What emotions should my marketing video evoke?
Emotion sells. This isn’t something we just intrinsically know. It’s been studied and written about. Couple of The Wharton School professors discovered the power of emotion when it comes to making online content viral – that is, content that is “sold” to the viewer who then shares it.
There was also an advertising research that discovered that for every person that buys based on a television commercial’s content, three others will buy based on the emotion evoked by that same commercial.
So emotion plays a significant role when understanding buyer behavior, and it should be the primary driver in developing content for a video.
What emotion, then, should marketers focus on when designing a concept for a video?
Based on our experience as a video production company developing hundreds of different types of content over the years, here are the top 5 emotions that work well.
1) Excitement
Here in Silicon Valley, excitement is everywhere. Startups feel like they can change the world. Established tech companies are realizing what was once science fiction. The gold rush never ends here in Northern California and dreamers are long ways from losing their nerve.
If you have a new product or service, creating excitement in your marketing video is a positive, can’t-miss way to connect with your viewers.
An explainer video that creates buzz:
2) Desire to be Cool
Why do so many people line up for the new iPhone? Added features are nice, but there’s a cool factor about having the latest Apple product. It’s been discussed to death, but Apple’s brilliant marketing campaign created those lines, not necessarily the product itself (though the products are pretty great, too).
Buyers want the thing that makes them look cool. It could be gadgets, but also business tools. Google Hangout and Zoom do essentially the same thing, but it just feels cooler to use Zoom, and they’ll pay for it.
Inject that into your video and it will get audiences to act.
Here’s an explainer video that makes a product cool to have:
3) FOMO
In the same UPenn study cited above, positive emotions do better than negative emotions. But fear of missing out is still very powerful in inspiring audiences to act. Unlike the guy who wants to be cool, this is the fella at the water cooler watching everyone else playing with their new toys. He is somewhat reluctant but picks up the toy anyway.
We don’t do too much of these types of videos (perhaps if we did more used car commercials…), but they do work. And depending on your product, it might be the way to go.
4) Frustration
Reminding people of how frustrated they were about something is a good way to sell stuff. This is why so many marketing videos introduce a problem. It not only explains why something new is needed, but it gets people to remember that negative emotion. They might be with their kids at Disneyland, happy as happy can be, and then they see that video and all those bad memories come flooding back. Then the solution is introduced and the viewer jumps at it.
Works every time.
Here’s a good example of a video that taps into user frustrations:
5) Make them Laugh
Just like anger leads to the dark side, happy leads to sales. And no better way to make people happy than to make them laugh. Funny videos do well every time. They’re memorable and highly shareable.
An example of using humor:
Overall, it’s important for a marketing video to have strong content, but rather than focusing on disseminating information, prioritize emotion. When the right emotion is evoked, action is soon to follow.
To learn more about how Picturelab can help with your emotion-evoking marketing video, contact us at info@picturelab.com.