Insights:What horror movies teach us about marketing.

Love them or hate them, good horror movies have the power to make an audience react.

Who hasn’t jumped, cringed or squished up into a little ball when watching a scary movie? Even when you know something terrifying is going to happen, it doesn’t make it any less scary when it finally does. This is exactly what you want your marketing messaging to do.

Good ads create a tangible response from the audience.

Hopefully not fear, but maybe hunger, desire, excitement, etc. And just like in a horror movie that the viewer knows something scary is going to happen, consumers also know your message is an ad and at some point you’re going to show them what you want them to buy. But when done well, they will watch with interest even though they know what will inevitably come.

Bad ads can also be like bad horror movies: they just don’t spend much time on the story line and get a lot of scantily clad young attractive people to run around. Of course, that approach usually creates nightmarish results.

Happy October and watch out for things that go bump in the night.