Advertisements are moving away from merely stating the impressive specifications of products or showing how cool stuff look. Marketers are looking at how to alter the perceived experience that consumers have with the product, and the image that the overall brand portrays.

What LG Portugal tried to do here was to show that LG brings the family together behind a TV Screen in quite a literal sense.  The story is about how a homeless man is shown a clip of his child and their reunion at the end of the ad.

The advertisement highlights the key product proposition of LG televisions without explicitly lauding the benefits as other advertisements would.  Instead, it shows the audience the ability of the TV to garner different viewers and the emotional appeal that it has.

Social Media Marketing

Such a video is really only possible through social media, where the low-cost of content publishing versus television ads means that agencies can develop a full story with a strong emotional hook without the cost that would come with traditional advertising.

The video is also clearly targeting the social media masses by creating a strong, compelling story that is both ‘sharable’ and can be a talking point on the social networks, creating a bigger impact than a short TV commercial, thus giving LG a higher ROI.  What’s more, videos online tend to have a much longer shelf-life as compared to TV ads.

Growing trend

The trend of creating viral videos for social media networks is an increasing trend that will not abate in a while, with TV ads becoming obsolete today as consumers can choose to tune out at will.  Companies would have to continually find new and interesting ways to engage their customers if they hope to get their message out.