• by Matt Gussin , Op-Ed Contributor, December 1, 2016

Great advertising is defined by its ability to form an emotional connection between brand and audience by means of telling a story. Historically, television has been able to drive this emotional response because of its visual format; however, as digital has taken a majority of advertising budget, priorities have shifted to driving metrics and performance—often at the expense of creative storytelling. 

Advertisers have an incredible opportunity to utilize the interactive nature of digital marketing to achieve what television has excelled at.

This is particularly important around the holidays when consumers have a heightened sense of emotion, and purchasing decisions are likely to be influenced by content that inspires happiness. We saw Coke successfully leverage the emotional aspect of the holiday season last year with their “Best Coke Ever” campaign, which showcased six real surprise moments with consumers using personalized Coke bottles. The honest nature of the ad encouraged holiday spirit and truly connected consumers to the brand, a tall order for campaigns competing with thousands of advertisements during the busiest time of the year.

According to eMarketer, total retail sales will increase 3.3% this holiday season over the same period last year, reaching $884.50 billion. And by 2020, eMarketer expects retail m-commerce to represent nearly half of all retail ecommerce sales. Brands have an enormous opportunity during every holiday season to take advantage of consumers’ increased likelihood to buy. The obstacle that many brands face is standing out as Coke was able to do last year. To successfully tap into the emotional side of advertising, brands should be marketing more around consumer mindset and build comprehensive digital and mobile strategies that incorporate the vast amount of data they have at their disposal.

It’s easy for brands and marketers to say, “We want to connect with our audience using emotion,” but it’s another thing entirely to execute. It requires a deep understanding of consumers and audiences that goes beyond what online activity would have us believe. By understanding mindset, marketers can tap into a deeper and more accurate view of their consumer—one that takes into consideration both online and offline data. It is a much more dynamic strategy for brands to lead with, looking at their consumers’ day-to-day lives, the environment they live in, and their emotional disposition—all factors of understanding what intrinsically drives consumer actions at the given moment when an individual is in the optimal mindset to engage. 

Brands that are looking to capitalize on this deeper understanding of consumers must also be able to pin-point moments in real time when emotions are indexing higher throughout the holiday season. With trigger-based marketing, marketers can almost predict these moments and launch targeted campaigns at that exact time. Take, for example, Campbell’s “Snowman” commercial. Launched in 1998, this ad is still a hallmark of the holiday season, evoking positive feelings when a Snowman comes inside to warm up, and turns into a young boy after eating soup. This ad appears almost every year because of its capacity to engage consumers when holiday feelings are running high. Brands like Campbell can track what consumers are most interested in on a day-to-day basis, and with accurate data and technology, deploy advertisements during those pivotal moments.

The holiday advertising rush has become increasingly data-driven over the last few years, and for good reason. Technology has provided marketers with the ability to accurately target audiences and measure campaign effectiveness but these advancements often come at the cost of authenticity and emotional connections with audiences. If brands want to successfully engage their consumers this holiday season, they should look to cross-channel strategies with a deep understanding of mindset at the core, leveraging both data and emotion in their campaigns.