Mele’s Musings

Making Emotional Connections with Users is Not About Ads Anymore

In a recent article on iMedia, the author makes a case for how brands can make an emotional connection with consumers online.  The author’s take on it?  It’s about making ads more targeted and more relevant.  The writer’s premise is that we all can recall memorable TV campaigns, but not online campaigns because we are not taking advantage of the right ad formats or technology in delivering ads.

Unfortunately, I think all of us in the advertising business are missing the point.  As people are deluged by ads and digital connectedness (read this article on the real-time web if you want to feel totally overwhelmed and stressed out), the impact of advertising is getting diluted to the point where it is almost totally background noise.

Honestly, tell me the last time you saw an ad - on TV, online, anywhere - that you made an “emotional connection with” in which the emotion was something other than annoyance or frustration.  If you make any connection with an ad - you thought it was funny, or you thought it was poignant - that connection is fleeting and temporary.  Ultimately, the experience is transitory, and the time and expense spent on it likely wasteful.

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I am not saying that ads are not valuable.  Ads are very valuable, in particular for driving actions, in creating awareness, in delivering targeted communication.

What I am saying is that trying to make “emotional connections” with ads is a fool’s errand.  Yes, you may get a response out of people in a focus group or survey, but it is not a lasting impact.

Emotional responses are not created in ads.  They are created in meaningful experiences.

Think about this from a business point of view.  How many people blog, write reviews, or get all fussed up about ads?  Compare that to the people who blog, write reviews, or get all fussed up about good or bad products, about good or bad retail experiences, about good or bad restaurants. No comparison.

Brands that understand this are starting to pay much more attention to experiences than they are to ads.  They are using digital to create new products and services for customers.  They are using digital to create new tools, apps, and experiences for customers.  They are improving their websites.  They are finding new ways to offer customer service.

A great example of that came out this past week.  Starbucks introduced its new iPhone App which is a beautiful fusing of technology and marketing.  What Starbucks gets is that marketing is not just advertising.  In fact, for Starbucks, it’s mostly NOT advertising.  It’s about creating meaningful experiences for consumers.  Experiences that consumers CONNECT with.

All the ads in the world would not have made Starbucks the company it is today.  The cup, the store layout, the coffee, the logo -they all play together to make an emotional impact on their customers.  Ads can reinforce the point, they can lead users to desire to experience the brand, but they are the conduit to the emotion, not the creator of it.

Ads can lead users to emotional connections, but they don’t create emotional connections, except in vary rare cases.

Our job as digital marketers is to figure out how to create experiences that are meaningful for consumers. If we think our job is to make really good ads, or really good ad experiences, we have missed the point.

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