Persado Hails 2023 ‘The Year of Motivation’

Rejuvenation, Timelessness, and Convenience Revealed in New Report as Key Marketing Themes for Motivating Consumers

Persado, the Motivation Artificial Intelligence (AI) company that generates personalized communications at scale, today released its 2023 Customer Motivation Report, highlighting the impact of specific narratives on marketing campaign performance.

“Humans are extremely complex and consumer behavior is constantly changing, depending on daily life experiences. Consumer motivations are just as fluid; what drives someone at one moment, through one channel, in one industry, may flop in another”

Through analysis of consumer responses to 20.9 billion messages across more than 3,200 brand campaigns during 2022, the report found themes such as ‘Timelessness’ increased click rates in the fashion and retail industry—in one example by 27%—while ‘Rejuvenation’ yielded the highest response for 83% of select travel and leisure campaigns—surpassing ‘Wanderlust’ and ‘Escapism’. In the financial services industry, 53% of campaigns with central themes of ‘Convenience’ performed ahead of both ‘Community’ and ‘Proactivity’.

“Humans are extremely complex and consumer behavior is constantly changing, depending on daily life experiences. Consumer motivations are just as fluid; what drives someone at one moment, through one channel, in one industry, may flop in another,” explained Persado Vice President of Content Intelligence, Lisa Spira. “Our 2023 Customer Motivation Report shows us that as the world relies more heavily on digital transactions to drive business, companies have an opportunity to use language that connects with each customer, building loyalty and differentiating their brand.”

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The report explores brand best practices using Motivation AI—a class of enterprise Generative AI technology that uses advanced machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), and deep learning transformer models to understand intent and create motivation-informed messages that are quantifiably proven to increase customer engagement and action. Persado Motivation AI enables hyper-personalized digital communications at scale across websites, social platforms, email, and SMS.

In addition to identifying overarching themes, key findings from the industries featured in this year’s Customer Motivation Report include:

• Fashion & Retail: Timelessness flourished. Shoppers engaged more with campaigns that highlighted the idea of a classic, investment piece that the buyer or recipient would keep for the long term, helping shoppers feel smart and practical, even when the campaign promoted a luxury good.

• Financial Services: Convenience worked. Narratives of Convenience motivated consumers across financial services campaigns—from acquisition, to servicing, to compliance. These messages highlighted the ease and effortlessness of accessing and using a product.

• Travel & Leisure: Rejuvenation thrived. That sense of optimizing your downtime came through in 2022’s top-performing travel narrative, which emphasizes the opportunity to restore minds and bodies and bring new energy and vigor into life.

“Mixed messages about the economy, work, health, and travel had consumers gravitating more consistently to stories and products that promised some version of forever,” Spira said. “Stability, reliability, and consistency were the themes that captured customer attention and motivated action in 2022. These trends will continue driving consumer behavior and motivation beyond the ‘now,’ and brands have to be ready to act accordingly as soon as the market shifts.”

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