Bühler&Bühler launches podcast series on the topic of nudging

Beat Hürlimann, Werbewoche.ch: What is the spirit of Bühler & Bühler?

Becca Knobel: Basically, we are a very young-at-heart team and are all bubbling over with curiosity. In our work, we often make connections to subareas that you might not have expected at first.

Clemens Fachinger: Curiosity is a good key point. I also notice time and again that we have the urge to develop and discover new things without having to ask permission.

What talent do you have, or in other words, what are you damn good at?

Fachinger: I think we are very good at direct marketing. That means we know our customers, we know what they have done with us before, and we can build on that. We can conduct dialogs and understand our customers' needs.

Knobel: Exactly, communication is a very relevant topic at our agency anyway. I'd also like to praise Clemens for his incredible research skills. While he can spend hours immersing himself in something, I'm more the one who keeps information short and to the point.

Having a talent is one thing, what do you do with your talents?

Knobel: My talent, the curiosity that exists in the entire team, we use to not stagnate. We keep our eyes open and try to discover something everywhere that we can integrate into successful measures.

Fachinger: My talent lies in understanding complex interrelationships well and then preparing them for everyday use in an understandable way.

What would you describe as the specialty of Bühler & Bühler?

Knobel: Of course, we are a full-service agency, as we like to say. But our top discipline is dialog marketing with new approaches and a lot of storytelling. But we are also extremely good at branding, campaigns and employer marketing.

Detached from the topic of nudging, which we'll talk about in a moment: Why a podcast?

Fachinger: We have discovered a podcast to be the ideal medium for breaking down complex problems in a relaxed dialog situation - actually, it is a trialogue - and making them tangible. Everyone can contribute their part, and the audience walks out with valuable insights afterwards.

Knobel: And honestly, I'd love to tell you about it over a bottle of whiskey at the bar. But I can't sit there with each of you, so we'll do it over headphones. It's much easier to digest.

Now to the title of the podcast, "In a Nudgeshell". To be honest, it wasn't easy for me to get into the topic...

Fachinger: It is a word creation of Becca. "In a Nutshell" is an English expression that means to put something big in a small space, a nutshell. Becca said, "when we talk about nudges, it makes more sense to say "In a Nudgeshell" instead of "In a Nutshell." We condense complexities into our podcast episodes so they fit into a 30-minute episode.

Why the topic of nudges? What is the benefit of it?

Knobel: We make a lot of decisions throughout the day, and decisions can cause stress. We use nudges to make decisions easier and less stressful, so people are left feeling positive. They are techniques based on insights into how our brains work. They help shape decisions so they are easier to make.

What does the recipient get out of it?

Fachinger: The recipient is guided to their destination faster and with less stress. This increases the likelihood that he will achieve his goals, whether in the digital or physical world.

So your customers are the senders, and their customers are the recipients. Give us an example of how the two come together in an effective way.

Knobel: A good example is scarcity. When something is scarce, it becomes more desirable. This is based on the primal need to eat food when it is available before it disappears. We use such insights to make communication more effective.

Fachinger: There's another example: people often don't have a clear idea of numbers. We give them anchor points to help them better understand price relations. In the case of price quotations, for example, how this relates to the initial price. This is called anchoring.

How do you get customers on board? How can advertisers prepare themselves?

Fachinger: We critically scrutinize briefings and ensure that objectives are clearly defined. We have found that clear and understandable objectives significantly increase the effectiveness of measures from the recipient's point of view.

Knobel: The advisory function is essential. We also draw on evidence from studies to support our recommendations.

Where do you get these studies from?

Fachinger: We search technical literature and follow scientific publications. In addition, I have set up a Google Alert for the topic of nudging in order to always be up to date.

Is there a:n nudging guru?

Becca Knobel: Nudging has its origins in the social sphere, not in marketing. We are talking about scientists like the two Nobel Prize winners Richard Thaler and Daniel Kahnemann, who we have of course also looked at within our podcast and whose theories are a daily part of our work.

When does your podcast start and where can you listen to the episodes?

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About Becca Knobel: During her studies, she always thought she was heading for radio. But as soon as she got her BA in online journalism, Becca Knobel entered the agency world and stayed. Starting at Bühler & Bühler 5 years ago as a trainee, she has since become a junior creative director and, more recently, a podcaster.

About Clemens Fachinger: After studying history and literature, Clemens Fachinger followed his first love of music into marketing at entertainment companies. Stations in digital marketing then led him into the agency world. For more than 4 years, he has dedicated himself to his second love of written (and now also spoken) texts as a copywriter/concept developer at Bühler & Bühler.