Here Availability Cascade, Von Restorff Effect, Illusory Correlation, Narrative Transport, and Spotlight Effect are explained (with recent examples). *Compliments of Planning Dirty.

1. DESIRE
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2. MELISSA PEPERS
is a strategy consultant
and futurist that helps
businesses grow through
the development of
competitive business
models and trend based
activations.
CREATED BY
JULIAN COLE
is a strategy consultant
who works with brands and
agencies to create world
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DAVIS BALLARD
is a freelance strategist
who worked his magic on
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It’s hard to find recent examples of behavioral economics in
advertising. We took five key concepts and showed how they
are coming to life in campaigns from the last 18 months.
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4. Availability Cascade
Von Restorff Effect
Illusory Correlation
Narrative Transport
Spotlight Effect
TABLE OF CONTENTS

5. AVAILABILITYAVAILABILITY
CASCADECASCADE
PLANNING DIRTY

6. Repetition creates momentum, momentum creates social proof, social
proof amplifies momentum; it becomes a self-reinforcing process.
Surge into cult-like status by shining a light on your successes as they
occur. Make buying your product the buy-in to contagion.
EXAMPLES:
Spin-Offs, ‘Unofficial’ Accounts, Release Rumours,
Grassroots Promo, Challenges
AVAILABILITY CASCADE

7. FESTIVAL SHIRT
Releasing the aptly named “Festival Shirt” shortly
before Australian Music Festival FOMO led to an
unexpectedly high number of festival goers all
wearing the same shirt.
Seizing the opportunity to amplify the hype,
Cotton On partnered with Deliveroo to help
more people get in on the action causing the
media hype to last for longer than it otherwise
would have.
LINK
COTTON ON

8. #INMYDENIM
Kicking off the first paid sponsorship TikTok
challenge, Guess recruited top TikTokers to
reveal their instant transformation from average
wardrobe to outfit of the day, feat. Guess denim.
Challenges are movements and TikTok is a
platform that allows brands to easily tap into
the momentum benefits of a movement with an
availability cascade.
LINK
GUESS

9. TIME CAPSULE COLLAB
The trend growth of heavily branded streetwear
and of the nostalgia of heritage brands meant
Champion experienced a sudden surge in
popularity. To nurture the swell, Champion
released two highly successful “time capsule”
collabs with Clothsurgeon, revitalising older cuts
and styles from the Champion archive.
Brands that are naturally at the intersection of
colliding trends often notice a sudden uptake in
their popularity. This swell of momentum can
turn into an availability cascade when brands
nurture the hype by tapping into these trends.
LINK
CHAMPION

10. STRENGTH TO BE
With very few brands truly championing new
ways to define masculinity, Lululemon were able
to tap into this space with an authentic voice
that also enabled the growth of their men’s
category.
Redirect the demand around an emerging
trend (redefined masculinity) into your brand to
grow self-fulfilling momentum.
LINK
LULULEMON

11. JURASSIC WORLD DELIVERY
Amazon “delivered” a giant parcel with air holes
to the centre of a Los Angeles shopping mall to
promote Jurassic World.
Repetition can also be created by putting a
single initiative in an important location that
has regular foot traffic and can create
repetition through shareability and media
exposure. The critical location creates an
automatic social proof which can trigger an
Availability Cascade.
LINK
AMAZON

12. NBA ON ESPN
Targeting locations where people weren’t
watching NBA on ESPN (such as park benches),
iOS users were sent a custom message via
AirDrop encouraging them to watch the NBA
finals instead.
Connecting personally with lots of people
across multiple geographic locations creates a
shareable momentum.
LINK
ESPN

13. VON RESTORFFVON RESTORFF
EFFECTEFFECT
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14. The out-of-place captures our attention, then earns a place in our
memory. Memorability increases liking and liking increases
purchasability.
The Von Restorff Effect is an opportunity to get weird with your brand
and explore one-offs that could even become annual events.
EXAMPLES:
Gamified Ads, Experiential Marketing, Pop-Ups In Unexpected Locations
VON RESTORFF EFFECT

15. APRIL FOOLS
On April Fools ThinkGeek sent out an eDM of new
products that were entirely fictional. They
became such a hit that the joke is now an
annual event with the most popular products
getting made for real.
The unexpected stunt stands out in subscriber
inboxes, capturing customer attention.
LINK
THINKGEEK

16. XTRA TAMPON
Creating an extreme fake product that is a
hyperbolic parody of their real tampon, Playtex
appeals to the contrasted minimalism of their
actual product.
The Salience is the message – by going over the
top a comparison is drawn that heroes the
simplicity of their product.
LINK
PLAYTEX

17. PEE ON THIS AD
The strip on this ad is a pregnancy test, allowing
expecting mothers to get a heavy discount on
IKEA cribs, making that blue line a ticket to
discount.
Bold stunts that get people talking work to
generate both awareness and sales.
LINK
IKEA

18. NOT EVERYTHING
MAKES THE CUT
Amazon imagines unusual and hilariously
ineffective applications for its Alexa voice
assistant.
The unusual applications reinforce memory
through both their weirdness and humour with
the added benefit of revealing the “under the
hood” creativity behind product design.
LINK
AMAZON

19. CAN’T SLEEP?
Casper launched a TV series of lofi late night ads
and directing insomniac viewers to a hotline to
help make them sleepy.
When ideas are grounded in insights that
understand your brand’s potential community,
unusual ideas can gain the benefits of gimmick
without the drawbacks.
LINK
CASPER

20. DTF…
OkCupid used the DTF acronym to capture the
attention of a younger demographic, followed
by repositioning themselves as being about long
term love instead of one night stand culture,
attempting to attract new people to their online
dating platform who are like-minded.
Cheeky ideas cut-through, helping ensure more
people properly attend to an advert.
LINK
OKCUPID

21. ILLUSORYILLUSORY
CORRELATIONCORRELATION
PLANNING DIRTY

22. We love to find meaningful relationships where they may not exist.
Reveal a pattern that gets people talking or create a new one.
EXAMPLES:
Outlier Product Behaviours, Weird Pairings, Visual Puns,
Agenda Setting, Off-Seasonal Stunts
ILLUSORY CORRELATION

23. 2018 GOALS
Spotify digs up data for a multi-country billboard
campaign that suggests hilarious correlations to
explain unusual patterns in data that may not
have any meaning.
Using data to delight instead of to creep out.
LINK
SPOTIFY

24. WORK FROM HAWAII
WFH is an appeal to New Yorkers to work from
Hawaii instead of travelling there on holidays.
Based on the insight that many from the US city
are workaholics, Hawaii was instead pitched as a
better work destination, creating a unique and
ownable territory.
When the existing pattern isn’t working, create a
new one.
LINK
HAWAII VISITORS & CONVENTION BUREAU

25. WHOPPER NEUTRALITY
Burger King taught customers about net
neutrality by letting them experiencing the
drawbacks with their Whopper instead. By
rehashing their pricing structure to become a
metaphor that contributed to the public debate.
Weighing in on heated public debates isn’t for
every brand, for those that it is, turning your
product into a metaphor is a strong way to
achieve the benefits of illusory correlation.
LINK
BURGER KING

26. DESTROY FROZEN BEEF
Wendy’s jumped on Fortnite and over a 10 hour
period live-streamed themselves on Twitch
destroying every Durr Burger store and the
fridges that store their frozen beef.
By pretending they’re a competitor to a fictional
brand, Wendy’s could create a story with huge
engagement and little overhead at the same
time as communicating their brand benefit of
only using fresh beef.
LINK
WENDY’S

27. A VERY MERRY MISTAKE
Santa misunderstands the New Zealand accent,
making incorrect versions of kiwi nice kids
Christmas requests. The day is saved by Air New
Zealand staff acting as interpreters.
An illusory correlation also applies to accidental
patterns that already exist, like how a New
Zealander accent makes words sound like other
words.
LINK
AIR NEW ZEALAND

28. WHAT IF?
Pinterest ran a series of ad spots encouraging
people to dare to try something new and
something creative.
Agenda setting is often a type of deliberate
illusory correlation, where brands establish a
connection between a desirable concept and
their product that didn’t exist previously.
LINK
PINTEREST

29. NARRATIVENARRATIVE
TRANSPORTTRANSPORT
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30. When we are absorbed in a story, our attitudes change to reflect that
story, as though we had experienced the event ourselves.
Storytelling is not enough, immersively bring about a paradigm shift.
EXAMPLES:
Behind The Scenes, Moral Of The Story, Unpopular Opinion,
Taboos, Walk A Mile In My Shoes
NARRATIVE TRANSPORT

31. CLOUDS OVER SIDRA
Clouds over Sidra is a VR short film that explores
the experiences, fears and hopes of a young
Syrian girl in a refugee camp in Jordan. Taking
viewers in to the realities of being displaced has
a transformative impact.
VR is automatically immersive lending itself well
to effective Narrative Transport Theory.
Additionally the POV angle enables us to almost
literally walk a mile in our storytellers shoes.
LINK
UNITED NATIONS

32. OUR SIGNATURE OF STYLE
A behind the scenes exploration into the many
different hands that go into making a pair of R.M.
Williams signature boots.
Starting from the POV of the boots, viewers are
immersed into a story of undeniable
craftsmanship, where attention to detail sets
the bootmaker apart.
LINK
R.M. WILLIAMS

33. SAD ADS
CCFF made really, really sad ads to the point
that they were so absurdly sad, they were funny.
Each story ends in the opportunity to cheer up
from the sad story by heading to the Chicago
Comedy Film Festival.
Deliberately immersing people in the extreme of
one emotion allows the opportunity to create a
dramatic emotional shift to its opposite,
creating a narrative transport effect.
LINK
CHICAGO COMEDY FILM FESTIVAL

34. ENGLISH FOR BEGINNERS
Upon delivery of his learn English audio set from
the marketplace website Allegro, we see the
dedicated journey of an elderly Polish man
learning a new language. He then makes his way
to what is revealed to be his children’s house,
where he greets his new granddaughter in
English in a heart-melting finale.
People loved to be moved by heartwarming
stories, the more invested they are in the
journey, the more moved they will be at the end.
LINK
ALLEGRO

35. LET’S BE REAL
Hinge is a dating app for people who want to be
real and in doing so give love a real chance. This
series of story based ads shows how real
conversations can lead to unforgettable dates
with their unique icebreaker app questions.
Relatability is a crucial feature of immersive
storytelling and a way this can be achieved is
by referencing what is nostalgic for a group of
people.
LINK
HINGE

36. WE’RE HERE TO HELP
We see raw moments of love and heartbreak
that is finally revealed to be the struggles of a
separating family with the news that Westpac
can help remove one of the uncertainties of the
separation experience.
Narrative transport is a way brands can
empathise with their audience through stories
that demonstrate how your brand “gets” their
experience.
LINK
WESTPAC

37. SPOTLIGHTSPOTLIGHT
EFFECTEFFECT
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38. People overestimate how much others notice their appearance or
behavior. We naturally covet an opportunity to make ourselves look
good to others.
How does your product make your consumers cool?
EXAMPLES:
Secret Menu, Hero Fans, Roasting Competitors, Exclusivity
SPOTLIGHT EFFECT

39. FORGET STONER
Moving away from the stoner stigma by
sharing stories of cannabis consumers that
break the mould in a highly shareable
campaign.
MedMen champions its customers by
rebranding them and growing their own
brand in the process.
LINK
MEDMEN

40. OVERHEARD
This overheard spin-off instagram account from
luxury fragrance brand Le Labo created a
customer cult by putting on a pedestal those
patrons who hinge their identities off the luxe
element of the brand and its products.
The quotes and page hero the most diehard
customers and became a quintessential part of
Le Labo customer identity, making the product
synonymous with an ego boost.
LINK
LE LABO

41. BUILD BACK
Online bullying on Minecraft takes the form of people
who ruin the complex designs and hours hard work
of other Minecrafters, by destroying their structures
with explosives. Stepping in as a vigilante, Lego saves
the day by using videos and stills captured of
influencer Minecrafters work to reproduce their
detailed craftsmanship in Lego with an encouraging
personalised message to keep building, whilst
highlighting the crossover product range of these
two building games.
Putting their builders on a pedestal by honouring
their work in this way turns the story around, turning
the builders from the losers to the heroes.
LINK
LEGO X MINECRAFT

42. SECRET MENU
Announcing the secret menu on their website
with a riddle, Australian KFC customers can find
limited edition menu items that are remixes of
popular products fused with other food trends.
Customers love to be “in the know” so give them
the opportunity with a secret menu or secret
hack for your product that’s easy to find and
feels exclusive even when it really isn’t.
LINK
KFC

43. WELCOME TO
LIFE AFTER 50
SunLife insurance explores the reality of how life
doesn’t end at 50 by showing off the many
different adventurous lives their customers live.
Pointing a finger at the absurdity of the
stereotype with good humour that celebrates
the diversity of their audience.
Highlighting stereotypes by making them
laughable exaggerations or highlighting the
reality behind the assumption is a strong way
to celebrate your audience by sharing their
truth.
LINK
SUNLIFE

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