About Face: The Secrets of Emotionally Effective Advertising

Contents......Page 10
Introduction......Page 14
Billy Mays and the gift of the gab......Page 22
The variables of voice......Page 23
Seeing what you can’t see......Page 26
What has the most visual stopping power?......Page 28
Going beyond sight and sound into additional media......Page 31
Leveraging sensory contrasts......Page 33
Creative templates that work well......Page 36
Summary......Page 37
How not to waste half your advertising......Page 40
Engagement: what the financial stakes are......Page 42
Advertising’s secret emotional cancer: frustration......Page 43
Overcoming frustration through simplicity......Page 44
Rules for word play......Page 51
Summary......Page 55
Easy does it: the advantages of leveraging what’s familiar......Page 58
The comfort zone: where the familiar is credible and easy to accept......Page 60
Leveraging people’s preference for comfort......Page 63
Taking into account people’s bias against what’s foreign......Page 65
Summary......Page 67
Why faces are special: proof and four well-known reasons......Page 68
Why faces are special: subtle factors highly relevant to advertising......Page 70
From theory to practice: emotional responses to faces......Page 74
True smiles versus social smiles: how heartfelt smiles differ from willed ones......Page 75
The quest for authenticity......Page 77
Criteria for casting appropriately and evaluating performance......Page 78
Summary......Page 82
Did you see it? Recall measures as a house of mirrors......Page 84
Explaining the answers: the gap between recall and how ad retention works......Page 86
Explaining the answers: why ‘Truth’ won and what it means for you......Page 89
Three additional criteria for enhancing ad retention based on how memory works......Page 92
How to avoid the risk of creating unbranded ads......Page 96
Summary......Page 98
The categorical truth: never forget the WIIFM......Page 100
Types of motivations: a serious case of wanting fun food......Page 102
Being on-motivation is essential to effectiveness......Page 105
Redefining industry categories as emotional markets......Page 107
Relevancy created by identifying with the emotions involved......Page 110
Relevancy created by identifying with a brand’s personality type......Page 113
Summary......Page 115
Happiness, Inc.: leveraging the hope that springs eternal......Page 116
The interrelated dynamics of happiness and hope: an advertiser’s checklist......Page 120
A critique of three examples of selling both hope and happiness......Page 122
Behavioural economics and the tension between hope and fear in advertising......Page 125
The missing factor in selling hope: be true to your word(s)......Page 130
Summary......Page 132
Orientation......Page 134
How leading with price can destroy a company’s marketing strategy......Page 135
Problem 2: Become numb to price (devaluing hope)......Page 136
Problem 3: Invites analysis (undercutting emotional engagement)......Page 139
Problem 4: Low-value perceptions (inviting contempt)......Page 140
Problem 5: A price focus distorts purchase choices (dissatisfaction results)......Page 141
Problem 6: Brand loyalty at risk (pride takes a hit)......Page 143
Problem 7: Brand integrity at risk (desperation detected)......Page 144
In contrast, three real solutions to economic hard times and price/value wars......Page 145
Summary......Page 148
Why empathy has become marketing’s new touchstone......Page 150
The struggle to create authentic dialogues: welcome to executive blogging......Page 153
The battle of sexism: offensive gender portrayals......Page 156
The rise of a creative class outside the advertising agency structure......Page 159
Cause marketing: a way to neutralize critics and make new friends......Page 162
Summary......Page 164
The battle between belief and pervasive scepticism......Page 166
Defining the types of advertising......Page 170
What type of advertising is most emotionally persuasive?......Page 172
Time for analysis: what are the implications of these various results?......Page 174
The two ends of the spectrum for creating persuasion......Page 177
Fairness versus desire: fulfilling on practical needs or wants and dreams......Page 179
Desire: it’s all about the three Ps of passion, pleasure and purpose......Page 180
Consistency: nobody’s won over by fickle companies and mono-emotion actors......Page 181
Summary......Page 182
Afterword......Page 184
Notes......Page 188
Picture credits......Page 198
Index......Page 202