James Booth on the Emotion of Advertising

James Booth is CEO at Rockabox, a company creating and distributing rich media and video content to brands and agencies. Having kept a close eye on this year’s Super Bowl work and taking into account the way the advertising landscape has changed as technology has evolved over the years, below he offers his thoughts on why video needs to have an emotional punch and strive to stand out from the millions of other pieces of content out online today.

Last year I took the plunge and moved to the country. What drove that decision? It’s fair to say that during my deliberations, images of wood-burning stoves, local pubs, long walks with the dog and a peaceful ambience sat firmly front of mind. I had already created this idea of what life in the sticks would be about. Fortunately I was right.

We are a nation of dreamers and brands know this. Eliciting an emotional response to a brand communication is a large part of what the mad world of advertising is built on. A quick search through YouTube will reveal a handful of entertaining parodies of agencies selling ideas to brands. The unsurprising thing is that this stuff is real.

Purpose and platforms

So, let’s dupe the user; or rather, let’s bond. Let’s share an emotional journey together – we feel it too, passionately. But here’s the challenge: the world has moved on from television being the main focus for entertainment; for a brand to deliver that powerful emotional response across the array of modern devices, it will likely need to wade into pretty intrusive delivery approaches to get noticed, and that’s very risky.

Television is a gift. We, the viewers, are in a super responsive frame of mind; there’s a good chance our emotional state will already be heightened. Our sit-back, ‘entertain me’ dynamic is ripe for picking, and brands know how and when to deliver. Take Christmas. That’s right back to that ‘moving to the country’ storyline; it just needs a whopping dollop of family happiness – the perfect gathering; a celebration of guilt-free gluttony diluted through a soft-focus lens of giving, and we’re set. How we long to live the dream, and we can, thanks to a penguin.

Digital movement

Similarly, the Super Bowl provides an opportunity for brands to tap into an already attentive audience, as we’ve seen in this year’s emotive offerings. Dove’s What makes a man stronger? showing that he cares,tagline accompanying an ad focussing on the worth of positive father figures is a prime example of a brand utilising the full potential of emotionally-driven advertising.

But something rather drastic happens when digital is the viewing environment. The plan falls over. Online advertising started life as a banner exchange. One site would effectively barter banner-ad links with another, trading earnings and spend convincingly enough to lure in high levels of investment, until things went pop. It’s not easy to rip out heartstrings with a static 468 x 60 pixel unit. As such, banner advertising quickly evolved into a direct response mechanism delivered on the cheap.

User power

Today, the online advertising industry has video, and true to form, most approaches involve some form of intrusive forced viewing. Why does the online advertising industry so often resort to such tactics? The problem is us – we, the consumer. When we’re online, we are in control; we are driving the media schedule and time is precious. We do not want to be interrupted. Intrusive advertising succeeds in triggering an emotional response but I very much doubt it’s what the brand had in mind. Why did YouTube ad the ‘skip’ function?

To add pain to the brands’ challenge, their target audience now has a voice and is all too ready to use it should the brand step out of line. Social media has become the battleground in recent years – find the formula for the right creative, drive that emotional response, and watch the ‘brand me’ merchants share their ‘discovery’ with their peers. The only problem is the creative: television adverts rarely penetrate and engage when delivered to an irritated user; the chances of that user not hitting the ‘skip’ button are very remote; unless of course it’s to save the life of a puppy.

Meaningful moments

The exception to this rule is ads that mark cultural moments – the anticipation surrounding Christmas advertising is heightened these days (thanks to John Lewis), and people actively seek these ads out. Again, this year’s Super Bowl had viewers eagerly awaiting the ads, and then actually looking for them, their curiosity piqued.

Indeed, Super Bowl advertising has long been solidified as a cultural moment, and this year in particular (Budweiser’s Lost Dog and Nissan breaking its 20-year Super Bowl silence with its #WithDad ad) has seen brands provide emotionally-stimulating content to win over receptive viewers, but ones with high expectations.

But we must remember this is the exception that proves the rule, rather than the rule; normally those on the Internet are actively avoiding ads. Branded content delivered in video form could be the answer: it could well rescue some of that shattered emotional bond that is otherwise unfixable in the digital arena.

I’d love it to be the case; I’d love to witness case study after case study of brands genuinely putting end users first and focussing on delivering moments of true value without needing to 

splatter their presence all over the experience. Should they ever get to that point, a whole new chapter of emotional marketing awaits.