Jenny Creative Writer
Emotive advertising is a powerful way to get a brand across in a saturated market where products often lack differentiation. Think about a favourite advert of yours… how does it make you feel? Tapping into emotions works, and it’s called emotive advertising.
Why we need emotive advertising
With so many similar products (in terms of quality, price and availability) vying for a position in people’s minds and lifestyle choices, businesses need to delve into how their brand image comes across, how it makes people feel and their overall perception. Using emotive advertising will help shape these factors and differentiate brands from their competitors.
Emotive advertising in action
Look around and you’ll start to notice many successful examples of emotive advertising. Christmas adverts are great examples of how well emotive advertising works… who can forget those emotive John Lewis adverts? But it’s not just FMCGs (fast moving consumer goods) that pull our heart strings, even services such as banking – those Lloyds ‘Black Horse’ adverts are very emotive – use them.
Recent marketing campaigns have also embraced emotive advertising as a way to get people to sit up and take notice, as our top three recent picks show…
McVitie’s – Sweeter Together
In early March, McVitie’s launched their 9.7 million ‘Sweeter Together’ campaign as part of their new drive to modernise the business and reignite interest in the brand.
McVitie’s has always invoked a nice, warm feeling in people. Think of McVitie’s and you probably think of a digestive or two with a nice cuppa. Whilst McVitie’s still wanted to keep that warm feeling, they felt it was time to show they are a brand that’s perfectly placed in today’s modern culture – to show they understand modern societal issues around loneliness and isolation, which is prevalent, despite all the digital connections we have.
Airing on TV but created with mobile and digital in mind, the ad itself focuses on a lonely crane operator who watches from up above as his colleagues enjoy a tea break and biscuits. He tries to connect by waving down and smiling, but he is too high up and is unable to catch their attention but then, a beam lifts up, with a cup of tea and McVitie’s biscuits and this makes him feel connected.
The message? The simple act of sharing a biscuit with someone, really can bring people together and make them feel less lonely, a sentiment that’s reflected in the tag line at the end of the ad: ‘Sometimes, the little things are actually the big things.’
Sarah Hayen, vice president of marketing at McVitie’s owner Pladis UK & Ireland explains that actual “human connections are dwindling.” But that, “McVitie’s really can play that unique role in bringing us all closer together through that simple act of sharing a biscuit.”
A second advert will air later in the air and will continue the ‘sharing a biscuit’ sentiment by highlighting how biscuits can bridge the loneliness gap.
Mr Kipling – Little Thief
Another feel-good, well-established British brand is good old Mr Kipling who are part of the Premier Foods Company. Their latest £2m campaign – their first for two years – hones in on everyday moments in consumers’ lives, with the hope that, by doing so, they’ll be able to build a great emotional connection.
Helen Warren-Piper (who has just finished six years as UK Marketing Director at Premier Foods) explains: “The way that brands grow is through driving brand penetration and the way we achieve that is through mental and physical availability. It is really is that simple – easy to say and difficult to do.”
Mr Kipling has always been an emotive brand, and driving an emotional connection with consumers has been an established aim over the years, with Premier Foods recognising that emotive advertising helps ‘achieve greater awareness and brand penetration’, which also makes it more likely to ‘build market share’.
Their advert, entitled ‘Little Thief’ achieves their aim well though, making us smile and feel really warm inside… The advert opens at a family party and centres on a young boy who is desperately trying to get his hands on a Mr Kipling cake. It looks like he wants a cake for himself, but as the advert comes to an end, we see it’s really a treat for his older sister who is in her room, studying hard for her exams.
The new advert also coincides with a return to the old logo on all packaging – confidently centered – as well as new product photography and a package refresh.
Cadbury – Mum’s Birthday
One of our favourite adverts at the moment is by Cadbury’s. Entitled Mum’s Birthday, it marks a move away from their ‘Free the Joy’ campaign and towards a more ‘down to earth’ approach.
Filled with a heady dose of emotive advertising, the ad shows a little girl enter a newsagents with the intention of buying a bar of Dairy Milk for her hardworking mum whose birthday it is.
It’s her first time making a purchase though and her innocence is beautifully portrayed as she pulls out her purse to pay for the bar, not with money but with her precious collection of trinkets. Watch it and see, your heart will swell as the shopkeeper smiles and accepts a few of her trinkets but gives some back as ‘change’. The girl skips back outside to present the chocolate to her mum.
The inspiration behind this emotive advert was actually John Cadbury himself, the Birmingham born businessman who created Bournville Village, which was centered around the actual Cadbury factory to house workers.
The advert also introduces the new strapline, ‘There’s a glass and a half in every one’ which, of course, references the historical Cadbury recipe (a precise amount of milk in every half-pound chocolate bar) but it is also a nod to the fact that there is kindness in each and every one of us.
Brand equity lead Benazir Barlet-Batada explains: “It’s always been a family brand, founded on generous principles that enabled real moments of human connection and we felt that now was the time to move to a more down to earth and realistic proposition that celebrates the brand’s values.”
Emotive advertising works, and these campaigns are testament to just how well they can work and the emotions they can invoke in us. To discover more about emotive advertising, how it could work for your brand, product or service and help you connect with your audience, talk to us today and discover the difference a campaign with emotion can make.
