Emotion should be in every marketing campaign in our sector because of how we 'touch' our customers, but when you think about all the campaigns, can you name one operator that has positioned themselves ‘emotionally’?
When I asked around the office, surprisingly, the ‘Salvo’s’ were the only operator who we thought could deliver emotion because of their customers' trust in the brand.
Emotional Marketing harnesses fear, greed, love, safety or trust. Of these emotions, TRUST would have to be the key emotion when marketing to retirement and aged care consumers. Who can do it? Anybody if they do it well.
Whilst powerful, emotional marketing can be very dangerous if you get it wrong. The best example of a ‘fail’ is Pepsi’s latest commercial featuring Kendall Jenner.
Pepsi was trying to "project a global message of unity, peace and understanding" but it missed the mark so severely that the whole campaign was pulled.
The ad’s been criticised for making light of demonstrations that take on social justice issues, in particular the Black Lives Matter movement. A slick, callous, fake attempt to connect with their audience.
Now check out Heineken and their Worlds Apart Campaign.
The ‘social experiment’ brought together people with very different and strong opinions on feminism, climate change and transgender.
Heineken took us on an emotional journey of:
- Empathy – we know these people
- Relevancy – we can relate to these people
- Discovery – we were engaged with their journey
- Kindness – despite differences they liked each other
- Results – “let’s have a beer”
The results:
- 35 million views (mainly organic)
- 600,000 shares
- Over 800 pieces of media coverage, including global TV
- 3 parodies and spin-offs
And as the film travels the world, with a reach of 3 billion, so does their message of openness.
As a sector, we can do this – but with care.
Allison
