Joy marketing: what is it and how can it add to your marketing strategy?
Joy – the feeling of great pleasure and happiness.
Who doesn’t want to feel joyous and happy? In fact a staggering 93% of us are on a quest to feel more joy in our daily lives. A captivated and hungry audience, it leads us to ask what is ‘Joy Marketing’ and what can you do to bring a little joy to your campaigns?
Fellow of the University of California, Professor Sonja Lyubomirsky devotes her life of studies to researching human happiness and its key role in society as well as personal development. Enlisted in the strategy behind the ConAgra’s Reddi-Whipp #ShareTheJoy campaign, she knows a thing or two about what makes a joy campaign tick.
Explaining her intrigue, Lyubomirsky explains “Why is the scientific study of happiness important? In short, because most people believe that happiness is meaningful, desirable, and an important, worthy goal, because happiness is one of the most salient and significant dimensions of human experience and emotional life, because happiness yields numerous rewards for the individual, and because it makes for a better, healthier, stronger society”.
It’s of course no surprise then, that being a sentiment so many seek, a campaign strategy built on inducing this specific joyous emotional response is one that can really go far. Joy marketing enables brands to connect with their audience on a deeper level, making them feel better and thus creating a lasting positive connection between themselves and their audience. An effective way to affect brand sentiment, brands have long used the relatively newly termed ‘joy marketing’ to evoke worthy and rewarding moments of joy. Although under a new guise, these emotionally based campaigns have been running for decades, however life in such a fast paced, digital, world means it may be now, more than ever, that the full impact of these special moments are felt.
Putting joy at the centre of their strategies, we look at how brands have conquered happiness in their wholehearted marketing campaigns:
Tesco Surprise Delivery for Christmas 2016
Basing its strategy on research that 1 in 5 (19%) of family members will not spend Christmas day with loved ones due to the cost of travel, Tesco hit right to the core of the Christmas spirit with their Special Delivery campaign that focused on reuniting four families this Christmas in a surprise delivery twist. Warming the hearts of the nation, the feel good factor of witnessing genuine joyous reactions, nailed the ‘joy marketing’ brief. Tesco Group Brand Director Michelle McEnttrick commented “Our research found that half of us will be missing a loved one this Christmas so we wanted to help bring families together, no matter where in the world they were from”.
Center Parcs ‘Urban Bears’ 2015
Looking to promote short breaks to their chain of retreats, Center Parcs took an ingenious approach to joy marketing by focusing on the importance family time and bonding. Aiming to bring families back together,the advert follows a family of bears, who struggle to connect with one another amid the stresses and strains of everyday modern life. Needing to get back to nature, the ‘Urban Bears’ evoke perfectly the joy of reconnecting, and pull on heart strings of mothers and fathers up and down the country. Bringing the same sentiment through to 2017, Center Parcs have released their ‘Forest is Your Playground’ campaign that focuses on a child’s wild imagination and the joys of family escapism.
T Mobile Flash Mob Dance 2010
Bursting into a flash mob at Liverpool Street Station during a normal busy London morning, T Mobile captures joy marketing through the innovative use of dance and feel good songs, to turn a grey and gloomy commute into something truly unforgettable. A touching display of shared happiness, surprised members of the public join the unexpected display one by one. Two minutes later and one of London’s busiest stations is overcome by impulsive happiness – hundreds of people gripped by a contagious urge to enjoy the moment as one. A original and fun campaign that reinforces their life-affirming strap line: life’s for sharing.
Sony Bravia ‘Bouncing Balls’ 2005
Transporting their audience someplace altogether different, and providing a momentary escape from the daily worries and stresses, the Sony Bravia ‘Bouncing Balls’ advert evoked something truly transcendental. Enveloping its viewers in the warmth of wonderment and beauty, the award winning advert is probably the best definition of a joy marketing campaign. Centering on a San Francisco overwhelmed by millions of colourful balls boucing in slow motion through the everyday grey streets, the advert, paired with Jose Gonzalez ‘heartbeats’, poetically communicates the abundance of life and the simple joys of simple beauty. Adding some colourful magic to everyday life, the simple visual experience provides nothing but joy to the viewer and is still one of Sony’s most iconic campaigns to date.
If you are looking to add more ‘joy’ to your campaigns, or fancy giving your marketing strategy more oomph, then Blimey are your ‘go-to’ guys. Email hello@blimeycreative.blimeystage.co.uk or call 0115 981 6276 to see how we can help our campaign.