Okay, so on to learning the principles of effective interruption-based marketing and advertising that DO work already. If you want to know why John Smith buys what John Smith buys, you've got to see the world through John Smith's eyes, right? Well, I would submit to you that if you want to know what John Smith sees, you'd first better understand how "John Smith's" brain works—and how it makes decisions. To understand that, there are three major concepts I need to teach you. Three concepts that nobody else in the world of marketing understands, but three concepts that will make all the difference in the world in your marketing's effectiveness. and most importantly, in you company's profitability. The three things you need to know about John Smith's brain are: Alpha Mode, Beta Mode, and Reticular Activator.

 

So let's talk about the first concept; what's called Alpha brain waves, or what we just call Alpha mode for short. Simply put, this is the hypnotic state of running automatic patterns that allows your brain to habitually performs tasks without any conscious thought. You do this all the time. Have you ever driven to work and when you got there you realized that you hadn't consciously seen a thing along the way! That's alpha mode. That's because since driving to work is a habitual pattern you run, you don't have to consciously think about it. On a conscious level, you can talk on the cell phone, listen to the radio, shave, put on makeup, whatever, but meanwhile your brain can drive you to work with no conscious thought.

 

Now, here's what alpha mode means in marketing terms: People see and hear ads with their eyes and ears, but they don't notice them on a conscious level. If you open a newspaper, you'll be looking at maybe 70% ads and only 30% bona-fide news articles. But because the ads are only seen on an Alpha level. nine point nine times out of 10 you won't even consciously notice them at all. All you'll consciously see is the news, what you were there for in the first place.

 

I think you get the picture about alpha mode—it's a pretty easy concept to grasp. So now I want to move on to the second concept; it has to do with what's known as Beta brain waves, or what we just call Beta Mode for short. This is the brain's state of alertness or active engagement. It's like when you drive to work in heavy thunderstorm and your hands are firmly gripped at 10 and 2 o'clock and your pupils are as big as dimes. You're sensitive to everything. You're in beta mode when you're watching a movie and the music is building to a crescendo in anticipation of something scary happening. You can think of beta as "Alert Mode".

 

Now, here's what beta mode means in marketing terms: it's when a person consciously notices your ad or marketing piece and is therefore open to suggestions and solutions. Something captures their attention and compels them to keep paying attention.

 

The key now, and I hope this is obvious, it to get the prospect out of alpha mode and into beta mode. out of a subconscious haze, never seeing your ad or marketing piece, and into alert mode where they are fully conscious and aware of what you're trying to communicate. Understanding how to do this is the beginning of your making a fortune in marketing. To understand, you've got to learn the third major concept about how John Smith's brain works, which is called the Reticular Activator. The Reticular Activator is the part of your brain that's on the lookout 24 hours a day, 7 days a week—even when you're asleep—for things that fall into any of these three categories things that are familiar, things that are unusual, and things that are problematic. Whenever the brain detects any of these kinds of things on a subconscious level, it sends a message to the conscious side of the brain and says "hey, wake up. there's something you need to pay attention to here." Whatever those things are, whatever those familiar, unusual, or problematic things are, we call them "activators."

 

Are you beginning to catch on now? Your brain's sending out this sort of "radar" on a subconscious level on a constant basis looking for activators. It's searching for things that are familiar, things that are unusual, or things that are problematic. things that require a conscious response. Whenever it finds one, that's it. it pokes your conscious brain and snaps it out of Alpha Sleep and into Beta alert.

 

Let me give you an example. I bought a new SUV a couple of years ago. a Ford Excursion. They've stopped making them now because there just aren't a lot of people that want to drive a 7,200 pound, 19 foot tank that gets maybe 11 miles to the gallon. Well, at the time, we had just had our 4^th kid (I've got 5 now), and we needed something big enough that we could set the kids far enough apart that they couldn't touch each other. The Excursion was the only vehicle that could do this. But I'm the kind of guy, I didn't want to have the same stinking car as everyone else, So I called my car guy and said, "I want the Excursion, get me the green one." He said, "Oh, you mean the Emerald green. That thing is beautiful." I said, "No, I don't think it's the Emerald Green one." I said, "I think they've got a different color green also." He said, "Well, they have this sort of army green looking one, the thing is ugly nasty looking!" I said, "That's the one I want. The ugly army green colored one. I don't want anyone else to have one that looks like mine."

 

So I get this big, nasty truck for my wife to drive. The kids loved it, they called it Shrek, the big ugly green monster! Guess what I found out? As we started to drive this green monstrosity around, I found out that there were other fools out there that drive this same big ugly looking beast also! About 2 months after I got it, I was sitting outside Home Depot one Saturday while my wife was in grabbing a few things while I watched the kids, and I saw not one, not two, but three Shreks drive by while I was sitting there for less than 15 minutes! How is that possible!!!? Well, that's the reticular activator at work. Because I have one, it's familiar. The green truck has become the "Activator." When my subconscious radar picks one out of the crowd, it pokes my brain, and says, "Hey buddy, check it out!" But before before, when Shrek wasn't familiar, my brain would still see the another Ugly Green Excursion on a subconscious level, but it wouldn't notify me of anything. It wouldn't poke my brain. Back then, that truck wasn't an activator. Why not? Because it wasn't familiar, unusual, or problematic. It didn't snap me out of alpha sleep and into beta alert. It was just another truck in a sea of vehicles.

 

So what does all this have to do with marketing then? The short answer is, everything. Understanding the reticular activator is what's going to get us past interrupt and on to engage. And if we can engage the prospect, we've just increased our chance of selling something by 1,000 times. This is going to solve the problem that Seth Godin, Donald Deutch, and every other marketer hasn't been able to figure out. Which is NOT just getting them interrupted, but also getting them engaged. Not just finding any activator, but finding the RIGHT activator. If you understand what I just talked about, then you'll see that this is actually very easy to do. The Monkeys over on Madison Avenue do it all the time.

 

Those monkeys prefer to use activators that are based on things that are familiar and unusual because they're the easiest to pull off. Have you ever noticed how many different kinds of animals you see in advertising? That's because animals are familiar and likable, and the idea is that those animals will interrupt you by poking your conscious brain when they're detected by your reticular activator. Budweiser has frogs and lizards, Gateway computer has cows, coca cola has polar bears, energizer has a bunny, Merrill Lynch has a bull, Aaflac has a duck, and Microsoft has a butterfly. All of these animals have good interrupt value based on their familiarity. That's the major reason that big advertisers use celebrities also. Yes it's true that celebrities lend credibility, but, believe it or not, that's not the main reason they're used. People know on a conscious level that the Buick Rendezvous isn't any better because Tiger Woods drives one in the commercial. Everybody also knows good and well that Tiger Woods doesn't really drive a cheesy, low-end SUV in real life. But Buick doesn't care because they know that as soon as your reticular activator detects Tiger's presence in the room via your television set, they know that it'll poke you in the brain and say, "Hey wake up! Tiger's on the tube!" Then you see the Rendezvous. Now Buick is in a position to sell. They are in a position to sell, that is, IF they can now move you from being merely interrupted to becoming ENGAGED, which, incidentally, they don't. Getting the prospect Engaged is going to require knowing what you're about to learn here.

 

And what about activators based on unusual things? That's what creativity is all about. Creativity's main purpose in advertising is to dream up something so weird, so strange, so shocking, so UNUSUAL, that it will snap you out of alpha mode and into beta mode, otherwise known as interrupt. It's the creative retard's panacea. And what about sex? You've probably heard that sex sells. true? Actually, it's not true. Sex interrupts. If something sexy is put in an advertisement where you weren't expecting it, then boom, you're interrupted.