Personal and Company Branding: Emotional Super Bowl Ads Fail to Connect

In personal and company branding, emotional branding is marketing communications that connect your unique value proposition with the emotional needs and aspirations of your target market. Emotional communications without that connection may feel good, but they will not significantly increase your bottom line. 

The emotionally impactful commercials were some of the big winners in the Super Bowl advertising contests. The Jeep ad with Oprah’s voice-over took the top prize.  But, will it sell Jeeps? While Oprah’s message was heartfelt it said nothing about the Jeep’s specific value proposition (as distinct from its closest competition) and how it can satisfy the needs and aspirations of its customers. 

Budweiser has been using Clydesdale horses in 23 Super Bowl ads since 1986. In this year’s ad a horse was reunited with its trainer.  It packed a wallop of emotion, but how will that sell more of this brand of beer? What about newcomers to these ads, those with zero connection to the previous horse ads—will they get why they should drink Bud vs. Coors in 60 seconds? If you cannot view the video below click here.

“The Ram and the farmer” was another emotional branding winner.  It told a good story, but the story did tell not tell Ram’s target audience anything about what makes Ram different and better from a Ford. 

In our pre-game Super Bowl post on the 2014 Mercedes CLA commercial we highlighted how the ad brilliantly communicated how the car could satisfy the most pressing needs and aspirations of its target market.  In just a few seconds it established this MBZ model as a direct competitor of BMW and Audio who also target a younger demographic with certain models. It did so by revealing its affordable price tag. 

Personal and company branding is precision communication that compels your target market to do business with you vs. your competition. Evoking emotions through your marketing communications can accelerate and strengthen the connection between you and your ideal clients. But, that can only occur if you first communication your unique promise of value and how your brand can satisfy their priority needs and aspirations.