Contents
The reasons you get excited about Christmas announcements
Psychology
A review of the springs that advertising creatives seek to touch when developing their Christmas campaigns reveals that emotion is their main resource
Companies that emotions remain powerful tools for brands in a globalized context where the need to differentiate. “Years ago it was easier to detect what advertisers call the ‘unique selling proposition’ or unique selling proposition that wanted consumers to choose that product instead of the competition’s. But every day there are more similar products and services and also the offer is multi-channel and global, which multiplies the options. For this reason, brands have long sought to differentiate themselves through advertising by appealing to feelings and emotions, both positive and negative, ”reveals Silvia Sivera, Director of the Master of Strategy and Creativity in Advertising at the UOC.
What is behind the emotions aroused by Christmas advertisements such as the Christmas Lottery, Campofrío, Ruavieja, Ikea, Coca-Cola or El Almendro, among others? As the advertising expert explains, studies show that both negative and positive emotions work, although in reality the key to success is that they are effective and powerfulBecause “We remember what we feel, whether it has made us happy or hurt us”. Thus, brands try to arouse interest by appealing to emotions that we can easily remember. And on these dates they also do it in an ideal breeding ground, which is the Christmas context, that is, in a time when feelings arise as families and friends gather, those who are no longer there are remembered and a balance is made of the good and the bad of life.
Perhaps in some cases it may seem that success came by chance or came because the flute sounded, but the truth is that behind most of the Christmas advertisements of the big brands there is research and thoughtful studies that seek to detect what are those triggers of emotion and what moves us inside. «Each brand is discovering its own filones studying their ‘consumer insights’, which are the needs, habits, desires, tastes and concerns of your potential buyers. They try to put themselves in their shoes and develop communication channels that allow the brand to connect with the person through stories that respond to those needs ”, according to the UOC expert. A clear example is that of Christmas Lottery announcements which for several years has appealed to similar emotions although with different nuances, different slogans and different concepts. But deep down, as the expert reveals, they have discovered that it works for them to appeal to a specific emotion, which is need to share.
When it comes to specifying the most common emotions in Christmas advertisements, the psychologist Laura Fuster, a psychologist at the Center for Cognitive Behavioral Psychology in Valencia, explains that they usually appeal to emotions related to the happiness, love, faith and justice. Thus, it stands out that a large part of these advertisements refer to the family and loved ones (reunions or people who reconcile), at the melancholy (childhood memories or happy moments), to justice (they show a humble and troubled winner and we automatically think that he deserves it and that it is fair), to the generosity (we see people who share) and the fe (They make it seem easy for something good to happen, even if it’s unlikely).
For the expert, one of the main attractions of this type of ads is that, in such a changing world, we are comforted to have Routines associated with positive emotions. “In the Christmas ads everything is easy: a reconciliation, a reward, the resolution of a problem … However, in real life you have to work hard to make a relationship work or to keep a job,” says Fuster.
But then, does the «Buenrollismo»? As stated by the UOC professor, Silvia Sivera, in recent years the number of interest in realism. “The consumer is intelligent and one way to show them that we are aware of their intelligence is not to sell them motorcycles. Inconsistency and falsehood are quickly detected. There are realities that are undeniable (unemployment, retirement, divorces, losses …). That is why we try to make the connection with the audience as honest as possible. Real or plausible situations have to be portrayed, which can show what consumers experience on a day-to-day basis and that is the trend, ”he clarifies.
The objective, in any case, is the sale, especially in seasonal products such as the Christmas Lottery, sweets, nougat, sausages … etc.
The perfect context
Psychologist Laura Fuster says that the marketing world has been able to capture the consumer predisposition to be interested in values such as generosity, love, family or happiness. In fact, the expert is convinced that over the years they have managed to generate expectations and create interest. So much so that many people anticipate that they will need the tissue pack before seeing them. «The fact that they activate common emotions makes them have an impact on almost everyone. In addition, this effect will be greater for those people who have lived through a particularly hard year, due to the recent death of a relative, for example, “he says.
Do we prefer happy endings?
The advertising expert affirms that if a decade ago open endings were more frequent (and even became fashionable), which were barely understood, today the endings are closed and clear, because advertisers take great care that what they want to transmit is understood one hundred percent. “The imprecise or indefinite endings that some firms allowed themselves in times of fat cows had their risks because those types of riskier campaigns can generate noise and conversation, but they do not always do it in the way that suits the brand. Even the consumer can draw conclusions against the message that you want to convey, ”reveals Sivera.
How do you get the advertising virality? What are their creative common denominators? The Director of the Master of Strategy and Creativity in Advertising at the UOC, whose thesis deals precisely with this subject, started in her analysis of the hypothesis that we make advertising viruses spread in the same way that certain rumors are spread. He studied the phenomenon based on the rumor formula (Importance x Ambiguity) and concluded that 47% of the sample of ads analyzed contained ambiguous messages, but that this was not an inalienable factor, so he studied the concept of importance based on what he called “viral strains” in order to identify these creative patterns . Curiously, one of the indisputable creative patterns was the emotion. «We share content that excites us and also content that amuses us or makes us smile or laugh. In short, we like to get excited and make us laugh, “he reveals.