Emotion rules

What do Oprah, Demi and this brilliantly earnest ginger video blogger have in common? Yep, they all love Susan Boyle, the Britain’s Got Talent warbler from West Lothian who is being touted as the biggest YouTube sensation ever.

The deluge of articles about why she’s the perfect meme – from FreshNetworks’ rather fuzzy declaration that she’s ‘good content’ to the Guardian’s suggestion that she hit the zeitgeist by bringing a dose of rags to riches idealism to a world plunged in economic gloom – are all so much blah: the reason the woman’s hit the WOM trigger is because she stirs up such big fat emotions in us all. I’m as cynical a media consumer as they come; I hate BGT; and I hate jumping on bandwagons; but as I watched the clip I couldn’t stop the goosebumps (no, that wasn’t a tear, it was the wind).

It may sound painfully obvious, but in the midst of trying to spread accurate information, justifications and solutions to problems, and clever, eye-catching images in social media, brands often forget that emotion drives dialogue. In a two-part post about The Structure of Collaboration, Duncan Work reminds us exactly what’s really behind a collaborative conversation:

Feelings are most primal, and hardest to ignore. They are powerful triggers to action, and also trigger cycles of thinking, interpretation and meaning. The “most important facts” then become dominated by whatever triggered the most powerful feelings. Interpretations are heavily influenced by feelings because feelings focus and filter thinking to derive interpretations. The interpretations also loop back to explain or justify the feelings, and to justify the actions that the person has taken or wants to take.

His piece refers to individuals but is fascinating when applied to brands, if we consider how the ‘single consciousness’ of the brand personality can  develop into a ‘collective consciousness’ – a group of advocates participating in, listening to and being listened to by the brand. If a brand doesn’t get the emotional connection right – emotion that is personal, experiential and deeply felt by individual consumers – the way those consumers interpret their information, imagery and actions will be skewed, however clear, pretty or well communicated they are.

Brought into the world on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 and filed under Uncategorized.