The USP (evil) is dead, long live emotional engagement (good)

The revolution has started ladies and gentlemen. Well, it started many moons ago before I was even born but recently the marketing new thinkers have started to kill off old school thinking, approaches and frameworks. It's like the Rebel Alliance vs The Empire - the young free thinking liberals against the dark, structured orderly conservatives. Never before has the movement towards emotional engagement been so strong. We've just had the Sony trilogy - ending with Bunnies (which yes of course isn’t as good as ‘Balls’ or maybe ‘Paint’ – but the very fact that people are arguing about it is a sensation in itself). We’ve just had Cadbury Gorilla which everyone says has had its day and that it’s cliché to discuss. Far from it. It is a milestone in a new movement to change the creative format for which we work in. Then we have Sony Music Pieces (below).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X3l7mZcfG0

A true gem and echoes Honda Cog. All of this great stuff, none of it selling you a rational reason to purchase with a clumsy USP rammed in there to keep a client happy. What it does do is creates a level of enjoyment, engagement and positive values, all attached to a logo, whether it be concious or subconsious. A far stronger lever towards a brand than any hard sell messaging will achieve. I think the faster we break down the rationale that all work must be based on a rational reason to buy the quicker we can start doing our jobs better.

Of course, there are exceptions to the emotional engagement trend, FMCGs you might argue must be based on USPs, how else will you shift medicine for example. Well, a very successful example is Andrex. It’s USPs are that it’s strong and long. So, what the hell has a puppy got to do with anything?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn4rdTCedGU

But….it works, and Andrex now commands the greatest market share and share of mind in its sector. So you can apply the emotional leverage to FMCGs and it’ll work.

Now a bad example, one from the old school of thinking that is a dying out, British Airways

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUqNDisBi8c

A brand that you could really go to town with in terms of leveraging the engagement levels and based to a degree on a product truth (once upon a time). Now however we see a bunch of people walking around Sydney handing stuff out because……well……that’s what the lovely people of BA do and make you feel like you’ve upgraded. Firstly it’s a very poorly produced piece of film, secondly the idea is really lame and undifferentiating and thirdly it’s a promise that isn’t delivered by the customer experience - when I'm sat in economy being a lowly 'young' planner - I don't feel like I've upgraded at all, I feel like the sooner I can afford to fly with Emirates or Singapore Airways I will. Surely it would be a better job for the agency to advise BA on how to innovate itself before running off to create seriously vanilla advertising.

The above is surely a case to stay well away from such a clinical, structured and frame worked ways of working. We’re talking to human beings who don’t process in rational ways, don’t consume TV footage in rational ways and don’t buy in rational ways. If that’s the case why the hell are we trying to shove rational communication through the medium of TV? Surely that’s a job for online and print where people have actively flagged an interest in information (not that online and print shouldn’t be emotionally engaging - but is the perfect platform to elaborate on a brand image).

Apologies for the long winded and incoherent rant, I just feel that a few agencies have their finger firmly on the pulse right now by actively understanding how human beings work and have a fantastic creative talent. The combination fuses and creates what we’re seeing now which is a colourful revolution against functional and structured advertising.

Start thinking about which ads fall into which camp, it could be an interesting debate in your interviews.

Anton xx