Psychology
Reciprocity
We feel we owe something back to whoever gives first, so a free gift, a favour or a useful service makes us want to return it.
All ads
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2020Shutter Ads
Paid more than 5,000 closed bars to carry its posters when they needed money most, giving first to the owners the brand depends on and earning their goodwill.
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2019ThisAbles
Gives away 13 add-ons, in store or as free files to 3D-print, so disabled customers got real help up front instead of paying roughly twice as much for adapted furniture.
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2018Follow the Arches
Turns billboards into genuinely useful directions to a restaurant, and drivers handed help rather than a sales pitch feel warmer towards the brand that gave it.
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2015LifePaint
Gives cyclists, people outside its cars, free spray that makes them shine in headlights after dark, and that unexpected favour earned goodwill that later showed up in car sales.
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2013People for Smarter Cities
Bends posters into a seat, a rain shelter and a ramp for bikes and suitcases, doing passers-by a small favour before asking them to join the conversation.
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2013Kan Khajura Tesan
Gives media-dark villages free Bollywood music, jokes and a presenter over the phone, a gift that made sitting through the Unilever ads in between feel like a fair trade.
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2009Teletransporter
Builds drinkers a working alibi booth right in the bar, a genuinely useful favour that earns goodwill for the beer in their hand.
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2008eco:Drive
Gave drivers a free application that helped them use less fuel instead of an ad, and a brand that helps first earns goodwill people want to repay.
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2008Coke Studio Pakistan
Aired its sessions on every major Pakistani network with the tracks free to download, and a brand that gives a country its music earns goodwill back.
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UniqlockUniqlo2007
Uniqlock
Gave bloggers a free working clock full of music and dance, and they returned the favour by giving Uniqlo's clothes space on their own sites.
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1955The Guinness Book of Records
Gave pubs 50,000 free copies of a book that settled their arguments, and a brewery that hands over something genuinely useful earns goodwill in return.
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1918If Ye Break Faith – We Shall Not Sleep (Buy Victory Bonds)
Sets McCrae's warning from the dead above a soldier bowed at a grave, so buying bonds felt like repaying a debt to men who had already given their lives.
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1917Food Will Win the War
Reminds new arrivals that America gave them freedom first, so saving wheat feels like repaying a debt rather than obeying a rule.
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1900The Michelin Guide
Gave motorists 35,000 free guides full of maps, repair tips and places to eat and sleep, building goodwill that drivers could repay by choosing its tyres.
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The Pickle PinHeinz1893
The Pickle Pin
Gives a free pickle charm and samples to anyone who climbs to the upper floor, and a gift handed over first made people glad to visit a booth they would have missed.
Reciprocity: where it comes from
Robert Cialdini put reciprocity first among his principles of influence in Influence (1984). In an early experiment, people bought more raffle tickets from a stranger who had first done them a small, unasked favour, buying them a soft drink (Regan, 1971).
In ads it shows up as a gift before the ask: a free sample, a useful service, a kind gesture or simply a few minutes of entertainment that people feel they owe something for.