With the Olympics still fresh in our minds, it’s a good time to look at what a roller-coaster ride this was for many of us.
Our experiences varied, but from talking to friends, I know that others shared many of my feelings.
How did you feel about the Olympics a year ago? Were you a bit cynical? Maybe you focused on how much they would cost and how other countries had gone into massive debt as a result (hello Greece). Or you recalled that at our two previous Olympics, we’d failed to win a single gold medal. Why would this time be any different? If you live anywhere near Vancouver, all you could think about were traffic snarls and annoying security.
As the Olympics drew nearer, there were stories about Vancouver residents being offered $10,000 a week for their downtown condos. I thought, wow, they’re throwing around a lot of money. Who’s paying for this? Me?
And then it was countdown time for the beginning of the games. And just as we were about to start, we were plunged into despair with the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili. Would the games be cursed? Should they even go on?
We all know the script from then on. Brilliant opening ceremonies. After a few days, a huge sigh of relief when we won our first gold. At least that curse was lifted. And then soon we won a second and a third. But don’t get too happy, because now we were reminded of an arbitrary target for medals that organizers had set. It became clear that we would never “own the podium”. Hmm.
Never mind. Soon we were winning one gold after another. We were walking on air. We spent hours glued to the TV. We watched a figure skater deliver the performance of her life despite her mother’s recent death. We became experts in fast starts on bobsled runs – boy, that start was slow, off by two tenths of a second. (BTW, an eye blink takes three tenths of a second.)
We watched sports we never knew existed – what’s the real name for tag-team speed skating? Who knows, who cares? It was exciting to watch. The men’s hockey team thumped the Russians. Wow! We hadn’t beaten them since 1960. And then the final men’s hockey game. Sid the Kid saves the day and puts our whole country into the gold medal record books. Coast-to-coast partying, a shortage of face paint across the land.
What does all this have to do with marketing? It’s simple. Emotions rule. We like the ride. We crave emotional involvement. We want the drama.
So, the next time you’re working on your advertising and communications, don’t wear your accounting hat.
Yes, there’s likely a long list of logical reasons why I should buy your product. But at the end of the day, I want to know how it makes me feel. We constantly defy logic at the whim of our emotions. We will pay fortunes to feel good. And we’ll do so quite happily.
