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Thought Leadership

Emotive Content Marketing Is The Key to Your Brand’s Heart

Unconquered is a creative agency using emotional storytelling to get to the heart of your brand and to create content marketing that works.

Take a moment and think back to your earliest memories as a child. They are most likely rooted in an emotion – whether happiness, excitement, fear, sadness, or anger. Emotions are a powerful force tied to memory. As much as humans love to consider ourselves rational, the majority of our decision-making is based in our subconscious with emotions in the driver seat, making emotive content marketing a powerful tool to connect with consumers.

So much so that according to Harvard Business School professor Gerald Zaltman, “95% of our purchase decision-making takes place in the subconscious. This means that no matter how much we collectively claim to compare prices and quality, we are more swayed by emotive marketing than we even realize.”

In his research,  Zaltman uses the example of an advertising firm working with a very “tired” brand. They explored the subconscious thoughts consumers had regarding this category and concluded that a basic emotion had been overlooked by their competitors. After connecting this emotion to their own brand, they were able to give it a huge sales boost proving that emotive content marketing works.

Tapping Into Human Emotion Creates Results.

Emotive marketing’s power is in its ability to elicit a strong emotional response, in turn grabbing your attention and holding onto it, leaving a more lasting impression than any product-based sales pitch ever could. A brand anthem, like this one for Warrior/New Balance, is one of its most effective forms. Instead of touting features, this style of storytelling takes your brand’s mission, and works more to build deeper connections than on the hard sell. 

Dove and Jif Are Brands Who Have Used Emotional Storytelling Well. 

Dove is a master at incorporating anthemic storytelling into its marketing strategy. In this spot, an artist blindly sketches women based off of their own descriptions and then again based off of the descriptions from a stranger. The two sketches are then compared and are in drastic contrast, revealing that the women see themselves in a much less attractive light. This video is a perfect execution of Dove’s mission to make a positive experience of beauty accessible to all women. 

Like many family-oriented products, Jif is another brand that understands the importance of emotive marketing. Before creating this 90s ad, they did the research to understand their target demographic, along with their wants and needs and then crafted this spot to speak directly to them. It features two doting moms playing with their kids as a breezy little jingle behind them croons “choosy moms like you choose Jif”. While simple in its approach, it is effective at hitting the parental urge to do the right thing for your children.  Another great example of knowing your audience is this Unconquered-made Brine campaign that features female lacrosse players who dare the audience to underestimate them, because they’re looking for an opportunity to prove them wrong.

How To Work With Teammates Who Are Adverse To Emotive Storytelling.

 

Unconquered is a creative agency that uses emotional storytelling as a tool.

When switching from practical forms of advertising to the more emotionally impactful, some team members may resist the change due to fear of not reaching tangible financial goals. But emotive ads aren’t just a way to connect with your audience, they are also a great way to boost sales. Research from Salesforce’s State of the Connected Consumer states that “53% of customers say they feel an emotional connection to the brands they buy from the most.”  And this loyalty pays. According to Forbes, the average repeat buyer typically has a 67% higher AOV than a first time customer. Retaining this loyalty both costs less in long term advertising and marketing and pays in better revenue, which means your brand can feel confident that this emotional investment is a fiscally sound decision. 

Regardless of whether you’re looking for a campaign that is driven by humor, aspiration or happiness it needs to stay true to your brand’s mission and values in order to be the most effective. If you’re interested in creating emotive content marketing that better connects you to your audience, contact Unconquered for a consultation.