Understanding Logic and Emotion in Web Video

Logic and Emotion: Choosing the Best Strategy

In our culture, we tend to compartmentalize the creative and logical into separate categories. For example, we tend to label people as “creatives” or [everything else?] By categorizing people based on their natural talents and strengths, we establish different audiences to market web video content to. You wouldn’t approach a marketing push aimed towards art students in the same way you would approach a campaign designed for young professionals in more traditional business settings. In terms of web video production, our tendency to compartmentalize offers a practical reason to determine what marketing strategy most effectively fits your product or service. So, this begs the question, do you want to appeal to your audiences calculated logic or to their sense of emotion with your web marketing?

Don’t get scared, but I’m going to talk about Aristotle for a moment to draw out our understanding of emotional and logical appeals. Way back when, Aristotle identified the a few rhetorical appeals for structuring an argument. In this context, we’ll only check out pathos and logos, but a third known as ethos (an appeal to credibility) exists and can enhance any pitch or argument. For us, we look to these three strategies to better understand video marketing tips for your next project.

Logos and Pathos: The Head and The Heart

• Logos refers to an appeal to logic. Think about video adverts that heavily reference facts, statistics, or testimonials. The strategy behind these advertising videos is to convince the audience that it wouldn’t make sense to purchase any other product or service. Dyson is sort of the king of this.

• Pathos is an appeal to emotion. This strategy looks to your audience’s hearts to convince their minds. What makes pathos such an effective strategy is that the emotional reaction people have to online video can often stick with them long after they’ve seen the video advert. Plus, it offers a bit of creative freedom to employ humor as a sort of selling point. The company that frequently comes to mind when talking about pathos in terms of video marketing is Geico.

But, People are Complex…

Alright, so say you’ve decided to choose either pathos or logos as your next strategy. Even though we separate people into creative or logical categories, it’s really important to remember that people aren’t two dimensional!

The rhetorical strategies that we use for web video marketing are most effective when one is allowed to support the other. If you look at both the Geico and Dyson videos then you’ll quickly realize that they each employ both strategies. Even though James Dyson is telling you the logic behind his product’s design, the presentation of the video gives a sense of drama to this marketing video. And, even though the Geico ad primarily relies on humor, we are still given the classic slogan that “fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance,” which is a direct appeal to your rationality. To effectively use one of the strategies, you should really try using both.

Skillman Video Group LLC is a Boston video production company. Call us anytime at 617-858-8232.