By Jharna SurA curly-haired youngster crossing a road looks in awe at an impressive looking bike that is speeding past. The guy on the bike passes a man on a rather ordinary looking two-wheeler but with a pretty girl riding pillion. As he gazes wistfully at the couple, the camera pans on a lady and her two children. The images tell the story of heightening desire and at the end of it all comes the tagline, &ampquot;Khwaishyon ke bina zindagi kya, karo zyaada ka irada.&ampquot; What’s life without desire. Wish for more.Max New York Life Insurance’s brand new campaign that is being beamed on all major TV channels has broken away from the clutter to appeal to the human instinct. As Sam Balsara, Chairman and Managing Director, Madison World, explains, &ampquot;An advertising copy must appeal to the five senses and the reason for this is simple. Consumers can hear or see what the product being advertised can do for them, but they can’t experience it first hand.&ampquot;Tanya Goyal of Dentsu Marcom echoes, &ampquot;Advertising copy should be relevant and touch a chord. It has to be the differentiator.&ampquot; Advertising icon Ram Ray clarifies how copywriting can create a sensory user experience. &ampquot;You’ll get beautiful flowers at Blooms and More Florists.&ampquot; Compare this with &ampquot;Fill your home with the fresh aroma and vibrant colours of a floral arrangement from Blooms and More Florists.&ampquot; No prizes for guessing which one would appeal to the consumer more. Sanjay Thapar, Director, Ogilvy India, observes, &ampquot;Reduce the copy clutter by delivering only the best messages that create the most compelling sensory experiences for the target audience.&ampquot;An example can be cited of clothing retailer French Connection UK that employed a unique strategy to improve sales. It initiated a marketing campaign to differentiate itself by shocking its audiences. Print ads as well as clothing with the controversial &ampquot;FCUK&ampquot; logo distinguished the brand as powerful and rebellious and caused a significant jump in sales and profits in the first year. Clearly, such an approach is not suitable for every company. But there are other ways to improve brand recall as well, says Goyal. &ampquot;Remember the &ampquot;sar utha ke jiyo&ampquot; slogan of HDFC Life Insurance It brought the relevance of the timely investment in an insurance plan to the fore and is quite different from the regular number crunching morbid insurance advertisements,&ampquot; she says.Says Ambi M.G.Parameswaran ED and CEO, Mumbai, Ulka, says, &ampquot;You appeal to the senses by using one of the nine universal emotions. Normally in advertising we don’t use the more serious emotions, like sorrow and pathos.&ampquot; Once the basic copy is finalised it is left to the copywriter to make the idea memorable.Sensory effects, especially colours, also influence the memory. A 2001 study by Nickolova and Quilici proved that high colour saturation led to improved memory recall when compared to low colour saturation or neutral hues. For example, &ampquot;hot&ampquot; colours, like bright reds, oranges and yellows, have been shown to stimulate mood and appetite — and are thus used by almost all fast food chains.We are also attracted to colours that are tied to past sensory experiences — an effect known as colour recognition, which usually occurs without our conscious knowledge. This is the primary reason that a brand must be visually consistent. Coca-Cola is an obvious example — the Coca-Cola red is instantly recognised all over the world.The author is a well-known industry watcher