Advertising and cinematography expert Chuck Young identified four dramatic structures typically used in video advertising in his book Making Memories. If a brand decides to use one of these structures for its advertising, it must understand how to execute it well.
SUSTAINED EMOTION In our world of short attention spans, this approach is a good bet. Generating strong, positive emotions right from the start gives the ad a good chance of holding attention before viewers skip or scroll past. To succeed, the ad needs to feel like a fiesta from start to finish. If adopting this approach, introduce the brand at the start and celebrate it being used throughout. Use pace and variety to maintain engagement. EMOTIONAL BUILD This dramatic approach starts softly before building to an emotional crescendo. It is potentially the most powerful and memorable approach. It can work well for cinema or TV advertising where the audience is captive, because the slow-build approach has enough time to gather the audience’s engagement. In most other media, however, a gentle start may result in viewers moving past the ad before it has had the chance to work its magic. To make the most of this story-telling structure, ensure the brand comes at the emotional crescendo towards the end, acting as proud 'sponsor’ of the underlying idea. POSITIVE SHIFT In positive shift stories, things start being fine, but become a whole lot better when the brand is introduced. This structure only works if viewers realize the brand is responsible for the shift and if the transformation is dramatic enough to stick in the memory. In the modern media environment, it is a risky strategy, better suited to media with longer exposure durations. EMOTIONAL PIVOT This is a widely used advertising technique also known as 'Problem-Solution’. Everything starts off positively, but soon goes horribly wrong until the brand saves the day and makes everything right again. This approach grabs people’s attention from the start, then engages them further by introducing a threat, enemy or challenge, before ending on an emotional high. The Emotional Pivot can be very effective because the brand is the hero of the story, coming in when attention is at its highest and having the opportunity to showcase what it can do. It’s worth considering which of these four dramatic structures, if any, your advertising does or could leverage. If none apply, are you sure your adverting will command people’s attention? If one applies, will this approach work well given the media you are planning to use? Do your choices make best use of the dramatic potential? |