Brand purpose recall and insight-triggering advertising: the influence of individual reward responsiveness

As brands increasingly embed Sustainable Development Goals into their narratives, advertising faces the dual challenge of communicating brand purpose while ensuring its memorability. This study explores whether insight-triggering advertising—ads that accompany moments of phenomenological realization (‘Aha!’)—can enhance recall of SDG-aligned brand purposes, and how this effect varies based on individual reward responsiveness (IRR). Using a controlled experimental design (N = 171), participants engaged in either insight-based or step-by-step problem-solving tasks, followed by incidental exposure to brand purpose messages. While insight alone did not increase recall, its effectiveness was moderated by IRR: high IRR individuals recalled more after insight moments, whereas low IRR individuals benefited from step-by-step problemsolving. These findings highlight the strategic value of aligning advertising execution with consumer motivational traits, offering advertisers a novel, evidence-based framework for optimizing purpose-driven messages. Insight moments, when targeted effectively, may serve as powerful memory anchors in sustainability advertising.