Evoke Emotions
From writing article content and social media posts to promotional films and radio commercials, I love the variety of my job. I get to deep-dive into brands to discover the personality woven into the very fabric behind the logo. Working behind the scenes, I’m lucky to learn more about the rationale behind campaigns and brand goals.
This research and understanding takes quite some time. Reading through Tone of Voice documents, flipping through presentations and campaign plans and watching endless commercial content. The more I can consume, the more I can become at one with how the brand likes to be perceived. This enables me to create a clear picture of who they are and how they like to position themselves in their industry.
WHO is the brand?
The language, style and production of content that evokes emotion means developing a brand persona for each campaign. This helps to understand what type of personality the business has. Are they professional and sophisticated, or are they fun and quirky? I like to work with personality traits to describe businesses and develop language, style and musical direction to mirror the traits.
However, I often find that the style of a campaign, commercial or project doesn’t come from any of that research. It comes from understanding who it is aimed at. The brand tone of voice may be helpful, but if, as a writer and producer, I can step into the shoes of the desired target market, I can create content that captures their imagination.
Many brands already have consumer personas they work with when creating umbrella content, but this may differ with each and every commercial or project and requires reworking and consideration each time.
Once we know WHO it is aimed at, we can begin to understand how to create compelling campaigns that convert.
How do we want them to feel?
Of course, the overall aim of commercial content is to convert the listener or viewer into a paying customer. But in order to achieve this successfully, we need to make them feel a certain way.
Emotion Evokes Reaction.
Do we want to excite them? Intrigue them? Bug them? Make them feel nervous? Create a sense of them missing out if they’re not part of it?
Do we want to make them laugh? Do we want to take them back to that special moment in time… Or feel inspired by an exciting possibility in future?
Empowering and emotive content converts consumers.
If we can make the consumer feel, we can empower them to react. It will also enhance the opportunity to remain top of mind.
Many consumers seeing or hearing the content may not be in need of the brand product or service right away (unless they’re a captive audience in-store right now). They’re ‘tomorrow customers’. They’re the largest audience base we have and as they spiral inwards, towards becoming a ‘today customer’ we need to reinforce brand recall. If we can create an emotional reaction, we can increase the likelihood of being the first brand they recall at the moment of decision.
How is emotive content created?
Our emotions are powerful. Ever smelled a particular perfume and it’s taken you back to that special first date? Or heard a song that reminds you of that amazing holiday? Our emotions are powerfully connected to our senses, so the use of colour, texture, music, voice, sound effects and more can capture the mood and evoke any emotion we desire to create.
It starts with the use of the right language. A script and direction that reflects the consumer making them feel understood and empowered. Once this is brought to life by a voiceover that harks back to the brand personality and offers an emotive delivery, we have a great grounding of an effective campaign.
This can then be blended with music, SFX and/or visuals for a powerful cocktail of content that makes the consumer feel, remember and react.
Ready to evoke emotion?
Want to create content that is empowering, engaging and exciting?
