A Neurocognitive Model of Advertisement Content and Brand Name Recall

We introduce a new (point process) model of learning and forgetting, inspired by the structures of the brain, that we apply to model long-term memory for advertising and brand name recall. Recall-probability functions derived from the model are tested with classic data by Zielske [Zielske, H. A. 1959. The remembering and forgetting of advertising. J. Marketing 23 239–243], as well as advertisement content and brand name recall data of a Dutch study that tracked over 40 campaigns of TV commercials. Data fits and cross-validation results indicate that the recall functions serve as a good first approximation for aggregate behavior. The shapes of optimal GRP schedules, which are obtained by maximizing a recall measure, are strongly related to the model parameters and corresponding memory processes. Comparisons with existing models in the literature indicate that a neurobiologically motivated model may give a more realistic description of memory for advertisements.