These emotions make advertising go viral

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Going viral is no easy task. What's the difference between a regular ad and a video that's so compelling and interesting that viewers choose to share it over and over again?

You might expect that people would share ads that make them feel good, and not share ads that make them feel bad. And to some extent, this intuition is correct: ads that evoke positive emotions, such as joy, are more likely to be shared, while ads that evoke negative emotions, such as sadness or confusion, are less likely to be shared.

While some negative emotions, such as sadness, reduce information sharing, others, such as disgust, increase it slightly. Why is this? The answer is that emotions are more complex than just joy and sadness.

Whether positive or negative, some emotions key features of paytm simply fire people up. When a person encounters a snake while walking in the woods or gets into a fight, they go into a state of heightened alert. Their heart beats faster, their pulse quickens, and they are ready for action.

Other emotions are calming. Think about how you feel after walking on the beach or watching the sunset. Most often, you feel good, but that feeling of contentment doesn’t make you want to do much. While anger may make you want to yell at someone or take action, when you experience a less active negative emotion like sadness, you just want to curl up and do nothing.

Previous research has shown that the more emotionally activating an ad is, the more likely people are to share it. And the results were consistent: Provoking positive, activating emotions made the video more likely to be shared, but when the ad evoked negative emotions (disgust), viewers were also motivated to take action and share the video, even if they weren’t enthusiastic about it. Conversely, emotions that were less activating (sadness) made the viewer less likely to see the ad.

Emotions that make advertising go viral:
Good is not good enough
These findings have several implications for marketers. It’s not enough to make people feel good about a brand. Too often, content creators think that if they can just make customers feel good about their products, services, or brands, then people will share them with their friends. As the results show, being good isn’t enough. You have to inspire or delight—that’s what makes you feel good.

Bad is not always bad
Being negative isn't always a bad idea. You might assume that if a commercial disgusts viewers, they won't share it. But when used correctly, negative emotions can actually be a powerful tool for attracting customers.

For example, advertising that makes people angry by illustrating injustice, or that makes them feel anxious or disgusted by describing the health risks associated with a disease, may motivate them to take action and share the information with others.

Try this at home
While ads from a variety of industries have been analyzed to find a common link between emotional responses and click-through rates, marketers and analysts can adapt the methodology to gain insight into reactions to their specific content. Of course, traditional market research methods like surveys and focus groups can also be effective in some cases, but they have some serious limitations.

Restrictions:

First, simply asking people how they feel does not guarantee accurate information: people may be biased or uncomfortable with their own emotions, or they may be unsure how to put their feelings into words.
Focus group responses may be shaped by social influences, further affecting their credibility.
These standard tools require a lot of manual work, meaning that scaling them to any useful degree can be quite expensive. In contrast, automated facial recognition using home webcams can help marketers gauge consumer reactions in an efficient, unobtrusive, and scalable way.



Conclusion
These tools certainly have their limitations. As with any technology, the tools are not perfect, but by being aware of their limitations, marketers and researchers can use these tools effectively, gaining insights that will allow them to deliver the most effective content.