{"id":462,"date":"2019-12-31T03:48:37","date_gmt":"2019-12-31T03:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/?p=462"},"modified":"2019-12-31T03:48:37","modified_gmt":"2019-12-31T03:48:37","slug":"is-sad-the-new-happy-in-advertising-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/2019\/12\/31\/is-sad-the-new-happy-in-advertising-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Is SAD the new HAPPY in Advertising?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Let’s begin with the obvious. It’s an always on world. While being perennially and technologically connected, geography being history and all of that, at no time have humans been so socially disconnected<\/strong> in the real sense.The need (and significantly unmet) desire for human bonding<\/strong> has never been greater. Nuclear existence has stoked the potential that is kinetic in humans. There is a clamour to reach out and brands<\/strong> are bending over backwards to suit the new found relish for the pathos<\/strong>.<\/div>\n
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It\u2019s a given that sad news<\/strong> travels fast. But, advertising<\/strong> that stokes emotions( or SADvertising<\/strong> as it is being called these days) that strikes a strong emotional piano chord and opens up the tear ducts, travels fast, wide and deep. Empathy meets exponential sharing, opens up a floodgate of brand conversations,triggers otherwise hard to come by response, sustains brand dialogue and keeps all stakeholders be it brand owners, ad agencies or end users, happy (ironic as it may sound!).<\/div>\n
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Why the sadness?<\/b><\/div>\n
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It is said that\u00a0sad<\/em>\u00a0emotional content has the capacity to make people feel more emotionally connected to one another, especially powerful in our detached digital world. This sad connectedness makes people more likely to take an action such as sharing content, donating money, or buying a product.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Communicating sadness can create behavioral change<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Scientifically speaking, when we hear interesting stories, specifically stories that make us feel distress<\/strong> or empathy<\/strong>, our brain produces two chemicals: cortisol<\/strong>, which links with our sense of distress and helps us focus our attention on something, and oxytocin<\/strong>, which is associated with our sense of empathy. When these two chemicals are triggered, studies show that people are more likely to give money to a cause related to the story they\u2019ve heard.<\/div>\n
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Check out this video<\/strong> to understand more\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?time_continue=4&v=DHeqQAKHh3M&feature=emb_logo<\/a><\/div>\n
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In short, the study reveals that it is possible for a\u00a0story\u00a0to change a person\u2019s behaviour by changing their brain chemistry.\u00a0What does this mean for brands?<\/strong>\u00a0Sad stories have the potential to move people to make a\u00a0purchase. This is why we\u2019ll likely see more of these sad ads in the future.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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We have moved on from an era of media scarcity to an era of attention
\nscarcity. Getting people\u2019s attention<\/strong> is what we\u2019re trying to do, and I
\nthink that meaning<\/strong>, something that people can relate to on a very
\nvisceral level<\/strong>, is what drives a lot of the decisions we make when we\u2019re
\ntalking about things. Hyper competition has forced brands<\/strong> to not only
\nassure customers a good product or service but make it very relatable
\nand more meaningful than any other good product.<\/div>\n
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Over time brands have realised that the consumer culture<\/strong> has evolved
\nand people are more reflective and mindful of their lives. There is a
\nconstant search for deeper layers of meaning<\/strong> once you have all the
\nthings you need and most of the things you don\u2019t need but desire. The
\nad industry<\/strong> of the last decade was mean, cynical and celebrated
\nbitterness. Those were the days when brands<\/strong> wanted to be Sexy,<\/strong>
\nSwaggering or Sweeping.<\/strong> That showed up in most of the work that was
\nput up. Don\u2019t blame them as it seemed to work for all concerned. But,
\nthen after a while, people got sick of it and when a voice and tone which
\nconveyed exactly the opposite stuck in, the positive reaction was
\noverwhelming.<\/div>\n
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\n
Lets list a few of the work from yesteryears where brands have stirred up a flood of emotions all over the world and that includes P&G<\/strong> and its commercial released around the Olympics(https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=sUg6s-uIp1w<\/a>), Honda\u2019s<\/strong> Project Drive In<\/strong>(https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_kRU9Au-fhk<\/a>), Coca Cola Life in Argentina<\/strong>(https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xPb1t3jU3sI<\/a>), Nestle Good Life commercial in India<\/strong>(https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=syZju6ui394<\/a>), Google\u2019s Dear Sophie<\/strong>(https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=kcHV_Dv9tlo<\/a>), Dove\u2019s Beauty Patch<\/strong>(https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk<\/a>), John Lewis<\/strong>(https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=r9D-uvKih_k<\/a>), Budweiser\u2019s Puppy Love<\/strong>(https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7p_3lITiK_Q<\/a>), the charming tale of a canine equine romance or Expedia\u2019s<\/strong> commercial(https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-CzSeFHrSfM<\/a>) about same sex marriage where the father fights his prejudice etc.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The flip side of this (which is worrying) is that it has become a trend. The
\nword \u2018 emotional<\/b> \u2018 is now become the most over used word in client<\/strong>
\nagency briefs<\/strong>. If you are used to agencies creating a trend which should
\nideally be the case(rather than following one), its time to take stock. We
\njust might be at a tipping point on this one. But, till such time, it sinks in,
\nit’s cry, cry, cry till you succeed for brands and agencies.<\/div>\n
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Go, grab your tissues!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
ENDS<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
https:\/\/www.groupisd.com\/story<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
https:\/\/www.brandknewmag.com<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
https:\/\/www.brandknew.groupisd.com<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
https:\/\/www.weeklileaks.com<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Let’s begin with the obvious. It’s an always on world. While being perennially and technologically connected, geography being history and all of that, at no time have humans been so socially disconnected in the real sense.The need (and significantly unmet) desire for human bonding has never been greater. Nuclear existence has stoked the potential that … Continue reading “Is SAD the new HAPPY in Advertising?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,450,186,509,14,504,498,510,511,497,507,514,508,3,513,503,502,176,505,501,506,446,500,512,499,496],"class_list":["post-462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-advertising","tag-agencies","tag-attention","tag-beauty-patch","tag-brands","tag-budweiser","tag-coca-cola","tag-consumer-culture","tag-cortisol","tag-culture","tag-dear-sophie","tag-distress","tag-dove","tag-emotions","tag-empathy","tag-expedia","tag-good-life","tag-google","tag-honda-project-drive-in","tag-india","tag-john-lewis","tag-media","tag-nestle","tag-oxytocin","tag-pg","tag-sadvertising"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":463,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions\/463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}