Heart and head: how to use emotion & facts in your brand video

30th April 2016

Are you a right-brain person or a left-brain person? As a general rule, the left side tends to control language and logic while the right handles spatial information and visualisations. Facts vs emotion. However it’s not quite as simple that as the left and right brain collaborate and work together. That’s how we see emotion and facts working in video marketing too.

It’s important to start your video with an emotional hook whether your brand is B2B or B2C. Then follow up with the logical argument (s) why your brand would work for the viewer and then end on emotional call to action.

Of course, one person’s emotional cue is another person’s reason to click onto the next video. Ensure that your video content is keying into the motivators of your audience. Will this make them happier, their life easier, help them get a promotion, help educate their kids… ?

In this article, I’ll go through a few examples from the verticals we often work with.

Logistics gets emotional with video

As brands move towards a publishing model, it is important to think about high quality content that will engage your audience as well as advertising. In this vein, UPS also partners with TED Talks to show how logistics impacts world problems, again combining the emotional with hard facts.

Automotive Marketing

Automotive marketing is much more in touch with its emotions. The Fiat Chrysler “Dad Brand” video series puts a spin on it. In order to reposition the minivan as not just for “soccer moms”, this brand opted for humour and fronted the campaign with an “everyman” character played by comedian, Jim Gaffigan. Chief Marketing Officer, Olivier Francois said:

“A minivan is very much sold on its features, and I want Jim to explore all of the features one by one. I am not going to sell it on emotions. I am going to sell it on features, on reliability, on safety, on innovation.”

However, the video series does play on emotions by making us laugh. The features would not stand out and engage without the emotional play on family life and how’s it’s represented by TV ads.

Engineering Videos

Engineering as a process may not excite, but what engineering can achieve is exciting and engaging. General Electric as oft-cited as experts at this, and for good reason. The brand’s video suite whether on YouTube or social video formats such as Vine and Periscope, mixes emotion and fact perfectly. Take their “Impossible Missions” series, where they make the impossible happen.

This series mixes hard science with the emotional thrill of the challenge. Here’s one of the videos where they try to send a snowball to hell and bring it back. The video shows GE’s expertise, advanced technology through an engaging story with filmic music and tension, where you want to know the outcome. It ends on the emotional, aspirational tagline “Imagine the other impossible things we can do”.

Medical & Health Video Marketing

In the medical and health sector, brands can connect emotionally through patient stories. But it’s also worth thinking about your brand’s impact on practitioners. Can you show an HCP how your device could help them save money? Will surgeons be driven by your product’s impact on their success rates?

Let’s look at an example from Nuffield, which combines emotion and fact throughout their video marketing content. Watch this film which takes us on a journey inside the heart.

We go through the process of a patient having an angiogram focusing on the human story but also shows the audience what to expect from their services. The narrative is resolved by them showing that his heart is clear. It ends on the patient with the emotional strapline for the love of life. In terms of emotion and fact, this video pushes more to the factual, where they could have opted for a more emotional story to drive the message home.

“Small Victories” is much more emotional and really gets into the mind of the audience. It reaches out to the ordinary people showing how exercise should be based on personal targets.

It tells lots of small stories within the film as well as showing all the features of Nuffield gyms.

Again, thinking like a publisher, Nuffield also shares useful content for its audience. Take this exercise video.

Financial services and banks marketing

Lloyds TSB has brought its iconic brand black horse back with its latest emotional ad “For Your Next Step” following the success of its 250th anniversary ad. The financial services industry are still reeling from the financial crises and need to re-gain the public’s trust, and this ad goes firmly back to brand values. The factual part comes in towards the end of the video with the voiceover saying “this is real life” associating life stages with finances. It ends on an emotional strapline that they will always be by customers’ sides.

To cover the factual side of things, they also have useful tips materials such as the summer security tips below.

The formula for awesome content for B2B and B2C brands

To help brands create better content, I’ve developed a formula (EFD)i x S. To find out how to use this content formula, come along to my workshop on Tuesday 10 May from 6.30 to 8pm at WeWork Aldgate – Harnessing the power of Storytelling through video in association with the General Assembly. I hope you can make it. If not, sign up to our newsletter for information on upcoming webinars.

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