognitive-emotional neuroscience. Using AFFDEX to record and analyze facial expressions, a combination of indicators tracks both basic emotions and individual engagement. This quantitatively determines whether the ad evokes high levels of liking in terms of attention, involvement, valence, and joy.

Cultural differences in the perception of surprise

Cultural differences influence consumer behavior. Indirect cultural cues are subtle but significant because they convey meaning. These cues evoke emotions based on people’s backgrounds. Color symbolism varies across cultures.

In Western cultures, red often signifies excitement, love, and danger. This makes it popular for attracting attention and evoking strong emotions. In many Eastern cultures, people associate red with good luck and celebration. It is commonly used in festive and auspicious contexts.

Consumers grow up in a particular culture and become accustomed to the value systems, beliefs, and perceptions of that culture. Research has shown that advertising content varies across cultures. Evidence suggests that different cultures tend to emphasize different advertising appeals. Japanese advertising contains more emotional appeals and fewer comparative appeals than American advertising.

Adapted advertising is somewhat more persuasive and better received than non-adapted advertising. The global advertising concept, which gained importance with globalization, is losing its status as a relevant advertising method for companies operating internationally. Advertising has entered the era of glocalization — a combination of the global and the local.

Absurdity and unexpectedness

Absurd advertising is characterized by unusual imagery, unexpected narratives, and outlandish brand interpretations. This is oddly effective. An analysis of absurd elements in advertising determines its effectiveness among 18-26 year-olds. Viral posts utilize unpredictable narratives and surprising visual solutions.

Absurdity acts as a form of surprise, disrupting habitual patterns of advertising perception. Young audiences are particularly receptive to this type of communication. Absurdity creates a cognitive gap that requires additional processing, which increases message recall.

Surprise and Delight Strategy

A "surprise and delight" strategy involves rewards such as free gift cards, product upgrades, or significant vouchers. Most campaigns of this type are built around unexpected positive actions toward customers. Taco Bell delivered a truckload of 10,000 tacos to Bethel, Alaska, after residents were disappointed by a prank about the restaurant’s opening.

Wendy’s gave free chicken nuggets to a customer who missed the 18 million retweet goal but broke a Guinness World Record. The company also donated $100,000 to its charity. Although the customer didn’t reach the milestone, Wendy’s received significant brand exposure and responded accordingly.

Lord and Taylor launched a week-long Twitter campaign to raise awareness. They asked customers to share a photo of a product from their store with the hashtag #obsessed. Weeks later, customers were surprised to receive the product they’d been obsessed with. This completely free gesture led to a flood of positive consumer-generated content.

Repetition and fading of the surprise effect

Frequent advertising repetition initially causes irritation, but this effect fades over time, while brand memory remains relatively stable. Research shows that the initial irritation from frequent repetition quickly fades, while strong memory for a frequently advertised brand persists.

Time can reverse the negative effect of frequent advertising repetition on brand preference. The initial irritation from frequent ad repetition is highly sensitive to attenuation over time. A reversal in favor of a more actively promoted brand occurs when and if the product category is relevant to consumer consideration.

Unexpected Product Placement

The mere exposure effect underlies product placement. Students who saw a commercial brand in a film liked the products more than those who didn’t. This effect is independent of brand recognition in the film clip, which is consistent with the product placement literature.

Research shows that in high-involvement environments, a single exposure is sufficient to form a positive attitude toward a brand. Consumers react more positively to an unfamiliar brand after accidentally using its promotional products. This effect occurs even when consumers don’t consciously notice the brand logo, but it doesn’t extend to familiar brands.

Equivalent incidental visual exposure to advertising stimuli, such as posters, was less effective than the tactile, incidental use of promotional items. Long-lasting promotional items can be a worthwhile investment, especially for unfamiliar brands. Unexpected tactile interaction creates a deeper impression.

Visual processes and advertising perception

The everyday visual environment is overflowing with advertising. People encounter it in newspapers, magazines, television, and the internet. Ads can be static, as in print advertising, or dynamic, as is often the case with television and online advertising. Advertising messages are conveyed to the cognitive and affective systems through visual processes.

Visual processes, both voluntary and involuntary, control the quantity and quality of information transmitted for further mental processing. Rather than being a simple input device, visual processes regulate the flow of information. Attention can be drawn to unexpected elements automatically, before conscious control is exerted.

The Neuroscience of Emotions and Advertising

Emotional appeal functions as a stylistic element and a cognitive and cultural tool that enhances brand recall, loyalty, and consumer engagement. Advertising that utilizes positive emotional triggers, such as humor and joy, resonates more deeply with the audience. Negative appeals, such as fear and guilt, are more effective in stimulating immediate consumer action.

Aligning emotional content with linguistic precision optimizes the persuasive impact of advertising copy. Research highlights the importance of aligning emotional content to optimize persuasive impact. Linguistic devices, including metaphor, hyperbole, rhetorical questions, and emotional triggers, enhance impact.

The auditory system plays a critical role in human responses to music. The initial perception of musical stimuli is accompanied by auditory processing, which allows people to perceive, interpret, analyze, and understand sounds. Aesthetic emotions — feelings that arise when appreciating the beauty, novelty, and expressiveness of music — are of particular interest. The processing of these emotions in the brain leads to experiences of pleasure and reward.

Practical recommendations

Advertisers should consider high levels of surprise when developing messages. Formats with sudden appearances and movement are more effective at capturing attention than static banners. Combining surprise with other emotions, such as joy or fear, increases viewer engagement throughout the ad.

Creative media advertising demonstrates greater effectiveness when using metaphors alongside elements of surprise. Brand familiarity does not play a moderating role in the surprise effect. The primary persuasive mechanism of creative media advertising is surprise, not perceived persuasive intent.

Adapting advertising content to the cultural characteristics of the target audience increases effectiveness. Taking into account cultural value systems, beliefs, and perception processes allows for the creation of more resonant messages. Color symbolism, emotional appeals, and narrative structures should be consistent with the cultural context.

A/B testing messages with different psychological triggers allows us to measure the real impact on engagement and conversions. Combining cognitive biases for greater impact, such as combining scarcity with social proof, amplifies the effect. Building trust and transparency through guarantees, ethical defaults, and clear language strengthens consumer confidence.