Guest Post | Make Your Marketing An Experience Not An Ad

This week we have Graeme Newell from 602 communications speaking on how to make your marketing an experience and not an ad. As he shares, every once in awhile you see an ad that really moves you and you plug into it emotionally, that’s a quality that a lot of marketing is missing but is key. Read more of his tips below!

Once in a while, you see an ad that really moves you. It manages to shake off the feature-obsessed blather of the typical advertising noise and speaks to an emotion deep inside us. This New Zealand public service announcement leaves this kind of mark because it speaks to our deepest fears about a traffic accident, and our compassion for people who have been hurt. But what makes this testimonial ad so powerful is that it is frighteningly real. This is a quality that most marketing lacks.

The problem is that a lot of marketing creators begin with “let me tell you about my product,” when they should start with “tell me how you feel about yourself when you experience my product.” That New Zealand ad worked because it was firmly grounded in the customer’s core emotional priorities, not a laundry list of driving safety priorities.

The safety message was interwoven into a heart-wrenching drama that had you on the edge of your seat. All of us have experienced that close call in traffic and felt the same mortal fear. The ad producer started her creative process here and built the message from raw customer emotion up, not safety messaging down.

Always Assume the Audience Will Doubt Your Claims

This is the greatest challenge of customer ads – to be believed. We doom marketing to failure because we begin the creation process with copy points, not real experiences. Most companies are so proud of their own products they assume the entire world will be equally enamored.

Great marketing will showcase passionate people talking about things that matter to them most – family, safety, health, success, etc. Your product must be a supporting player to one of these core emotional feelings or it will fall flat. Your product must join a customer conversation that speaks to the prospect’s deepest passion, not their shopping list.

Great marketing requires putting the product in its proper place – in service to the customer. It should not be the centerpiece of the marketing, but a supporting player that helps real people fulfill their deepest hopes. Don’t let the love of your own product cloud your judgment.

About the Author

Graeme Newell works for 602 Communications as a speaker and marketing researcher. He specializes in sales strategies using emotional marketing.

Categorised in: Content Marketing, Guest Blogs, Thoughtful Thursdays