How advertisement framing increased loan demand by 25%

The advertising market is far reaching and ever growing, with American firms spending almost $300 billion on advertising just last year.¹ This intervention examines how behavioral science can be used to design effective advertising content.²  Specifically, the experimenters conducted a field experiment in conjunction with a consumer lender, mailing a randomized combination of creatively designed letters and a range of loan prices. The study found that framing content to promote affective decision making can be an effective advertising strategy. Adding a picture of a female on the letter increased demand by the same magnitude as decreasing interest rates by 25%. Moreover, extending the deadline to apply for the loan increased the take-up rate by 3% and was as effective at increasing demand as decreasing interest rates by almost 10%.