Emotional Advertising, Digital Effectiveness, & Using Pinterest For Serious Brand Growth

Marketers tend to use both emotional messaging and rational, product-focused messaging to try and drive effectiveness. There’s often a perception that rational messaging works best in the short-term and emotional advertising and messaging works better in the long run. But our research – as highlighted in Mark Ritson’s recent column – shows that emotional advertising using strong stories and characters can often smash short-term goals too. The lines are often blurred.

To understand what drives more ad recall, favorability and action intent towards a brand, System1 and Pinterest took a deeper dive into different types of ads running on the platform to understand how their look, messaging and emotional content impacts effectiveness.

A Brief History Of Emotional Appeal In Advertising… In a Digital World

Emotional appeal in advertising has been a cornerstone of effective marketing for decades; that much is no secret. 

• Early on, brands realized that tapping into emotions – whether joy, fear, nostalgia, or love – creates a powerful, lasting connection with consumers. But as the digital age reshaped the landscape, the way brands utilize emotional appeal in advertising has evolved.
• In the early days of TV, for instance, emotional advertising focused on creating relatable, story-driven narratives that resonated on a human level. But as digital platforms emerged, the ability to personalize ads opened new opportunities to refine emotional appeal in advertising. 
• Today, social media and platforms like Pinterest allow advertisers to combine emotional storytelling with targeted precision, driving engagement with specific audiences.
• Brands now use data-driven insights to craft campaigns that evoke a more powerful emotional appeal in advertising, tailored to different demographics. 
• With the rise of digital formats such as video, dynamic content, and interactive ads, marketers can create more immersive experiences that evoke real-time emotional responses.

In this changed landscape, emotional appeal in advertising remains more relevant than ever – offering brands the opportunity to build trust, foster loyalty, and drive meaningful connections in an increasingly digital world.

Putting Digital Emotion to the Test

The study is in two parts. First, we used Pinterest’s own Brand Lift studies to understand how the look of emotional advertising impacts consumers. We looked at 36 CPG studies for beauty, food, beverages, pet food and OTC products. Each study measured three metrics: Pin awareness (ad recall), Favorability and Action Intent. About half focused on just the product – rational messages – and half focused on the lifestyle around it – emotional messages.

Second, we needed to understand the emotions the ads elicit. To accomplish this, we tested 50 emotional advertising examples with System1’s Test Your Ad platform. Test Your Ad gives us not only the types of emotion people feel (like happiness, surprise and sadness) but how intensely they feel those emotions. These let us uncover the relationship between the emotional reaction and brand KPI outcomes like ad recall and action intent on Pinterest.

Connecting the Digital Dots Between Emotional Appeals in Advertising

So what did we find out?

First, product-oriented ads drove slightly higher ad recall lifts, whereas emotional advertising and lifestyle campaigns are better at changing opinions (+73% brand favorability lifts) and driving intent (x1.5 action intent lifts).

This makes intuitive sense. Putting the product at the forefront of the ad makes it easier to remember the brand. Showcasing how it’s used and the emotions and experiences around it makes people more likely to feel good about the brand and want to buy it.

Things get really interesting though when we combine these findings with the Test Your Ad results – Star Rating (predicting long-term potential) and Spike Rating (predicting short-term potential). Both these measures involve emotional intensity – how strongly emotional an ad feels, and this turns out to be vital for digital effectiveness.

We found that Pins with an emotional look (storytelling and lifestyle focus) and feel (emotional intensity is high) result in a 75% higher lift in action intent.

But Pins with a rational look (product focused) but emotional feel (emotional intensity is high) result in a 140% higher action intent lift.

In other words, even with more product-based messaging, you can achieve huge uplifts in effectiveness by making sure you’re on trend, relevant and creating a strong emotional response in the consumer. Emotional intensity is the rocket fuel that gives any kind of ad its lift.

We also looked at how positive emotion moves the digital needle. If a Pin achieved an above average Star Rating we saw a 20% higher lift in ad recall and a massive 6 times higher lift in consumer action (Brand Lift).

So on digital as elsewhere, your sweet spot for driving consumer action is intense positive emotion.

We also saw positive effects from System1’s Spike Rating (short-term sales potential) and Fluency Rating (brand recognition). Spike Rating correlated strongly with greater uplifts in Pin awareness, and Fluency was associated with effectiveness lifts across the funnel. Strong branding and rapid recognition help lift every important metric.

We analyzed 50 Pins to see what impact these features have on effectiveness. The results are powerful. Pins with higher than average right-brain features, and lower than average left-brain features, caused a 90% increase in brand favorability.

In the case of Pinterest, the specific right-brain features that work particularly well are characters with real emotions, recognizable places, humor and scenes unfolding. All these boost Pinners’ approval of brands. But words obstructing the imagery, abstracted body parts or product features and flat backgrounds are creative passion-killers.

As Orlando commented:

“We know that ‘right-brained’ creative is more likely to achieve brand trust, so it is no surprise to see ‘right-brained’ advertising also generate greater brand favourability on Pinterest. Why does this matter? Because we also know that brand trust is becoming an increasingly important indicator of strong business outcomes.”

What Do the Best Emotional Marketing Strategies Look Like?

The best emotional marketing strategies and market research tap into the deep connections between raw emotion and decision-making, driving both immediate sales and long-term brand loyalty. Successful campaigns evoke strong, positive emotional responses that create memorable experiences for consumers. Here are a few key techniques:

1. Storytelling: Emotional ads that tell compelling stories connect brands to everyday experiences, making the ad relatable and emotionally engaging.
2. Human Emotion: The best emotional marketing techniques show real, raw emotional content through characters, humor, and recognizable scenarios that resonate with audiences.
3. Positive Emotional Appeal: Ads that emphasize positivity – joy, inspiration, or hope – consistently outperform those that trigger negative emotions. They build emotional connections and increase brand favorability.
4. Consistency & Authenticity: Aligning the emotional messaging with your brand’s authentic values helps to build trust and emotional connections with consumers over time.

For optimal results, measure the effectiveness of your emotional ads with Test Your Ad, to understand their impact on brand perception and ensure they drive meaningful engagement.

Our Key Takeaways On Digital Emotional Messaging

• Make sure promoted Pins are relevant for the audience, with messages that resonate and references to culture.
• Align the content with the context of Pinterest users’ search, trends and interests.
• Keep a varied range of situations on your emotional advertising campaigns’ creatives to increase the likelihood of triggering emotions and avoid fatigue.
• Build assets that are rich in right brain features to increase brand favorability.
• Create campaigns that are positive to increase long-term effectiveness.
• Consistently leverage your brand assets to ensure rapid brand recognition.
• Pre-test your emotional advertising to understand how people will feel about them, and in turn how they will perform on digital channels.

Want to learn more about emotional advertising and our research with Pinterest? Get in touch!

FAQ Summary: Emotional Advertising for Digital Ad Effectiveness

What is emotional advertising?

Emotional advertising uses emotional appeal in advertising to create a connection with consumers, triggering emotions like happiness, sadness, or nostalgia to boost engagement and brand recall.

Why is emotional appeal in advertising important?

Emotional appeal in advertising increases engagement, strengthens brand perception, and drives consumer action by triggering emotional responses that connect audiences to your brand.

How does emotional advertising affect brand recall?

Emotional ads generate strong memory structures, leading to higher brand recall and increased sales. Emotional intensity drives more long-term and short-term brand recognition.

Can emotional advertising boost sales?

Yes, emotional advertising techniques trigger immediate actions and build long-term brand loyalty, both of which contribute to stronger sales and brand growth.

What makes an emotional marketing strategy successful?

Successful emotional marketing strategies leverage storytelling, real emotions, and right-brain creative features to create positive emotional connections with consumers.

How do emotions drive ad effectiveness?

Emotions engage the brain’s right hemisphere, making emotional content more memorable and impactful, increasing ad effectiveness across various digital channels.

Sources:

1) Reach3, Path to Purchase Study, UK, March ’22, among monthly Pinners who purchased product in at least one category vs people on competing social platforms.
2) Talkshoppe, US, Emotions, Attitudes & Usage Study, Sept ’18.