“When I see this commercial it makes me wanna cry.”
-s001boa on YouTube
Have you ever said “Wow” after watching a TV commercial? Have you ever been so deeply moved by a brand’s commercial that it changes the way you feel in that moment? Brands that connect on a truly authentic, emotional level have much more resonance than those that speak to our logical brains. They are emotional brands that implement feeling-driven marketing campaigns. “Apple, of course, is the archetypal emotional brand. It’s not just intimate with its customers; it is loved,” writes Leander Kahney on Wired.
For brands, emotion brings products to life and touches us uniquely as humans. “Emotion stimulates the mind 3000 X faster than rational thought. We live in an emotional world,” writes SweetSpotFinder.com. Commercials that combine visual and audio in a compelling, stimulating way can move us in the way a we look into our significant other’s eyes or hug them goodbye. Commercials that convey love and deep human emotion have the potential to connect to our inner selves like we would with a loved one.
Below are two commercials that touch the Sparxoo team in an authentic emotional ways. We’ve analyzed Apple’s iPhone 4 “FaceTime” and Dow Chemical’s “The Human Element” to provide tips for you to stir similar emotions in your TV viewers:
Answer the Most Fundamental, Philosophical Question
What does it mean to be human? A rhetorical question you’ve surely been asked in Philosophy 101. The Apple brand drills down and identifies what it is to be human in its Apple iPhone 4 commercial: connection. Apple’s emphasized its FaceTime feature that enables users to connect on a level more authentic and emotional than voice-to-voice: live video chat.
Dow Chemicals answers what it means to be human by bridging the gap between humanity and the environment by way of elements. Just as the environment we breathe, live, eat and drink from is made of elements, we, as humans are an element in and of ourselves. Dow’s commercial connects the two by answering what it means to be human: to be one with the world around us.
Create an Awe-Inspiring Narrative and Imagery
When were you inspired by stock photography? It’s expected imagery we’ve seen time and again and typically mark as visual spam. Apple and Dow create genuine and uniquely human visuals to convey authentic human emotion. Apple narrates the intimate moments of our lives — whether it’s sharing in the life of a child or separated by war — while Dow Chemicals pans awe-inspiring nature imagery and human’s raw existence within it. Both equally beautiful and touching commercials make you step back and say, “wow.”
Poetry of Language and Music
The romanticism of Byron-esque poetry and the playfully inspired music of Louis Armstrong touches a deep chord. Dow taps into an often forgotten American love for poetry and accentuates the simplicity of humanity and the world we live in: “When we add [the human element] to the equation, the chemistry changes… potassium looks to bond with potential… and hydrogen and oxygen form desire… the human element is the element of change… nothing is more fundamental, nothing more elemental.”
Apple reminds us of our inherent playfulness and innocence with Louis Armstrong’s “When You’re Smiling.” Armstrong’s gritty, yet kind voice combined with the lyrics “When you’re Smilin’” brightens the mood, while adding a touch of sadness for the distance between loved ones. Apple helps narrow that distance and bring those loved ones apart, together.
Image by Larrie Knights from Stock.Xchng
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