Cannes Lions Winners Demonstrate Best Practices In Using Emotion To Propel Brand

I couldn’t help think Back to the Future when I saw the top winners at the most recent Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the showcase for professionals in the communications industry. This wasn’t because science fiction predominated. Actually, it was quite the opposite. A good number of the prizes went to campaigns that were warm, endearing, human-centric narratives that not only tugged at the heartstrings, but elicited a few tears. (I’ll get to a couple of examples in a minute.) The Back to the Future reaction had more to do with the fact that, as marketers, we’ve been here before. The landscape is very familiar. Emotion has always been a part of building brands and selling products. Cue Don Draper and his Kodak Carousel commercial. Cue AT&T and its iconic “Reach Out and Touch Someone” series of ads. Cue Mean Joe Greene and that little kid with a bottle of Coca-Cola. While the psychological underpinning of emotionally-charged branding is nothing new—connect with people in warm, fuzzy ways and they’ll be likelier to warm to your brand—there are a few market dynamics that are making it a potentially more powerful branding tool than ever before. First of all, as a result of the technological all-on, all-the-time phenomenon, people are spending more time consuming content, not just online, but, yes, on television. In a recent opinion piece in the New York Times about 21st Century Fox’s new chief executive, James Murdoch, media columnist Michael Wolff wrote that, as counterintuitive as it may seem, the last couple of years “have been one of the biggest growth periods in the history of television.” Or, as Murdoch himself vehemently put it, “Look around you, man. It’s television!” Relative to this fact, and my hypothesis, is that it’s no longer necessary to try to craft your tear-inducing brand campaign into 60-second spots, as in television days of yore. Rather, you can take as long as it takes to tell your brand story. People will watch it as long as it is compelling. “Compelling” being the essential factor when it comes to current market dynamics. While people may not watch any given branding effort during a regularly scheduled program, if it hits the right emotional notes—nostalgic, sweet, or funny—they will watch it as a shared social media experience. Fast-forward might be a well-used DVR function, but the share button on social media has changed the ad game in terms of capturing eyeballs after the fact. Exponential numbers of eyeballs. (Remember that “Dove Real Beauty Sketches” campaign a year or so ago? According to YouTube statistics, it’s garnered more than four and a half million shares since its release, and over 114 million views. Obviously, people found it compelling.) In other words, unlocking the magic of social media means your branding initiative must be extraordinary. Mediocre efforts do not get shared. But, back to the Back to the Future reference. Nostalgia, emotion, and poignancy are still powerful ways to propel a brand forward, not only win awards. And, in my opinion, there are three key things to keep in mind if you want success in getting people to get out their handkerchiefs—and their wallets. 1) Make the point of the story a brand differentiator: There’s a beautifully-produced spot for British Airways, over five minutes in duration, that’s about a young man who has moved to America from India. His mum misses him terribly and wants him to come home to visit. One day, as she is preparing food to send to him across the sea, he shows up in her kitchen, unannounced. Tears and laughter abound. Emotionally riveting, absolutely. But, it could have been promoting any airline. If the production is great and the story is poignant, but it could be for any number of competing brands, game over. On the other hand—game on—there’s a beautifully-produced spot for Nike Golf, entitled “Ripple,” that demonstrates how extraordinary athletes serve as role models for the next generation, in this case the powerful influence of Tiger Woods on a young Rory McIlroy. Produced in both one- and two-minute versions, the film culminates with the two competing against each other in a major tournament. This effort is quintessential Nike. Just do it, absolutely. 2) Make the storyline relevant to your brand’s benefit: Among the Cannes Lions winners was “Monty the Penguin," a spot for British retailer John Lewis. It tells the story of a relationship between a little boy, Sam, and his penguin friend, Monty. They’re shown playing happily together all year but, as Christmas approaches, Sam realizes that Monty is missing something that could help make the little penguin’s Christmas perfect. Helping customers make the holidays special for their friends and family ties beautifully to the John Lewis brand promise, which is just one aspect of what makes this branding initiative so winning. That it is genuinely charming, at times funny and others gentle, eliciting all the right feelings, is another.