Telling you that Company X sells you the best product in the world is an order you can either choose to believe or not, but telling you that Company X sells happiness – well, who wouldn’t want to buy?
The trend in advertising towards manifest statements, claiming that your brand motivates feeling rather than point of sale transaction, might not seem immediately intuitive. After all, at the end of the day brands try to move product more than anything, right?
But then there’s brand affinity. Think on how you feel when you hear the term “Netflix.” It reminds you of watching content you want, perhaps for too long of a period of time, in the comfort of your own home. You aren’t necessarily thinking about a company with an office and advanced tech that offers streaming worldwide. Rather, you are associating that with emotion, how you feel when you watch. Far down the line of things you are thinking about is probably that monthly billing that Netflix charges; it’s worth the comfort and convenience.
The same thing holds true for The Lift’s co-conspirators fairly often. Take Coca-Cola for instance. Coca-Cola is one of the great legacy brands, and for the past several years (at least), Coca-Cola has made a business of transmitting happiness over soft beverage. Coca-Cola’s advertising reinforces their historical standing, their prominence in your daily life, but even more the power that they can transmit to you. You open up a bottle of Coca-Cola and you’re happy. You have it at your gatherings where everything is joyous. Inherently, you might retain that feeling next time you are at the grocery store.
We have been lucky enough to work with fantastic brands who implement this strategy genuinely (see Coca-Cola, Jugos del Valle, Twitter, or Under Armour for reference). There are many brands who attempt this feat and it feels like pandering. But we’d be hard-pressed to say we didn’t enjoy the products of these clients and look forward to making more work of this ilk in the future.
In the meantime, enjoy some of our favorites below!