The Emotional Connection
The ability to sell milk and politicians, the first in a series.
This past week, something that I once knew and seem to have forgotten became crystal clear again. Surprisingly, it happened while the Oscars were on. I’m not a huge movie buff, and in what seems to have become an annual occurrence, haven’t watched many (any?) of the movies nominated for most of the awards. What is obvious though is the passion that these movies evoked in their fans. Obviously something, be it the plot, the characters, the dialogue, the costumes, or something else, resonated beyond just mere satisfaction.
It shouldn’t be a surprise to me that emotional bonds can quickly be generated. I spent a decade in and around advertising. The ability to generate emotional attachments to products as benign as milk is where advertising proves its value. And it’s why media companies can make the hundreds of millions in revenues that they do — advertisers know that if they can reach you, they can influence you.
Where it was a surprise connection was as emotion relates to politics and policies. On the recommendation of Jerry Taylor, I’ve been listening to Rule and Ruin by Geoffrey Kabaservice. A key takeaway for me was about how moderate candidates were often painted as being simply the lighter version of the opposing party. This resulted in a difficult predicament for those candidates, as they often found themselves between two opposing views, each with emotional bases. Later that week, at the National Summit for Democracy, in a panel led by Yascha Mounk, Polish politician Aga Pomaska closed the session with a comment about the importance of making emotional connections on important issues. And, finally, the Italian election this weekend showed the potential impact of raw emotion. Once again, Italy finds itself with two Nationalist parties in power, leading to a potentially volatile governance structure in a beautiful country.
My takeaway from all this is that in today’s society of rapidly gazing through headlines, retweeting controversial or fake news (and sometime inadvertently amplifying opposing views) and consuming media in 2 minute chunks, the more emotional the connection, the easier it is to develop fanatic supporters. And when those emotions are evoked, you get fanboys and 6 hour lines to buy bbq. In politics, these emotions can lead to gridlock, animosity and hostility. Any stance, even moderate ones, needs to emotionally resonate in order to connect. Then and only then can these views develop the devotion necessary to see ideals turn into action.
Just like successful Oscar nominees, finding a way to emotionally connect with your target audience is essential to build loyalty and drive action. The questions then turn to how, to whom, using which tools and can you measure the outcomes. More on that to come!
