Nobody knows how to put emotions to better use than brilliant marketing executives.
Consumers today are flooded with call-to-action advertisements urging them to click, sign up, contribute or buy. Making your campaign stand out in this crowded marketplace isn’t easy.
The standard arsenal of tools like targeted marketing, direct mails and logical explanations can only go so far. The most ambitious of marketers aren’t satisfied with influencing a one-off purchase here and there. Instead, they want their brand to have a place in the hearts and minds of the consumer.
That’s where emotions come in.
Emotional marketing campaigns aim to develop deep relationships with consumers that last over time.
What makes emotional marketing tick?
Logic ends where emotions begin.
All consumers are emotional beings – there’s only so much you can do to convince them about your brand with facts, figures, comparisons and guarantees. It’s easier to elicit a response if you’ve struck a chord with them.
Basic emotions like happiness, longing, fear or even anger can drive people to action. That action could be as diverse as signing up for the army, pledging loyalty to a cause or switching to low-fat cheese.
The trick here is having an accurate pulse of the consumer - what they think, need, like or desperately want.
The risks involved with emotional marketing
Both positive and negative emotions work in marketing campaigns as long as they’re carefully calibrated to elicit the right response.
There’s no denying that emotional marketing comes with its fair share of risks. Gut feelings and hunches are all fine in the marketing room, but there’s no way to predict how an audience will react to a particular emotion.
There’s a fine line between making an emotional connection with consumers and putting them off. This is why for every successful emotional marketing campaign out there, there are a dozen others that either misfired severely and had to be withdrawn or sank without a trace.
That’s the minefield every marketer has to cross while creating a reputation marketing campaign based on emotions.
Lessons you can learn
Emotions breathe life into marketing campaigns. They can turn what would otherwise have been a merely transactional proposition into a collaborative experience.
Sadly, there are no blueprints or operating manuals on how to get it right.
Even the best advertising and marketing minds put together and working with unlimited budgets have created campaigns that backfired spectacularly. On the other hand, some initially appeared quite unimpressive until they made big waves for their deep emotional appeal.
With the benefit of hindsight, here are seven unforgettable emotional marketing campaigns that have a lot to learn from.
1. Always - Like a girl
Take a common expression with a negative connotation, give it a positive spin and turn it on its head. That’s what Always, a company that sells feminine products, did with its upbeat #LikeAGirl campaign. The campaign took what was considered an insult and made it a celebration by focusing on the amazing things that women and girls are doing in different fields. No wonder it won a lot of hearts and grew sales at the same time.
2. Plastic Pollution Coalition - Plastic straw campaign
The Plastic Pollution Coalition was struggling to raise awareness about oceanic pollution with facts and statistics. That’s until they released the video of a marine biologist and her team removing a plastic straw stuck in the nose of a sea turtle off Costa Rica. The anger and outrage that followed galvanized a mass movement and forced commitments from companies like Starbucks and American Airlines to cut down on plastic straws. A fine example of using anger to impact change.
3. Code.org - What Most Schools Don't Teach
This is a great example of using emotion to convey a logical point. The video in question, titled ‘What Most Schools Don’t Teach’, is an attempt to rid coding of its nerdy and outlier perceptions. It uses dramatic music while talking about how prominent tech gurus started out and how coders are modern-day rock stars. It successfully drives home the point that learning to code is an exciting and aspirational career option, forever changing perceptions about coding.
4. Worlds Apart - Heineken
What does a beer company have to do with promoting relations between people with opposing ideologies? Everything, according to Heineken. The beer maker’s ad is an attempt to get people to explore their differences and find common ground - while sitting down to talk over a glass of beer, of course! The ad was a call to open up and create engagement between people with seemingly incompatible attitudes. The positive message of overcoming differences clicked big time with audiences.
5. Dollar Shave Club - Free Gift
Dollar Shave Club's Free Gift ad is a gut punch that presses home the point about just how expensive some shaving products can be. The company always had a reputation for creating humorous ads that their customers can immediately relate to. But what sets this one apart is its visceral, painful take on the perceived brand values of its more expensive competitors. You have to see the ad to feel it.
6. Samsung - Good Vibes
This is a real tear-jerker. The campaign is for a mobile communication app for deafblind people. It created ripples among consumers, most of whom were understandably not part of the app’s target market. Even though parts of the ad video are uncomfortable and distressing to watch, it created a huge positive impression for Samsung. A great example of using emotion to tell a difficult story that still needs to be told and finding solutions for seemingly helpless situations.
7. Spartan - Grow Young
Become Unbreakable - that is the tagline of obstacle course brand Spartan. It’s also the feeling their Instagram ad leaves you with. The ad drives its energy through testimonials from people of all ages who describe how it feels to finish a Spartan race. What comes across is the unrehearsed genuineness of people who are thrilled to have accomplished something. Emotional marketing at its energetic best!
8. Apple - Dear Apple
What’s common between a bear invasion, an airplane crash, a workplace accident and an irregular heartbeat? Apple will tell you it’s their watch. Their ‘Dear Apple’ campaign strings together heartfelt stories of regular people who found themselves in unexpected dire straits – and how the Apple Watch’s advanced features and sensors enabled calls for help and saved lives. With first-person narratives and nifty CGI, this campaign positions Apple Watch as a savior. That’s one way to build a brand reputation for good.
The best thing about emotional marketing
When executed correctly, emotional marketing campaigns can build undying customer loyalty and lasting reputations. It’s no longer a case of having to hard-sell your campaign once it has successfully tugged at the heartstrings of your audience.
Successful emotional marketing campaigns create their own momentum, with people sharing your ads, commenting on them, and creating a tsunami of positive recognition.
After all, there’s no better reward than having an audience that feels for your brand.
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