With so many advertisements flooding our screens, it's tough to keep track of the ones worth rewatching. Since 2016 is still just getting started, we thought it was important to take a look at what has been successful in the past year, and one word comes to mind: emotional.
Marketers and advertisers for these businesses below have come together to tug at our heart strings and open our wallets... and it works.
Below, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite examples of video marketing and advertisements that won us over — take a look!
1. Budweiser: Puppy Love
It all started during the 2015 Super Bowl. During an event known for over-the-top theatrics, risqué commercials, and aggressive plays on the field, it may come as a surprise to suggest that anything about the game was emotional.
But think back to the tear-jerker of a Budweiser commercial, “Puppy Love,” and you’ll see what we mean. A heartbroken Clydesdale enlists the help of his friends to bring back a puppy being taken away from the farm. You don’t get much better than that.
2. Android: Friends Furever
Animals and emotions are a winning combination, and Android kept the momentum going with their Friends Furever video, which encouraged viewers to “Be Together.
Not the Same.” The video showed unlikely pairs playing and swimming together, and even feeding one another. If a dog and a dolphin can find common ground (…water?), can’t we all?
3. Extra Gum: The Story of Sarah & Juan
Sometimes, all you need is love. Case in point, Extra Gum and their touching tribute to young love, as documented by memory-filled gum wrappers.
It’s hard to imagine taking something as simple as a gum wrapper and transforming it into a vehicle for storytelling. Not only did Extra do just that, they wildly succeeded in taking a mundane object and turning it into something utterly magical.
4. Toys “R” Us: Exactly What You Wish For
On the heels of the holiday season, you’ve likely already seen a number of ads that pulled at your emotions. Toys “R” Us managed to do this in a thought-provoking way, reminding us that it’s not just fathers serving overseas and missing their families this time of year – there are countless moms out there, too, waiting to come home for the holidays.
5. Sainsbury’s: Mog’s Christmas Calamity
When many people think of the word “emotional,” they automatically think of sadness or nostalgia. But Mog’s Christmas Calamity brings with it a full range of emotions; from utter terror, to shame and guilt, to sadness, and then finally joy.
After a clumsy kitty accidently destroys her family’s home, the neighborhood comes together to make a Merry Christmas for everyone.
Now, there have been lots of other contenders in the emotional marketing space recently — we didn’t forget about John Lewis’ Man on the Moon or Edeka’s Heimkommen — we just don’t have enough Kleenex on hand to get through all of them.
But the main takeaway here is that drawing on people’s emotions works. You remember the commercials that made you feel something, whether that something was good or bad or uncomfortable. Take this lesson and apply it to your own marketing concepts.
As you begin to brainstorm your next campaigns, consider how you’ll get them in front of the right audience, too.
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