Appeal to Fear
How threatening messages with clear solutions motivate action, and practical ways to use fear appeal in your marketing campaigns.
In this issue
Hey 👋 The Crew here.
Some studies say that you stop discovering new music once you turn 33. A member of The Crew turned 30 recently—and is now dreading that moment.
Can somebody tell them this report isn’t true?
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You can’t stop growing old. Unless you’re Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry, or… a vampire?
But if you look at skin care or healthcare ads today, you’ll notice many are warning your skin will wrinkle, or your hair will fall out. Then they promote a solution that slows the aging process.
This is super effective because these brands are appealing to our fear of aging.
Fear appeal is the persuasive message where you tell your audience a potential harm could happen to them if they don’t accept your recommendations.
And it’s an effective way to add more urgency to your ad campaigns.
This technique has always been around in marketing. But a big 2015 study led by Melanie Tannenbaum and a group of researchers confirmed the effectiveness of the approach.
And you can see brands applying this principle in real life, everywhere:
- Life insurance companies show people in life-threatening situations.
- Environmental campaigns depict severe storms and climate changes.
- Home security brands show potential break-ins.
You can probably think of many examples—from politics, to health campaigns.
But now, it’s time to see how you can apply it to your own brand…
Three ways you can leverage the Appeal to Fear
Appeal to fear, then recommend the solution
Appealing to fear without giving people a reassuring option is simply fear-mongering.
It is not ethical—and it doesn’t bring results.
What Melanie Tannenbaum found is that recommending actions that bring positive change after a fear appeal message are far more effective than those without.
When Slack first came out, it positioned itself as a better alternative to emails:
This Facebook ad is appealing to your work anxiety—a crowded inbox, with an effective “Yikes” sprinkled in.
But in the copy, there’s a clear alternative: Sign up for Slack.
Use hyperbole and allegories
Sometimes, the problem you solve simply isn’t that scary.
Or maybe it is, but people just don’t see it that way.
What can you do? Wrap that problem in a more “fearful package” when you present it to your audience.
Story time: Back in the day, Norton antivirus software wanted to show that their software solves a dangerous pain point—cybercrime. But users didn’t understand the scope of the issue.
So Norton illustrated the problem with the help of a more familiar type of crime:
Too much? Maybe. Did it work? Absolutely.
Use fear appeal on a female audience
The fear appeal works for everyone, but it’s particularly effective when talking to women.
According to reports, this is because women are more “prevention-focused” than men—meaning they tend to take action if presented with a way to mitigate any potential trouble.
You can see the female-centric ads appealing to fear since early 20th century:
And you can see it today with beauty and skincare products—mostly aimed at the female audience—appealing to fear of aging.
The same fear of aging, when applied to quit-smoking products, almost always depict women as well—like in this example.
Bottom line? If you know you have a huge female following, try to angle your ads around the appeal to fear—and provide a good solution to prevent or solve that problem. It should work.
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PRIVACY: In the biggest plot twist since Game of Thrones last aired, Google has decided not to deprecate third-party cookies. After years of preparing us for just that. Instead, Chrome users will be able to choose whether to keep them or not. At least that’s sorted. Or is it?
ADVERTISING: Hey look, more ads. Google has announced that ads in AI overviews are coming “soon” and they’ll be tested among a select US audience first. Let’s hope it shows better initial results than when AI overviews first launched.
REDDIT: If you want to advertise where people are engaged—and haven’t tried Reddit… now might be the time. The popular message board has seen a 11% spike in daily active users this year, leaving Instagram (1.3%), Facebook (1.2% decrease), and others in the dust. Wow.
*This is a sponsored post.
ICYMI, last time we looked at Red Velvet Strategy.
The “Fearful” Crew
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