Module 9 - Empathy and understanding in ad creative

What does a lack of empathy in advertising actually look like?

It looks like a funeral director advertising with a jokey cartoon. Let me start by telling a little story.

A few years ago my father passed away, unfortunately, and for a period of time it was pretty raw, understandably. There was a local marketing firm whose owner I knew. They were nice enough people and they were okay at what they did. They had a little niche doing little videos with animation and off the shelf stuff. I am sure you have seen a lot of this. There is a little crayon drawing and it tells a little story. It is fit for purpose for a lot of things and it does a job.

They did one and promoted it on Facebook, saying hey, we have done this video for this new client, it is great, it is brilliant, it tells this little story. It was in this cartoon style. The actual ad was for a local funeral director.

Obviously things were a little bit raw for me, but I saw this ad and it really wound me up. It is a funeral director, so it is a fairly serious subject. It is one that is delicate and it is a difficult job to do, and here they are promoting their business with a jokey style cartoon. There is no other word for it.

The reason they had done it, obviously, was because it was cheap and off the shelf. My problem with that is that it has a complete lack of understanding and emotion and, more importantly, empathy with the people who have just lost a loved one. They were making a joke, just visually making it a joke. I did not even need to read what it was saying, because it was not the right thing to do fundamentally.

I will be really strong in my opinion there. The moment had gone by the time I saw it, it had passed, but I thought how narrow-minded, how blind, how stupid, putting it bluntly, was that? I know it is an extreme example, but I think it demonstrates the point beautifully.

Why does empathy matter even when you are not selling something emotional?

Because inevitably everything helps people to some degree, or solves a problem, or makes them feel a certain way.

You are buying a car because you need to get from A to Z, you need to get to work, you need to get the kids around. But buying a certain type of car gives you a certain type of feeling, so there is some emotion attached to this big block of metal.

You still need to have understanding and empathy as to why people will want it. What is their pain point, what is their problem, what is their issue, what does it solve? A little bit like the funeral director, they were there to wrap their arms around me and help me through a very difficult period, so doing it as a cartoon joke was completely wrong. It had a complete disconnect from understanding my problems at that point.

You might think I am being a little bit harsh, but I am not, and I would ask you the question: how would you feel if you were in my shoes and had seen that? I would never touch that funeral director, because I am thinking, well, you have missed it by a mile.

How do you build empathy into your ads?

By understanding everything about your customers and reflecting that mood in your tone of voice.

I am not going to rant on about it, but the big thing is to really think about the emotions of what your customers are like. It goes back to what I talked about in the previous video about understanding everything about your customers. What are their fears, what are their desires, what do they like, what do they not like?

Imagine how they feel before the purchase, during the purchase or after the purchase, making those decisions to buy or not to buy, which is a later video. I am about to buy something, how is this making me feel? Try to articulate and reflect that mood via your tone of voice, what you say and how you say it, and build some empathy and understanding.

Why is tone of voice like a relationship?

Because the same news delivered two different ways produces two completely different reactions.

If I meet somebody in a pub and I say my father is really ill, he is in hospital, and they go, oh well, it will be all right, no, it is not really. Whereas if one of my mates sat with me and put his arm around me and said, well, it will be all right, it is not very nice but, and so on. Completely different tone. With the first mate I think, well, you were a bit bloody clumsy there, weren't you? The second mate, I am more likely to go back to him when I am having a really tough time after my dad has passed away, because that has some empathy and understanding.

We can pick all kinds of things, whether it is a cashier in the supermarket. That is still part of the brand, how they talk to you. The whole experience of relationship building is paramount to repeat business and to long-term revenue streams for your business and your income. So building that empathy is absolutely essential.

Please, please, please, when thinking about your ads, your tone of voice, your colours, everything, make sure it has got some empathy with the people looking at it and is not wildly off the mark like some jokey funeral director.

That ends my rant on that one, but I hope it does demonstrate a really important point.