In this week’s post, I will discuss some of the key lessons that I learned from our reading on designing persuasive messages. Specifically, one of the things that I appreciated from our reading this week was the discussion on how to create viral advertising (Dafonte-Gomez, 2014, et al.). Based on our reading, I think that when it comes to viral advertising, there are a couple of key qualities that make messages persuasive.
First of all, “it’s all in the positioning” (Klara, 2009, par. 10). In other words, communication practitioners can’t just throw a message together at random, send it out to the entire world, and hope it sticks with someone. This tactic never works. Rather, if communication practitioners want to persuade people to action, they have to take the time to study out what their product or service is, who it’s for, and how to best craft a message that will resonate with the right audience.
This is important to remember because people come from many different lifestyles, races, cultures, social situations, backgrounds, political views, and economic circumstances (Grier & Brumbaugh, 1999, p. 80-83; Parente & Strausbaugh-Hutchinson, 2015, p. 54, 57, 60-69). As a result, people have many different ways of processing and responding to a message. They also have a wide variety of wants and needs (Austin & Pinkleton, 2015, p. 264, 275).
For example, five years ago, I had no reason to buy children’s clothes or toys. The thought of doing so never even crossed my mind because I was single. However, since I got married in 2017 and had my first child in 2018, I’ve bought quite a few children’s clothes and toys because my lifestyle circumstances have changed. In short, the more that a communication practitioner knows how to position their products and services toward the right audience, the more persuasive their messages will become and the more people they will be able to reach (Klara, 2009, par. 10).
The second quality that makes a message persuasive is emotion. According to Forbes, people are exposed to an estimated 4,000 to 10,000 ad messages per day (Simpson, 2017, par. 3). As a result, people don’t have time to read or remember every message they interact with in their lives. This means that if a communication practitioner wants to get a persuasive message out to a group of people, they have to do a lot more than just throw random words on a page or a screen.
Rather, communication practitioners need to consider that “the emotional tone of [a message] is directly related to attitudes and intentions” (Dafonte-Gomez, 2014, p. 3). This occurs because emotions are made up of cognitive, positive, negative, behavioral, and physiological components, which guide and influence people’s actions (Stiff & Mongeau, 2016, p. 185). The more that communication practitioners learn to inject emotions such as “surprise, fear, sadness, happiness,” and so forth into their messages, the more their audiences will connect with and share those messages with others. This is especially the case if a message speaks to a person’s emotions of happiness and surprise (Dafonte-Gomez, 2014, p. 3-4, 6-8).
For example, when I first saw the viral video, “What Does the Fox Say?” back in 2013, I remember that it really stuck out to me as a very entertaining video. In fact, it still sticks out to me as an entertaining video today. The reason why I find this video to be so interesting is that the artists convey the emotion of surprise by singing about the random topic of what sound foxes make and by dancing around in goofy costumes. They also convey the emotions of happiness and excitement by signing and dancing to a very upbeat tune. Because of this video’s unique style of humor, I’ve been persuaded to share it with many people since I first saw it back in 2013 (Dafonte-Gomez, 2014, p. 3, 6-7; Dplay Norge, 2013, et al.).
References:
Austin, E. W., & Pinkleton, B. E. (2015). Strategic Public Relations Management: Planning and Managing Effective Communication Programs. New York, NY: Routledge.
Dafonte-Gomez, A. (2014). The Key Elements of Viral Advertising. From Motivation to … Retrieved November 14, 2020, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272700200_The_Key_Elements_of_Viral_Advertising_From_Motivation_to_Emotion_in_the_Most_Shared_Videos.
Dplay Norge (Director). (2013, September 3). Ylvis – The Fox (What Does The Fox Say?) [Official music video HD] [Video file]. Retrieved November 16, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofNR_WkoCE.
Grier, S. A., & Brumbaugh, A. M. (1999). Noticing Cultural Differences: Ad Meanings Created by Target and Non-Target Markets. Journal of Advertising, 28(1), 79–93. doi: 10.1080/00913367.1999.10673578.
Klara, R. (2009). Caution: Fear Mongering May Be Hazardous to Your Brand. Brandweek, 50(43), 34.
Parente, D. E., & Strausbaugh-Hutchinson, K. L. (2015). Advertising campaign strategy: a guide to marketing communication plans (5th ed.). South Melbourne, Victoria: Cengage Learning.
Simpson, J. (2017, August 25). Council Post: Finding Brand Success In The Digital World. Retrieved November 15, 2020, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/08/25/finding-brand-success-in-the-digital-world/?sh=5c51dd9a626e.
Stiff, J. B., & Mongeau, P. A. (2016). Persuasive Communication (Third ed.). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
