Chocolate, Apes and Anchoring

One of the fundamental skills to develop if you want to be able to powerfully use NLP is being able to anchor others consciously and covertly. And not just by touch. Anchoring is one of the backbone tools of NLP and one of the skills that really can blow your mind when you use it.

 But a question you may be wondering if you are new to NLP is what is anchoring?

Anchoring is the process of associating a specific response to a specific trigger within a given timeframe. In practical terms it means you can trigger a specific emotion or thought to re-occur anytime* you want with one or more people. Just stop for a moment and think of all the situations in your life where this may be useful. And not just on other people …how would you like to recall an emotion at will, say something like confidence…

By its very nature anchoring is a very powerful tool to get good. And the fascinating thing is you’ve been doing it all your life … as have people been anchoring you! Both positively and negatively.

Anchoring for most people is totally beyond their awareness and so unconscious and unintentional. Yet for the skilled NLPer, anchoring is a deliberate, conscious process that can be overt or covert depending on what the situation and outcome requires.

The other night I was at dinner with a group of friends and a good buddy started to talk about the new chocolate “Ape” advertisement by Cadbury’s .. have you seen it? If not watch it here. It’s a great ad.

Did you enjoy that?

What is interesting about this advert is how so many people at the dinner table thought the advertisement was “just so funny and cool”, one person even went as far to say “it has nothing to do with chocolate, but it is a great ad”. Now if you have watched the advertisement above. Why do you think that Cranbury’s would spend so much money to make this kind of advertisement? What makes it so good?

Well, from an NLP viewpoint it is a very good example of powerful anchoring being used in adverts.

The advertising team at Candburys were obviously very deliberate in putting this ad together and this advert demonstrates many of the keys of great anchoring. They are anchoring an emotional state in you triggered by Cadbury’s chocolate.

This is how its done

It starts off by grabbing your attention .. the mix of the Phil Collins music in the background as you see the close up of the Ape at first. You watch and see the strained expression on his face while the camera pans outward and slowly the drums come into view.

The advert takes the audience through a series of states from curiosity to confusion to fascination to laughter as you see the ape play out the beat of the drums to the song.

And as the audience is at the peak of the state of laughing… the advert fades to a Cadburys chocolate bar and the slogan “A glass and half of pure Joy.”. Boom… at the peak of the positive state the viewer will have a nice anchor created (most likely without any resistance).

And when they now think about Cadburys they will have positive feeling associated to the brand.

Here are the steps the advert took the audience through

Elicited several pure states (we covered the states elicited earlier)

Amplified the feelings through smart manipulation by the director as to what sounds and visual images to present and how (i.e. close up, slow panning etc)

At peak of the positive state it did something unique and consistent (it faded in the chocolate bar and tagline ) 

Reinforce until established: The advert campaign will repeat many times until established (if a positive powerful association was not established on the first attempt thereby re-enforcing your good feelings every time you see that brand).

 So what will Cadburys get from this ad?

Good feelings .. desire by the viewer … more brand awareness and more chocolate sales. But then again this ad “has nothing to do with chocolate”.