Video tugs at the heart
Have you ever watched a movie and found yourself smiling, crying or even crying tears of joy when the character on the screen is?
I’ll never forget watching the end of Captain Phillips. Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) is finally in the safety of the US Navy aboard the USS Bainbridge and is receiving medical care. Everything that has happened to him over the last couple days is hitting him. He is in shock; stuttering and crying. It makes me tear up every time. The emotion that is displayed by actor Tom Hanks, the camera acts as if you were in the room, the score rises from a soft piano to a full orchestra as the shock and the full weight of what has happened washes over him.
It is powerful and unforgettable.
There is a reason we get emotional as we watch this. They are called mirror neurons. Neurons in your brain that fire similarly to how you would react if you were in the same situation. We show empathy when someone else is hurting, we laugh when others are, we get angry with a friend even though we have no fight in the situation.
Research shows that when this emotional response takes place our brains release a chemical called oxytocin. This chemical helps us form empathy which leads to an emotional connection. An emotional connection that leads to a connection and even trust. Campaigns with purely emotional content have shown to perform twice as well versus campaigns with only rational content.
We can all probably remember at least one Budweiser commercial. I believe the reason for that is because they have been using mirror neurons and ocytocin for years! It only took one search in Youtube (Budweiser Commercial) for a commercial that makes you laugh and one that tugs at the heart.
Budweiser is only one of the many. Businesses have known this and have been capitalizing on it for years.
Next time you think about marketing, think about video and how you can make your audience laugh, cry, or maybe even get angry. When you can create an emotional connection, you’ll double your results.
