• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, March 15, 2015

In a SXSW session that pitted agency execs against one another with 15-minute presentations, we heard from Unconscious Branding Founder Douglas Van Praet, Wunderman LA Creative Director Craig Evans and Deutsch LA VP Invention Director Christine Outram. Each presented their take on the business and what they are working on.

Van Praet put forth the notion of unconscious behaviorism and how it relates to advertising. He argues that human behavior -- and thus advertising's approach to influencing it -- boils down to The Six S's: Survival, Safety, Security, Sex, Sustenance and Status. Tap any one of those and you've got a winner. He humorously pointed out that the reason Geico's Hump Day ad works is not because of the funny camels with humps who talk about hump day, but rather, because of Hump Day's sexual connotation.

Evans put forth the idea of disloyalty marketing, which posits that basically people are disloyal and marketers just have to live with that. To combat that sort of disloyalty, he cited brands that went against the grain and created campaigns that included -- even encouraged -- the use and trial of competing products. Both Honda and GM invited people to test drive other vehicle brands but in both cases, people came back to their original brands. He also cited a coffee barista who created a coupon/loyalty program that encouraged trial of other coffee shops. Doing so would award the person points toward coffee at the barista's shop. His point was that, pointing out and even embracing disloyalty often works in a brand's favor.

Outram, while spending a bit too much time on her agency's internal process, focused on the fact that a lot of advertising really isn't (and can't be) advertising any more. Her poster child for that notion was work she did for eSurance. The brand wanted a way to promote insurance without mentioning the word insurance. The solution? A mobile app called Fuelcaster that would predict fuel prices and give users recommendations on the best time to buy. It was quite the success with initial downloads of 2 million.

The best part of the panel? Each of the presentations was limited to 15 minutes .