By Peter Warner, Director, Golin London

In the evolving landscape of public relations, especially for well-established brands, awareness is no longer the holy grail. The new frontier? Precision in emotional engagement.

The Emotional Edge

Intuitively, marketers have always known that campaigns driving extremely positive responses yield better business results than those eliciting only slightly positive reactions. Now, with AI and proprietary frameworks like Golin’s, we can pinpoint and analyze specific emotions evoked by campaigns.

This emotional precision is revolutionizing both campaign planning and evaluation:

1. Campaign Planning: By understanding the nuanced emotional landscape of our audience, we can craft messages that resonate on a deeper level.
2. Effectiveness Evaluation: We can now measure not just reach, but the quality and specificity of emotional engagement.

Case in Point: Specsavers’ “The Misheard Version”

In Specsavers’ campaign, identifying and leveraging the fear associated with hearing loss was crucial to the creative idea’s power. This demonstrates how emotional insight can drive impactful storytelling.

Moving Hearts, Minds, and Market Share

For brands with massive awareness, the key challenge shifts to effectively changing hearts and minds. By harnessing AI to understand and target specific emotions, we can:

1. Create narratives that don’t just inform, but inspire action
2. Develop campaigns that pull people towards the brand, driving market share growth
3. Transform awareness into meaningful engagement and loyalty

The Evolution of Emotional Intelligence in PR

Emotional intelligence has always been at the heart of effective PR. The game-changer today is our unprecedented ability to measure and apply it with precision. By blending time-tested storytelling prowess with cutting-edge AI insights, we’re not redefining the PR imperative—we’re enhancing our ability to meet it.

While driving awareness remains crucial for many brands, for those with already massive recognition, enhanced emotional precision becomes the key to driving meaningful change and achieving tangible business results. This approach allows us to tailor our strategies, focusing on awareness where needed and leveraging deep emotional connections for established brands. In a market where being known is just the first step, these new tools and frameworks significantly expand our capabilities in PR, offering fresh avenues for impact regardless of a brand’s current position in the public consciousness.