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Did you know that nearly 95% of Google’s revenue comes from online advertising? The average consumer is served up over 1,700 banner ads per month, yet only 50% of them are ever viewed. What is it that makes some ads capture one’s attention, and others go by the wayside? Genius Monkey knows, as we grasped the concept of multifaceted online ads way before the recent findings were released, proving what we already knew.
To be successful in their marketing efforts, it’s imperative that brands and agencies think more about the ads they produce. Depending on their target demographic, it is so important for brands to follow the emotional layout for each ad they put out to the world. It may surprise some that what consumers want is not necessarily what you, the brand, may think they want.
A recent global study was conducted to find out just what brands the online consumers searched for, and what ads they reacted to. It involved more than 5000 subjects, and the results were surprisingly consistent.
Back in the days of traditional advertising, marketers sought after “share of mind.” Brands built their association to revolve around a single idea … one single emotion.
For instance:
- Volvo=Safety
- Jaguar=Speed
- Coke (the cola)=Happiness
- Forbes=Success
- Dove=Soft Hands
- Burger King=Have it Your Way
- McDonald’s=Over 1 Billion Sold
Every time an ad was presented, these specific emotions were hammered into the heads of the listening/watching audiences, always with the goal of instilling just one idea; an idea that that consumers would think of every time they saw the product.
The typical ad executive briefs evolved to aim at one idea … one single unique selling point (USP), and one specific message. “Tell them that we sell the most hamburgers.” “Tell them that we are the ultimate driving machine.” “Tell them in a way that will thrill them.” This method was effective when only television, newspaper, magazines and billboards were the source of getting the word out. But as they say, “That ain’t the case anymore!” These methods are not as effective when it comes to the prevalent online marketing.
People have ceased to engage with advertisements like they used to. Agencies are now striving to create new formats of ads that can literally take over a page, take over the screens on our mobile devices and scream out for the attention of the consumers. Those who are the recipients of this continual screaming have a discovered that they can stop it with a simple installation of an ad blocker-but only if they want to.
Currently, there are many brands that people don’t want to block. The results of polling these thousands of people from around the globe were very telling. They were asked about the brands whose content they actually sought out, and the answers were analyzed in order to discover just what kinds of ads these brands produced that were so effective. The answers were surprisingly consistent with one another. The popular brands were not based on just one “share of mind,” but had multifaceted personalities … looking more to achieve a “share of emotion,” and that particular emotion depended on the targeted demographic.
Some good examples of brands who have caught on to this concept are Victoria’s Secret, whose best-producing ads were actually funny … not sexy. They broadcast the hijinks of their models on Instagram, and bloopers on YouTube. Taco Bell is attractive on Instagram, incredibly funny on Twitter, and inspirational with its online campaigns, such as the Live Mas messages.
In light of these findings, another research project was conducted in order to discover the emotional landscape of the Internet. Advertising aside, what makes the Internet so appealing that laws must be made to keep us from looking at it while driving, or walking across a busy street? The answer proved to be rather elementary.
It turns out that there are four types of emotionally compelling content. They are:
- Funny
- Useful
- Beautiful
- Inspiring
And, sure enough, upon examining the most popular brands, they actually accomplished all four of these elements.
So how does a business like yours rank in engagement? To improve your numbers, you must ask yourself a contemporary set of questions about your targeted audience:
- What types of things do the members of my audience find inspiring, useful, beautiful or funny?
- Where does my audience end up finding that type of content?
- How can I produce this type of quality content that will meet the emotional needs of my audience?
It isn’t necessary to be multinational to be multifaceted. There is a company in the U.K. that has adopted a cult following with content that is anything but predictable. It’s called Rude Health, and it alternates its beautiful images of food with racy humor, rants about the food industry and offers tips for a healthy lifestyle.
The takeaway from this is that brands must create information that customers find interesting and worth discussing and remembering-standing for things that potential customers find valuable to them.
At the end of the day, multidimensionality beats out single-mindedness, and surprises beat out consistency. Genius Monkey has always embraced this concept of emotional needs, and that is why our clients enjoy such success with their ads … only now we have the evidence to prove it!
