No matter your business, product, or artistic endeavor, people love to hear a good story.
The more emotional your storytelling is, the more engaged your audience will be.
A short video that generates empathy for its characters will make the subject more compelling. It's a simple enough concept to grasp but not always so easy to execute.
And that's why good directors are so in demand.
Creating Emotional Attachments
Creating content that will appeal to a mass audience can be challenging. It's especially tough when you have a 30-second window to present your narrative.
So how does one elicit a positive response for a product that isn't considered sexy or fun?
First off, you shoot a video. Videos are effective at holding people's interest.
But with more people getting their entertainment online, those ads you watch must jar your attention or hit you in the feels immediately.
So How Do You Market a Bank?
Checking accounts, fixed-rate CDs, and business loans are hardly subjects that captivate the masses. Everyone needs to have a checking account at some point, but that doesn't mean they get excited about signing up for one.
Marketing financial services can be challenging to advertise successfully. After all, does the world really need another ad with smiling actors shaking hands in a banker's office?
Ads spouting off best rates with percentages, numbers, and lots of small print can come across as being too "salesy."
Commerce Bank chose Gear Seven because they wanted something different.
How Did It Turn Out?
In the spot, the audience is immediately captivated by the image of a mother holding her child.
However, it is the voice-over that genuinely draws you in. What’s the story being told? How will it end?
The audience is subjected to a series of moments in the lives of a mother and her child. Indelible snippets over a lifetime that seem to pass by in a flash. The mother confides her wishes for the child: college, starting a business, getting married. These are all situations in life where Commerce Bank can lend its services.
The spot ends with the baby's smile. It's a beautifully captured moment.
The final result is a commercial everyone involved can be proud of.
Good Directors Make Good Decisions
The commercial affects us emotionally because the fleeting moments being depicted don't feel scripted. Each shot has meaning and purpose, as conveyed by the director's framing and staging of the actors.
The ad's subtlety moves us. In the wrong hands, the content could have come across as heavy-handed and contrived.
Director Connor Carrol set out to craft a vision that wasn't so much about selling a service but more about the human bonds we all hold close to our hearts.
In just under 30 seconds, he was able to forge a connection between the audience, the characters, and the Commerce Bank brand.
Not an easy feat.
Emotional Storytelling Sells
Messaging that resonates with people on an emotional level is vital to earning people's trust. If you can associate financial planning services with warm and fuzzy sentimental feelings, you're really onto something.
If you have a product or service that might be right for Connor Carrol or any of our directors, don't hesitate to reach out.