Stop the Snoozefest Effect with Code #14
- Sam Pepin
- July 9, 2024
- 3:29 pm
Utilize Novelty to Break Habituation and Boost Consumer Focus
Novelty can rejuvenate the brain’s interest and improve cognitive functions.

Our brains thrive on novelty. There’s a reason “variety is the spice of life” is a known saying. The brain gets bored with what is considers bland. Luckily, Learning Code 14 can direct us on the strategic use of novelty to pull neurons out of habituation, spicing things up and thereby increasing consumer attention and focus. And it’s crucial that novelty be used not just for entertainment but also to stimulate the learner’s Meaning Network, making your message as meaningful as possible so that it’s effective as possible.
In this article, we’ll explore the science behind why the brain likes new things and how to apply these insights to your marketing strategy to break habituation, boost consumer focus, and enhance engagement.
The Science Behind Novelty and Habituation
Habituation is a neural process where repeated exposure to the same stimulus leads to a decreased response. While this helps us ignore irrelevant stimuli, it can be detrimental towards the environments we marketers stage for campaigns where sustained attention and engagement are necessary. Novelty, on the other hand, can rejuvenate the brain’s interest and improve cognitive functions.
When the brain encounters something new, it releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with happiness and positive learning experiences. This release not only enhances motivation but also strengthens neural connections, making it easier to intentionally remember new information and seek to learn even more.
So, What Does Novelty Do at the Neurological Level?
- Stimulates Dopamine Release: Novelty triggers the release of dopamine, enhancing motivation and learning.
- Breaks Habituation: Introducing new stimuli prevents the brain from becoming desensitized, maintaining high levels of engagement.
- Activates the Meaning Network: When novelty is meaningful, it engages deeper cognitive processes, making learning more effective.
The Impact of Strategic Novelty on Consumer Information Adoption
When novelty is used strategically in Meaningful Marketing campaigns, it can lead to several positive outcomes:
- Increased Consumer Awareness, Attention, and Focus: New and unexpected elements capture the audience’s attention, like an unexpected scare in a horror movie scene, causing their attention to stick like superglue. P.S. We recommend you don’t actually scare your audience into a state of attention.
- Enhanced Memory Formation: Novel experiences stimulate the brain’s reward system, making it more likely that new information will be retained. Check out our blog on Learning Code 12 to learn more about how the brain’s reward system works.
- Improved Motivation: The release of dopamine associated with novelty boosts motivation and enjoyment in the learning process. And if we had to name just two things as the pillars that support effective marketing messaging, it’s consideration of consumer motivation and intent. Especially in terms of SEO marketing content.
Strategies to Implement Novelty in Learning
To effectively use novelty in your marketing strategy, consider the following strategies:
- Introduce New Elements Regularly: Periodically introduce new content, activities, or formats to keep consumers engaged and attentive. For example, when creating an editorial calendar for social media marketing posts, mix it up. Let’s say you post three times per week; make post 1 an infographic, 2 a survey, and 3 and end-of-week funny or inspirational quote perhaps. And this strategy isn’t exclusive to social media. Mix-it up across all your channels as much and as realistically as you can. Which leads us quite nicely into the next strategy…
- Use Varied Marketing Mediums: Employ a range of multimedia materials such as videos, podcasts, infographics, and interactive tools to present information in different ways. For example, a life coach might use podcasts and written long-form content to explain complex concepts and cater to multiple learner types, followed by interactive network surveys on social media to reinforce the messaging and get audience feedback on it so there can be iteration and improvement on the campaign strategy.
- Create Interactive Surprises: Incorporate the unexpected to pique curiosity and maintain engagement. For example, an e-commerce site could implement a random discount wheel that customers can spin at checkout. The discounts can range from 5% to 50%, adding an element of surprise to the shopping experience. This not only incentivizes purchases but also adds a gamified element to shopping, making the experience more enjoyable.
- Link Novelty to Meaning: Ensure that new elements are not just entertaining but also meaningful and relevant to the brand messaging objectives. History museums are masters of this strategy. They often use virtual reality or engineered environments to transport the museum-goer to places of the past, providing a novel and immersive learning experience that deepens understanding. A similar kind of engineering could easily be implemented in digital marketing too, whether it be a video or a visually immersive infographic. Let your imagination run wild!
- Encourage Exploration and Discovery: Allow consumers to explore and discover new information on their own, fostering a sense of curiosity and ownership. A great way to implement this tactic is with content “easter eggs”. Plant easter eggs (hidden features or messages) within your marketing content. Audience members who find and decode these easter eggs could get early access exclusive content, increasing the buzz around your brand.
Practical Applications in Marketing
- Engage with Innovative Campaigns: Design marketing campaigns that include novel elements to capture attention and stimulate interest. This could involve new technologies like augmented reality or unique storytelling techniques.
- Personalized Experiences: Use data analytics to create personalized experiences that feel novel and relevant to each user. Tailor content to individual preferences and behaviors to keep the engagement high.
- Interactive Content: Develop interactive content that invites participation and exploration. This could include interactive infographics, gamified experiences, or live events that provide fresh and engaging ways to interact with your brand.
Learning Code #14: Key Takeaways
Strategically implementing novelty in marketing strategy is a powerful way to keep your audiences from falling asleep by:
- Halting habituation.
- Enhancing awareness, attention, focus, and memorability.
- Ensuring novelty is meaningful and relevant.
- Creating consumer learning experiences that are engaging and effective.
At CoreCentrica, we leverage the latest neuroscience to craft transformative and Meaningful Marketing strategies. Wake up snooze-able content ensuring your message resonates deeply with your target audience and drives increased engagement.
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