Why your marketing needs less emotion, not more

Emotion is powerful. It turns a message into a memory. It lifts a good campaign into something people might talk about, share, feel part of. It’s the difference between being noticed and being remembered.

But somewhere along the way, emotion became overused. Not because it stopped working but because we stopped thinking about how it works. We started reaching for it automatically. The slow music. The soft voice. The meaningful stare. A kiss. What used to be a sharp creative tool became a default setting. And default doesn’t get remembered.

What the research really says about emotional effectiveness

System1, a research agency focused on predictive ad testing, has studied the effectiveness of thousands of campaigns. Their findings are clear: the most impactful ads aren’t the most emotional, they’re the most memorable. The ones that land a single strong moment. One surprise. One feeling, anchored to a brand you can’t forget.

That same principle runs through The Long and the Short of It by Les Binet and Peter Field. Emotion helps build long-term brand value but not in a vacuum. It works when it’s tied to structure, to storytelling, to branding. Without that, even the most beautifully crafted ad struggles to create long-term growth.

The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute reinforces this. Their research shows that emotional content only drives effectiveness when it also builds mental availability. In other words: it must help people remember the brand. No fluent assets? No distinctive codes? No memory.

B2B needs emotion too

In B2B, this becomes even more pronounced. LinkedIn’s 2025 report on B2B marketing found that decision-makers aren’t moved by sentimentality. They’re moved by confidence. Emotion still matters but it’s sharper. Less tearjerker, more trust-builder. The reassurance that someone like them made this decision—and it paid off.

Behavioral science gives us the mechanics. The affect heuristic, coined by Paul Slovic, explains how people use emotion to simplify decisions but only when that emotion reduces complexity, not adds to it. Cognitive load theory warns that too much emotional input can overwhelm working memory, making the message harder to process. And Kahneman’s peak-end rule reminds us that it’s not about sustained emotion, but the moment that peaks and the impression that lingers.

How to use emotion to drive brand recall

So the goal isn’t to remove emotion from campaigns. It’s to use it precisely. With intent. Not as background noise, but as a strategic tool. Less mood. More memory. Emotion that supports the idea, not replaces it.

Great campaigns don’t lean on emotion to fill a gap. They use it to make something sharp even sharper. Not to soften the message, but to etch it deeper. Not to be moving, but to be remembered.

So the next time someone says, “let’s make it emotional,” the answer isn’t no. The answer is: sure. But which emotion? When? And how do we make sure they remember who made them feel that way? Because the feeling isn’t the idea. The feeling is what helps the idea survive.

And that’s why your campaign probably needs less emotion. Not more.