Time marches on. And as it does, video advertising is marching ahead right along with it. It’s beginning to be an essential piece of every brand. Without a focus on it, you’ll have a lot more trouble succeeding than you would have previously. The key to a great video marketing campaign is capturing the right emotions and presenting them to the viewer. If you’d like to learn how to utilize the emotions of your viewers rather than just throwing videos into the void, well then, go ahead and use that emotion known as curiosity and keep on a reading.

Why Emotion Is So Important to Video Advertising

No one likes to watch a boring video. Unless you’re in bed trying to fall asleep. In which case, it’s a great sleep remedy. On the other hand, if you want to grab a viewer and not let go, creating a video marketing campaign is a bit of  balancing act. One where you need to engage with your viewers on a basic level but also make sure that you’re able to get your point across in a clear manner. Something can be overly exciting, grip the viewer tightly, but still not get the point through clearly. You can also create a video that is just a long transcript of your message but leaves viewers yawning. Not a good idea.

The happy balance, in the middle, is when you spend the time crafting a video that carefully engages the viewer’s emotions. And one that will connect with them on very real and relatable level.

Build a Bond

Your brand is the face of your company and using emotions to ensure that you’re able to bond with your customers is key. Don’t get me wrong, there are many ways to bond with customers but video advertising is one of the best, in my humble opinion. After all, you want to speak directly to the viewer, causing them to feel like they’re part of something in a way that doesn’t feel like advertising. This doesn’t just apply to things like making your brand stand for a cause. The bond can be much simpler than that used by larger brands where various products end up tied to various causes. You just need to make the viewer feel like their purchase makes them part of something. It needs to make a believable, truthful connection with them. That’s the basis of forming a very powerful bond that can be used in your video advertising campaigns.

What Emotions Work the Best?

We’re not psychologists here. We’re ad folk. But we’ll give it our best shot with some good old common sense. Obviously, not all emotions work well when you’re trying to use them in your campaigns. Evoking anger, for instance, isn’t going to help matters when you’re looking to make sales. The feelings which are most often invoked in successful marketing campaigns are:

  • Happiness
  • Friendship
  • Inspiration

These feelings are generally positive and are the easiest to use. They create a positive emotional association with your brand and can inspire people to buy what you’re selling. More touchy, but still usable, are negative emotions. Think about those overly sad ASPCA ads, through the use of music and imagery they inspire a feeling bad enough even the singer can’t seem to make it through them. But they’ve also inspired a lot of donations to the cause because of that. Anger is most often used in political campaigns, where people can be made aware of issues that they want to vote against. Even disgust is sometimes used as a manipulative emotion to discourage negative behavior like smoking.

Needless to say, the emotions you use are essential to your brand. Once you’ve decided on a tactic it’s going to become an vital part of branding yourself and effect your campaigns for quite some time moving forward. The emotional bonds formed through the use of emotion are a lasting strategy, not a one-off.

How to Use Emotions in Your Campaigns

But how do you use emotions in your video marketing? Well, for many people, the front-end strategy revolves around hiring someone with a background in making videos to do it. But you can do a good job yourself provided you think through all the primary aspects of your videos.

The Script

The script is important, of course, but it’s not going to be the sole factor in making sure that you’re grasping the emotions you want the audience to feel. Indeed, it can be less important than many think as long as it’s primarily on message. Overly bad writing can lead an ad to be lampooned, but a decent script is probably the easiest part of keeping things moving forward.

Music

Music is one of the big factors when you’re trying to get the right emotion across. I’ve always been a huge proponent of deeply researching and finding that perfect piece of music. It can be so very, very powerful and moving.  It’s not only the music playing in the background either, but it’s also the way that the music swells or fades as the script goes through its key points. Here’s a few examples we did. For Intrepid, we chose music that was irreverent and motivating that captured the essence of the maverick nature of the brand. Conversely, for The Homefront Foundation, we were addressing a very serious and heartfelt emotion and that music reflected the messages that were coming across in the video.

Cinematography and Editing

The focus on your cinematography is a make-or-break element of your ad. Good cinematography can make a mediocre script evoke whatever emotion you want. Bad cuts and sloppy edits can make an ad a complete laughing stock. Which is why most people hire experienced folks to handle their video advertising. Editing is another key. While it seems obvious you’d be surprised at how many people overlook the editing process and just slouch their way through it.

The Big Picture

Always make sure that you use a focus group for an ad before running it on your website or YouTube channel. If you don’t have the funds, then run it by some friends and family to see how it makes them feel. The overall picture presented should be in harmony with the feelings you’re trying to invoke when they think about your brand.

Create a Brand to Remember

When it comes to video advertising the biggest key to making your campaign a win is the emotional focus. Without it, you’ll be left with something bland or generic. There’s a lot to be said for doing things yourself. But… there’s more to be said for using a time-tested professional to handle your branding in its entirety. I hope this was helpful and please, by all means, check out some of our previous work and see if we’re the right fit for you.