Closing the Attention Action Gap:
Behavioural Science Strategies That Drive Real Results
During one of our Innovation Day sessions, Will Hanmer-Lloyd (Head of Strategy at Mediaplus UK & Behave) and Shane O’Leary (Marketing Director, D2C at Zoetis) explored how behavioural science strategies can deliver tangible results. They showed how it’s helpful from providing much more accurate research that leads to more effective brand strategy, to turbo charging lower funnel conversion using Behavioural Copy across paid ads, website, CRO and CRM.
Their discussion highlighted the power of combining media expertise with behavioural science, demonstrating that focusing on real consumer behaviour, rather than just stated intentions, can significantly boost marketing effectiveness. The partnership between Mediaplus UK, Behave, and Zoetis (the world’s largest animal health company) illustrates how better strategic decision making and small, strategic adjustments in media, messaging, and user experience can produce outsized business impact.
The strategic Challenge: When Awareness Doesn't Drive Action
Shane explained how Zoetis faced a fundamental tension between their scientific, data-driven business culture and the emotion-driven decision-making of pet owners. Despite successfully increasing awareness of canine arthritis over several waves, category growth remained stagnant.
Our research revealed a stark reality: while 90%+ of people claim they'll seek medical treatment for their pets when needed, only 20% actually do, showing there remained a clear action gap. This "holier than thou" bias demonstrated the limitations of traditional market research approaches.
Through behavioural research examining what pet owners actually did rather than what they claimed they would do, Behave discovered that deep understanding was the key differentiator.
Tactical Applications: Behavioural Science in Action
Applying our Behavioural Copy product, we systematically applied over 15 cognitive biases and heuristics (from 100s of options) to significantly improve performance across paid and owned media, with much higher conversion and lower CPAs.
- Processing Fluency & Cognitive Overload: Created a memorable mnemonic system that increased sign understanding
- Authority Bias: Leveraged veterinary credibility in messaging
- Hyperbolic Discounting: Addressed pet owners' tendency to delay treatment with urgency-focused messaging
- Social Norms & Loss Aversion: Applied these principles to email campaigns to increase conversions
How Behave Can Help
Behave is a behavioural science consultancy that blends psychology, data science, and technology to uncover the conscious and unconscious motivations driving consumer decision-making. We help organisations move beyond traditional market research limitations by examining actual behaviour patterns rather than stated intentions.
Our approach combines rigorous behavioural research with practical application frameworks, helping brands identify the specific cognitive biases most relevant to their challenges. We then develop testing methodologies to systematically apply these insights across strategy, creative, and user experience - turning behavioural science from theory into measurable business results.
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