Nudgestock 2024 - Creating a Buzz

Behavioural science is our bread and butter. So when we made the decision to return to Nudgestock for their 2024 event, we knew we had to have some fun. 

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What is Nudgestock?

Nudgestock is the world’s biggest festival of behavioural science and creativity, attracting all with a thirst for knowledge and an appetite to understand the human animal. So, of course, we had to be a sponsor.

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Don’t touch the wire…

As well as providing backing tracks for the speaker walk-ons throughout the day, we knew the event’s theme of ‘time’ would allow us to conduct our very own, very scientific behavioural science experiment.

And what’s more scientific than a giant buzzwire?

So, we split into Team Classical and Team Rock, armed them with headphones, and challenged attendees to show us their concentration skills and their steady hands to answer the question: what type of music is best for concentration?

The results? Led by full-time rockstar Tim “The Plectrum” Plester, Team Rock unfortunately (as we predicted) made more mistakes than Team Classical, setting off the buzzwire many more times and therefore receiving more 5 second penalties, bumping up their times.

The overall winning team was Team Classical (led by Mozart, aka our musical maestro James), who were more steady and precise, aside from one rock anomaly Antoine who achieved the fastest time of the day at 19 seconds, almost half the speed of the next quickest rocker. We believe he was a robot.

Although it was just a bit of fun, and there were of course many variables which should’ve been controlled as well as the music type, it was a very interesting example of the power music has to change the way we move or behave. When we are faced with different types of customers with different goals, this is something we consider heavily. For example, a fast food restaurant who may want to move customers along quicker may opt for soundtracks with faster tempos, just like in this experiment. 

Atmospheres That Sell

Despite their performance in the buzzwire challenge, or what team they were on, all participants of our challenge received a copy of our book, Atmospheres That Sell. 

Stacked full of useful information, examples, and tips about how to run your sites more like an extension of your brand and marketing function, Atmospheres That Sell is a first-of-its-kind behavioural science book specific to retail and hospitality.

If you’re dead set on getting a copy, don’t worry, you can request one here.

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What a day. 

Nudgestock 2024 was a knowledge-filled, competitive celebration of behavioural science. We saw some of the most incredible air guitar performances, had great conversations and heard some super insightful talks. Thank you to everyone who came to see us. Who knew a group of adults would be queuing up in their lunch break to play on a buzzwire?

We’ll see you next year!