Getting Emotional
No, I’m not about to tell you a deep, tear-jerking, personal story about an emotional moment in my life. Like most people, I have plenty of those, but sharing them would defeat the point of this blog. What I will tell you about, however, is the importance of acknowledging and making use of the emotional connection that is established between companies and consumers when powerful advertisements are created.
When it comes to adverts and commercials, I’m quick to dismiss or ignore what I see — or rather, I’m quick to dismiss or ignore what I’m bombarded with. There are so many adverts, both traditional and online, most of which make use of unoriginal formats, telling unremarkable stories. In other words, having seen the same type of ad for a thousand products and services which provide more or less the same thing, I rarely give adverts my time. I’m fairly certain that most people reading this are equally tired of the same for the same reasons. However, there are occasions when companies and organisations leave a genuine impact with their marketing efforts, which is what I’ll be touching on in this blog.
I’m going to get straight to the point by exemplifying the above. The best example I can think of to portray the statement I made is the ‘Live With It’ ad, created by the THINK! road safety organisation. Now, before I share this ad, I want to emphasize why I’m bringing it up. I first saw it around the time I was 12–13 years old. The impact this ad made on me back then still resonates with me to this day. This was emphasized by the fact that I only saw this ad once before it seemingly disappeared into oblivion. I never saw it on TV, or anywhere else for that matter, ever again. I don’t know if this is because it was so emotionally triggering or sad for people, which might have led to it being banned, but whatever the actual reason, I never did see it again. The thought of trying to find it again never crossed my mind simply because it left such an impact after a single viewing — I’ve been able to replay the ad with almost perfect accuracy in my head, even after all these years. How can I make this claim? Well, for the purposes of this blog post, I went on an extensive search to find the ad. I don’t know if this ad has been banned from TV, but I was able to find it on THINK!’s YouTube channel, which itself is strangely hard to find. Either way, I found the ad and have embedded it a few lines down. Watching it again after all these years reminded me why it impacted me in the way it did, and proves that I’m able to recall almost perfectly what I’d seen all those years ago. Watch it for yourself to see what I’m talking about. NOTE: Before you watch, let me emphasize one thing — this ad is really quite dark and emotionally triggering, bordering on scary. If car accidents, death or anything similar trigger you, I’m advising discretion. The ad is rather old but it’s still powerful.
At this point, I hope that what I’m trying to say is becoming clear. This ad probably leaves less of an impact nowadays than it did when I first saw it — there are thousands of adverts and campaigns aimed at making roads safer. But seeing this ad in my youth has made me a skilled and responsible driver as an adult. I’m by no means a perfect driver, but I can say with 100% certainty that no one is — not even Lewis Hamilton. A big influence on my driving proficiency was and is this ad. The man in the ad will never be able to let go of what he did — his breaking the speed limit will haunt him for the rest of his life. This message resonated with me at a fundamental level from a young age. Because of this, I don’t take risks when I drive and I’m always aware of my surroundings.
The THINK! example is a rather gloomy, dark one. But it succeeds in leaving a lasting, emotional impact which, in my eyes, should be the goal of an ad. However, this goal can also be achieved with positive ads. This type of positive advertising even has a rather pleasant name — ‘joy marketing’, to be precise. To showcase this, I can think of no better example than WestJet’s 2013 “Christmas Miracle” campaign. Rather than explaining what the campaign is about, I’m going to do the obvious and embed the YouTube video here. Warning: tears of joy are quite normal with this ad.
How amazing is that ad? Yes, the ad was created by a profit-driven business, but there’s nothing wrong with that. WestJet succeeded where so many other companies don’t, at least not to the same extent. WestJet (and THINK!) created adverts that leave a profound, emotional impact on the people who see them. Furthermore, WestJet’s campaign was incredibly successful — to the tune of an 86% increase in sales from the previous year (Source: Hubspot.com)
At this point, one could argue that the ethics of the two ads need to be examined. Humankind is an emotional and complex species and the fact that companies use this to their advantage could be considered unethical (to learn more about marketing and ethics, check out my blog post from the 16th April 2018, entitled ‘On the Ethics of Marketing’). Personally, I don’t see this as inherently unethical. There are indeed companies that will create ads that make use of joy marketing, the products and services of which don’t necessarily provide joy, but that is a debate for another day.
The point I’m trying to make is one of the importance of emotional connections between companies and consumers. These days, it isn’t enough for consumers to know what a company does and what products and services they provide. No, they want to know everything. They want insight into the lives of people who run the companies, the companies’ sustainability efforts and just about anything else that companies rarely, if ever, divulged 50 years ago. In short, companies need to humanize themselves, no matter what. Companies unable to maintain a human/emotional touch are doomed to fail. Companies who humanize themselves are the ones who are able to establish this sacred connection and, in doing so, they often thrive.
Want an example? KLM, the Dutch airline, now offers the possibility for customers to receive their boarding passes over WhatsApp. In other words, a huge player in the airline industry sends you a personal message with your boarding pass, directly to your phone. I know that this isn’t revolutionary per se, but it stood out to me nonetheless. A process that took quite some time 20 years ago (i.e, going to the travel agent, booking your ticket, checking in at the airport and then getting your boarding pass) has been turned into a process that takes the best part of 10 minutes, all without losing much of the human touch. If you think about it, you’re essentially receiving personal messages from the 22nd best airline in the world (Source: Worldairlineawards.com). I tend to avoid using the word ‘cool’ but I’m going to make an exception — this is seriously cool stuff. When I flew to London this weekend to watch my dad and cousin compete in the London Marathon, I made use of this service. I eventually came to the conclusion that flying has almost become as easy as taking a bus.
As technology moves further and further away from the archaic, at a pace that could rival the expansion rate of the universe, it will become increasingly difficult for companies to maintain the emotional connection that customers crave these days. However, the companies and organisations that succeed in doing this will be the ones that stand out and thrive in a world that is driven by technology, smartphones, sustainability and a sci-fi future.
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