The Emotional Horizon of Opportunity!

A person who I have gotten to know in the industry recently was hired to serve as the CEO of the Atlanta office of one of the well-known NY shops.

It’s a shop whose past client mix was largely driven by a telecom client. That client recently merged with another dominant telecom group and the agency is no longer their agency of record.

The role of the person I know is to help move what remains of the Atlanta office forward into a more innovative way of thinking.

There is no question that she is taking on a challenge.

I worked with her “new business” team on two recent pitches.

Both of the potential clients sent out an RFP.

Both RFPs outlined what the agency needed to bring back to the table. Both RFPs outlined how their products functioned and what they wanted to communicate to customers.

I told the agency that if they responded back to the RFP with communications tailored around the mechanical operations of the clients’ products that the campaigns would likely yield little-to-no return and the agency would likely be laying off folks when the clients sent out new RFPs 12 months from now.

Repeat after me…NO!

“Dear prospective client…If you really, really want to move your brand forward, stop telling the consumer about how your product is made and instead invite them into the emotions of the experience!”

But to do that you have to be brave and maybe even a bit insane.

When I started BrandVenture more than 6 years ago, I did so with a passion to drive brands forward fueled by the brand’s EIP or Emotional Ignition Point.

Rational logic drives little consumer response.

I showcase examples of brand success that abide by it like Apple, Nike, Cartoon Network, MINI Cooper, Southwest Airlines, Burger King and Red Bull… and a few shops like Crispin Porter + Bogusky.

The MBAs often debate it, many clients often reject it and account service folks often run from it.

Last week an article ran in Advertising Age titled; Why Emotional Messages Beat Rational Ones.

It showcases a book titled “Brand Immortality” – a manual on how to keep brands healthy in the long term.

The article highlights an analysis the authors completed of over 880 case studies of national and international top winning commercials based on response and sales.

16% of the cases were driven by rational “benefits pay-off” strategy.

84% of the cases where driven by emotional engagement or a combination of emotional engagement with rational support.

The authors are quoted in the article as saying that there is “a superior ability of emotional campaigns to create a sense of differentiation for the brand, one that can endure and will not disappear with the next product launch from a competitor.”

They then go on to say… “Our analysis shows that emotional strategies continue to work well during downturns…and emotional engagement increases in importance during the life cycle of market sectors while rational persuasion-based strategies progressively lose the product differentiation they depend upon.”

So will the ad agencies be whistling a new tune?

As long as account service and media buyers run the shops, probably not.

By the way, this article in Ad Age was not on the front page. It was on page 13.

Seeing the glass as half full is part of our core values here at BrandVenture.

And especially in times like where we are right now, innovation, emotion and creative thinking combined with “passionate persistence of preaching the emotional experience” is what will move brands forward.

It’s not a horizon of storm clouds… it’s a horizon of opportunity!

So pick up that phone, email or text message us…and…let’s hit those Emotional Ignition Points and Journey!