How to Increase Emotional Connection with Advertising

In marketing principles, emotional connection is a good method to build brand awareness and loyalty. Knowing this, it is important to understand the different psychological reactions people have to specific things. Something that almost all people on the planet form a connection with is animals. Psychologically speaking, humans are predisposed to be drawn to furry creatures. This study shows that animals in advertisements increase feelings of emotional connection. Adding these animals is not only the most effective way to reach your audience and build brand awareness, but it’s cute, too!

Reasons to Use Animals in Advertising

Emotional Attraction

In Canada, the number of pet owners is increasing, especially after COVID-19. Due to the lockdown, more and more people like to have pets in their families; bringing them pleasure and comfort. Pets can reduce stress, lower blood pressure, and help build health. It’s scientifically proven that human emotional connection to animals doesn’t stop with actual ownership. Seeing animals in advertisements also invokes an emotionally connected response to animals, and when they are used to help sell a product, the brain makes a positive connection.

Symbolism

Adding animals is not limited to cute puppies and kittens. They may use a variety of animals that represent their message, depending on the product or service a company is selling. For example, dogs represent loyalty, human interaction, and family, the wolf symbolizes leadership, and the horse stands for freedom. Before choosing an animal, you should know what your product stands for. Then, you can use the animal in your advertisements to target a specific audience.

Humour

In many cases, animals’ cuteness and comedic effect are more so than their human counterparts. Marketers can have animals do funny things to hold consumers’ attention. These kinds of advertisements are more eye-catching and memorable. It’s a perfect way to build brand awareness and help consumers recall the brand.

As well as our tendency to be guided by our emotions, humans are also predominantly led by visuals around us. With this in mind, animals have a positive allure that makes very effective visuals when trying to capture someone’s attention. We encourage you to think about adding animals to your advertisements to help build feelings of emotional connection.

Written by Dian Yang