These 6 Emotions Make Videos Go Viral!
It’s no secret in advertisement that emotional content is the way to generate a significant response and engagement. In fact, only the content that evokes strong emotions has a chance to go viral! We know that emotions play a huge role, but have you ever thought about which emotions generate the strongest impact and the most shares?
1. Awe
This is a powerful one! I bet you recall being amazed by something and sharing it with your besties. This is how content goes viral!
When people are in awe of or astonished by something, they stop what they’re doing and truly appreciate what they’re seeing. They likely want others to be amazed by it, too, which naturally triggers more shares. In a study done by Statista on 10,000 of the most shared articles on the web, 25% of those articles used awe to capture their audiences. It’s proven to be successful!
2. Happiness
Joy, laughter, and amusement are all extremely effective in generating a high number of shares. Laughter accounted for 17% of the viral articles, amusement made up for 15% and joy was evoked in 14% of the articles.
People like to feel happy, and make their close ones feel happy, too! This desire to spread happiness causes people to share the content. But be careful - viewers don’t respond in the same way to commercials that evoke happiness as they do to happy non-commercials. Try not to be cliché or seem too staged, because your audience will see right through it.
3. Anger
In one of the studies by Statistica, the articles that used anger to hook their viewers have been proven to work! If viewers get angry enough, it makes them want to take action and instill change. They want more people to engage in the change, which makes them more inclined to share the advertisement.
4. Sadness
Sadness has a huge impact on people’s decisions in general. Evoking this emotion is meant to inspire empathy in your audience, and empathy leads to action. Sadness is very moving, and people share content that moves them. Like anger, sadness makes the audience feel a sense of responsibility; they want to do something about whatever has just made them feel sad. Sharing is the easiest way for them to spread awareness.
5. Surprise
Catching people off guard is a good way to make an advertisement memorable and fun. It grabs the audience’s attention when they’re not expecting it, which has a lasting impact! This can act as ‘wow’ factor and help keep the audience thinking about the commercial. A great hack is to plant an element of surprise into the title, adding a shock value that will make consumers stop and take a closer look at the ad.
If you can successfully shock your viewers, they will want to show your content to others. People like to take credit for showing others something they didn’t know or hadn’t seen before. If you surprise your audience, they will want to share it and surprise others, too.
6. Fear
Fear causes worrying and desperation, which can most definitely influence what consumers share. However, there are a few strict rules to effectively use fear in marketing.
Be careful of how strong fear you’re evoking. If the fear is too big, recipients will deny the situation and try to forget about what they saw. Don’t scare away people!
Make sure the solution is easy to achieve. If it’s too abstract or hard to achieve, like “simply” quitting smoking, the audience will ignore the message and move on.
Ensure you’re promoting the solution to the fear from a trusted source. A reputable media feature or an expert appearance are great ways to elevate trust among your audience. If your ad is promoted on your own channels, build that credibility first with testimonials, partnerships, endorsements.
Each of these emotions may play its own special role in your advertisement. Depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, the best one to use will vary.
It’s necessary to give the campaign development process a great deal of attention to make sure you nail your plan. You’ll want to work with highly skilled strategists and creators that will help bring that vision to the screen in a powerful way. Viewers can’t be confused – it needs to be obvious what you're communicating.