Tag Archives: Appraisal Theory

El Gordo Christmas Lottery Sells Sharing Over Winning in Latest Tear Jerker Ad

21 Nov

el-gordo-2016-5     The holiday season’s best ad so far is not for a retail store and it’s not even from the United States.  It’s for Spain’s famous Christmas lottery.   First organized in 1812, the Loteria de Navida is the second longest running national lottery in the world.  At more that 2B euros, it’s also the largest.  

     The chance of winning the giant prize, the El Gordo, is a prime motivator to buy tickets.  But in recent years, the lottery has pushed the selling of multiple tickets holding the same number so more people can share in the prize.  Sharing has become part of the culture.  Families, offices, even neighborhood bars now buy group tickets.

     This is where advertising firm Leo Burnett Madrid steps in.  For the past three years it has created the Christmas Lottery ad campaign based on the idea of sharing.  This year’s ad centers around a retired school teacher named Carmina who mistakenly watches a rerun of last year’s draw and thinks she’s won the prize.  Rather than disappoint her, Carmina’s family plays along and creates an elaborate charade.  In the end, they are the ones who are surprised. 

 

appraisal-theory-el-gordo-001

Figure 1

   The lesson of the ad is there’s no bigger prize than sharing.  It’s also a lesson in the powerful use of emotion.   The ad relies upon Appraisal Theory to leverage emotion to persuade the viewer to act. (Figure 1)  As the viewer watches the narrative unfold they are drawn into the story based upon their own experiences of hope and anticipation.  They watch as Carmina’s family cleverly perpetuates her beliefs of winning.  The emotional response to Carmina’s happiness and giving away the very source of the happiness leads the viewer on a powerful journey to consider sharing tickets with their own friends and family members.

 

     “Carmina” is just the latest Christmas Lottery creation of Leo Burnett Madrid.  Last year it gave us “Justino,” the lonely night watchman at a mannequin factory who mischievously brought happiness to the co-workers he never saw.  The ad won the Cannes Loins Cyber Grand Prix award.

 

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Figure 2

     The genius of both “Justino” and “Carmina” is the ads also use Means-End Model to lead the viewers on a journey of discovering higher level values. (Figure 2)  In the case of Justino, those values were about the joys of giving thanks.  With Carmina, it’s about the fulfillment and love that comes from making someone happy.

 

      Sharing has become a key component of the Christmas Lottery.  As a business model, the more tickets people buy to share, the bigger the prizes become.  Using the power of emotion to creatively leverage the act of sharing becomes a higher-level motivator than the simple act of winning.  It’s a concept the agency unveiled with its 2014 ad about “Manuel” who didn’t buy a ticket for himself.

     During a holiday season that revolves around giving and sharing, the Christmas Lottery campaign has found a strategic sweet spot in the hearts of viewers.   In a world-wide climate of 30 second TV spots and 10 second digital ads, Leo Burnett Madrid has bravely raised the bar with long-format creative messaging.   Bring on Christmas 2017.

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The Power of Love — When Great Advertising Aims for the Heart

29 Aug

Power of Love Collage

       There’s something going on in Thailand.  As global players in the mobile telecom industry bombard consumers with messages on speed, coverage and pricing, a Thai company is appealing to consumers’ hearts. It’s not the first.

         DTAC has just released a new advertisement based on the insight that technology has limits.  The schema is something we’re all familiar with: how to calm a crying baby.  The ad produced by Y&R is a text book example of transformative communication.  The power of this approach is that instead of overtly selling a product, it instead makes the consumer feel a connection to the brand.  In this case, that feeling is the power of love.

        DTAC’s campaign is just the latest in a series ads to come from Thai wireless companies that are all based on the communicative theory of emotion—or appraisal theory.

        Truemove-H and its agency Ogilvy & Mather released a similarly powerful campaign that I have argued was one of the top ads of 2013.  Like “The Power of Love,” Truemove’s ad is based upon the social goal of paying life forward.  In this case it created a time-lapse schema with the proposition that “Giving is the Best Communication.”

        In both ads there is no up-front unique selling proposition.  Their power is in how they lead the viewer on an emotional journey to form a resolution to take action. (Figure 1)

Figure 1 - Applying Appraisal Theory to Truemove-H's "Giving" advertisement.

Figure 1 – Applying Appraisal Theory to Truemove-H’s “Giving” advertisement.

        In DTAC’s ad, it shows how technology can’t replace love but it can uniquely connect people in moments of love.  The desired action is to use DTAC phones to never miss a loving moment.   As for Truemove, its ad demonstrates power of giving and the emotional conclusion to give by communicating through Truemove’s network.

        Together they are two powerfully transformative and strategic ads from two companies brave enough to be different and stand out in the marketplace.

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“Giving is the Best Communication” — The Year’s Best Ad From a Brand You’ve Never Heard of

29 Sep

 

   One of the most viral and powerful advertisements this fall doesn’t sell a product.  Instead, it sells an idea.  And in the process, it brilliantly illustrates the power of brand extension with a smart and strategic piece of communication.

    It comes from a cell phone company in Thailand named Truemove-H.  The three minute film spans a 30-year story, one that begins with an act of sympathy and kindness and ends with a surprise act of gratitude.   The film contains no product placement, no overt sales pitch, only the powerful idea of the value of paying life forward.  The message from Truemove-H:  “Giving is the best communication.” 

   Proof of the Ad’s power lies in the fact that it just surpassed 9-million YouTube views in one week. 

"Giving" by Thailand's Truemove H phone service

“Giving” by Thailand’s Truemove H phone service

   As a piece of communication, the film is a daring and brilliantly strategic tool to build brand salience in a hyper-competitive category. 

    In this case it effectively uses Appraisal Theory to connect emotion and mood to influence a specific action.   The film makes the viewer cognitively aware of how giving can have its own unexpected reward. (Figure 1)  The deep emotional response of empathy—even guilt—leads to the formation of new attitudes about how giving can impact people’s lives.   The desired action is to cause people to give more of themselves.   In this case, Truemove-H’s goal is to get people to give by calling more often.   But just as important, it seals an emotionally positive connection to the brand—a connection likely to be top of mind the next time a Thai consumer searches for new phone service. 

Figure 1 - Applying Appraisal Theory to Truemove-H's "Giving" advertisement.

Figure 1 – Applying Appraisal Theory to Truemove-H’s “Giving” advertisement.

    It takes a powerful brand to communicate with this kind of boldness.  Coca-Cola is one of the few North American brands willing to leverage its brand values to encourage social change.  One of its best recent examples is a campaign that originated in South America to encourage random acts of kindness.

    In a recent post, I wrote how computer chip maker Intel used Appraisal Theory to force people to make an emotional conversion to empower young women across the globe.  Like Truemove-H, the campaign did not feature a single product placement or sales pitch.

   Together they are three examples of strategically smart communication campaigns that entice the viewer to make a powerful emotional response to a brand goal. 

    Gratefully, in each case no operators are standing by.

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Intel – igent: When Social Action Campaigns are Smart and Strategic (And good for Business)

8 Jul

            The very company that has implored us for years to “look inside” for authenticity has now asked us to widen our vision for a different kind of empowerment.  The result is a wonderfully effective example of aligning creative communication with strategic brand goals.

             Computer chip maker Intel has launched a new ad campaign highlighting its sponsorship of the 10×10 Fund to educate girls around the world.  The cornerstone of that sponsorship is a new documentary called Girl Rising. (Figure 1) It’s a strategically smart corporate social responsibility commitment (CSR) that uniquely takes Intel’s brand of empowering technology and extends it to empowering girls in underdeveloped countries. 

Figure 1 - Intel's ad campaign promoting the 10x10 Fund's Girl Rising documentary

Figure 1 – Intel’s ad campaign promoting the 10×10 Fund’s Girl Rising documentary

             But the genius of the new ad campaign developed by Venables Bell & Partners is the lesson it offers in smartly using several psychological communication theories and applying it to advertising to meet brand objectives.

             The campaign cleverly leverages Martin Fishbein’s Expectancy-Value Theory to change attitudes about young girls by affecting beliefs and expectations about their role in modern society. 

Girl Rising Appraisal Theory

Figure 2 – Appraisal Theory

             But the ad also superbly models Appraisal Theory by using the power of emotion and mood to establish a cognitive connection to the message of girl empowerment. (Figure 2) The ad brilliantly begins by making the viewer aware of the social norms that entrap girls in many emerging counties.  The awareness leads to an emotional response that forms new thinking about a social call and possible interest in the cause. 

             But most important that positive feeling about the ad also creates a positive feeling toward the brand.  And in this case it lends awareness to Intel’s CSR commitment.

             It’s not just communication theory coming alive, it’s strategic, and dare I say… Intel-igent.

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