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December 17, 2020
Heartstring Wars – The Festive Season Battleground
There are three reasons for emotion in advertising. Does the big emotional Christmas ad contribute to them?
by Ken Roberts
Is there a brand Santa Claus?
Just before I answer that, it is worth mentioning that marketing commentators seem to agree that eliciting an emotion in advertising is a good thing but do not say why other than, it’s brand building.
There are three main science-based reasons for emotion in advertising. They are:
- The brand seeks to build a long-term neural pathway between an emotion and the brand to facilitate affective choice,
- The brand seeks to provide an emotional detonator for considered choice (as opposed to affective), and
- The brand seeks to build salience and distinctiveness by laying down new or strengthening existing memories.
Maybe there are other reasons given for eliciting an emotion in marketing communications (winning creative awards, earned media/publicity), but let’s look at the body of knowledge relating emotion to driving behavioral change. After that, we can apply the science to review some festive season spots and decide for ourselves, if there is indeed a brand Santa Claus. First the science:
| Objective | How brands can achieve this |
|---|---|
| Affective choice | Sophisticated brands build a long-term neural pathway between the chosen discrete emotion associated with the use of their product/service and the brand.
Whilst the rational reasons to believe can change from campaign to campaign, a single discrete emotion is chosen, and the bridge to that emotion is constructed and strengthened in perpetuity (for example, affective response – desire happiness, buy Hersey’s). The rationale for building the neural pathway is to facilitate the non-conscious, automatic choice of your brand. |
| Considered choice | Even the most routine decision requires an emotional detonator. For the detonator to work in decision making is must be in reasonable proximity to the explosive (the rational reasons to believe).
Best in class advertising as both the emotional detonator and the rational offer in the single communication. Which discrete emotion should be detonated to drive choice? The smart answer from those sophisticated brands is the same discrete emotion selected to build a long-term neural pathway between the emotion and the brand. the rationale for eliciting an emotion then is to facilitate considered choice. |
| Build distinctiveness and salience | This element is about brands teaching and customers (prospective and existing) learning. The two main ingredients for laying down a memory are disruption leading to presence of mind plus eliciting a discrete emotion.
It begs the question, which discrete emotion should be elicited to assist laying down a memory? Again, the smart answer is the same discrete emotion as above. I should add, including the emotion ‘surprise’ into the equation can markedly aid disruption and raise comprehension. The rationale for laying down a memory is to achieve relative strength (distinctiveness and salience) for primary quality and price rational driver of choice. |
Identifying the emotion most associated with the consumption/use in your category and achieving mastery in eliciting that emotion in all marketing communication and media (ranging from linear television to the endcap at the supermarket) will bring neural benefits.
Returning now to the brand Santa Claus. What about those festive season campaigns designed to elicit a deep emotional response – designed to move you to tears? The ones I am referring to have little or no rational message.
UK department store John Lewis & Partners is widely acknowledged as the pioneer of the long-form, pure emotional, festive season “carol.” Proponents argue that for the Western world during the festive season, consumers are in a state of heightened emotions and therefore, more susceptible to emotional communication. Are consumers really on the brink of tears of joy while going about their business leading up to Christmas and Hanukkah, just waiting for a brand to leave them a blithering mess? Perhaps it would be useful to put aside any ideological reasons for emotion in advertising and stick to just the science.
For comparison, I would like to look at the two heavyweights in the Australian discount department store category. First some background; one chain, BigW is in the midst of closing 30 stores meanwhile, Kmart has built an unassailable lead based on eliciting the primary emotion that mums most associate with the category. The lead has been built up over the past decade. Below are the two 2020 festive season spots. Clearly one is intended to be brand building and the other based on a communications Triple Play of emotion and two reasons to believe – price and quality.
Festive season spots – Pure Emotion Versus Brand Building + Activate Now?
How does each spot perform on delivering on an emotional objective?
| Objective | BigW | Kmart |
|---|---|---|
| Affective choice | Unless the one-off Christmas campaign is an addition to existing efforts to build a bridge between the brand and a selected discrete emotion, then the Christmas anthem is not contributing to building a long-term neural pathway between an emotion and the brand.
We would argue that the Christmas anthem simply strengthens the already stong neural pathway between an emotion and Christmas, rather than building or strengthening a pathway between a discrete consumption emotion and your brand. |
It took from 2011 until 2014 for Kmart to build its emotional bride between mums feeling proud to bring price-competitive quality to the family. There has been a recent change of creative agency however, GM of Marketing, Laurie Lai continues to oversee the formula that she helped devise in 2011. |
| Considered choice | What is the proximity of the detonator to the explosive? There is no reason to believe in the spot, so unless the emotional anthem is coupled with an activate now element in immediate proximity, there is a rapidly diminishing impact of choice (putting aside any indeterminable benefit of earned media). | This is an unashamedly bottom of the funnel Triple Play. The Kmart spot is relatively low on eliciting emotion and hard working on the essential reasons to believe, surrounding value for money with a primary focus on price competitiveness. |
| Build distinctiveness and salience | There are no explicit price or non-price cues for price competitiveness or quality cues. | The display of the three price points and the strapline – Low prices for life. This spot reinforces the existing Kmart positioning. |
Too many creatives believe that if the communication elicits an emotion – any emotion the job is done. They justify no immediate change in sales by a delayed, “long” effect explanation – at Forethought we call this the “funnel alibi.” Most of the big, emotional, festive season anthems are unhinged from either short or long-term effects and seem to operate outside the rules of business accountability.
I am afraid that there is no brand Santa Claus. Apologies if that has come as a jolt.
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The views, opinions, data, and methodologies expressed above are those of the contributor(s) and do not necessarily reflect or represent the official policies, positions, or beliefs of Greenbook.
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