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As founder and CEO of The Joy Brigade, Shabnam Mogharabi advises people to rebel with joy.
She has made the strategy her own, conducted research, persuaded brands to participate and implemented projects, in contrast to her journalistic beginnings, where she knew: “If it bleeds, it leads”; negativity also sells.
Shabnam co-founded the mission-driven studio SoulPancake with actor Rainn Wilson, which focused on uplifting and inspirational content. She served as CEO for nearly a decade.
But she's no Pollyanna.
“I think the Pollyanna view of the bright side is actually detrimental to the harvest of true joy, which requires understanding, feeling and acknowledging the negatives,” she says.
To evoke true joy, one must recognize the negative while offering a different perspective. “It works in how you tell stories. It works as you write. It works when communicating ideas,” explains Shabnam in our interview after her well-received keynote presentation at Content Marketing World.
Negativity works in marketing, but so do positive emotions
Of course, negativity isn't just limited to mainstream headlines to attract an audience. Clickbait headlines abound on social media. “They don’t really use emotions other than fear,” says Shabnam. “While fear is a great motivator, I think love, inspiration and joy can also be powerful motivators.”
It's not just what she thinks; This is what the research shows. Their advocacy is rooted in the theories of positive psychology. “You can change the way your brain responds to different situations — good or bad — that you find yourself in,” she says.
But challenging negativity is not an easy battle. Shabnam points to John Gottman's research, which found that it takes 20 positive interactions to counteract one negative one.
It's organic. The human brain is primed to look for danger and potential threats. “Joy is a rebellion against our disposition,” she says.
Negativity is easier, but the best marketers avoid the easy route. “The best marketing campaigns truly capture the full spectrum of human emotions. They realize that things are hard, the days are stressful and it takes a lot of work to achieve great things,” she says.
Brands see the good in the positive
Shabnam counts a handful of brands among the many that have successfully used joy in their marketing. She worked on a few campaigns about SoulPancake and admired others as a consumer.
They all have one thing in common: they recognize a potential (or actual) negative or challenge, but focus on an eye-opening or “aha” moment that inspires and uplifts the audience. They give people joy, connection and hope – the positive emotions in the spectrum of this human experience.
Nike does it
Nike is known for adopting negative stereotypes. Shabnam cites an example from the early 2010s, when the company produced an ad that featured a person walking slowly on a cobbled street in the distance. The closer the runner gets to the camera, the more the viewer realizes that he is a young person who weighs more than a typical runner. The voiceover talks about how greatness isn't just reserved for superstars; It's something everyone can achieve.
The company continues to celebrate its commitment while acknowledging the difficulties, as this 2024 spot – Joy – shows. The video, captioned “Feeling great doesn't always mean good,” shows people sweating, making faces, gasping for air, smiling and crying as they run while the upbeat folk song “Joy Joy” by Bob Gibson plays in the background .
Procter & Gamble sees little attention
Procter & Gamble has often shared the hard work it takes to cheer at the Olympics with campaigns like “Thank You, Mom.” This example shows how parents get their children up in the dark of the morning, feed them, do the laundry, and take them to sports practice year after year – recognizing the hard work behind the scenes that often goes unnoticed. The ad then shows the joy their families feel when their athletes compete in the Olympics.
Purina is based on scientific benefits
At SoulPancake, Shabnam worked on a campaign for Purina that marketed its newest product by showcasing the science behind it.
But SoulPancake ditched the benefits-focused ad and went in a completely different direction. The team set up a box on a street corner in Los Angeles. They asked people about their stress in life, invited them to go into the box, and surprised them with a basket full of kittens to play with. The once-stressed humans then shared the positive effects of playing with the kittens.
The hugely successful campaign garnered billions of views and tons of influencer engagement, says Shabnam. “People have really responded to this because we're looking at the emotional side of how people feel about their cats, what their cats offer them, and the motivation it takes to care for them from a place of love and “The cats spoke to us out of fulfillment,” she notes.
California Casualty brings unexpected joy
Insurance isn't an industry that automatically makes people think of “joy,” but SoulPancake has changed that. It worked on a campaign with California Casualty, a provider of auto and home insurance for educators.
Five teachers joined us to talk about the challenges of teaching. They talked about not even knowing if the kids were paying attention, the lack of resources, helicopter parents, and more.
Then these teachers got a surprise. Former students came to read thank-you letters to them, describing the influence the teachers had on them and reminding the teachers why they worked so hard.
According to Shabnam, all marketers can rebel with joy, no matter what brand they are promoting. “Even if kittens and happiness aren't inherently involved, there's something universal that you can tap into,” she says.
Dramamine gets the good stuff with The Last Barf Bag
Dramamine is a good example of this. The anti-nausea medication maker celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2024 with the 13-minute documentary “The Last Barf Bag.”
Although the film briefly ponders toward the end of the documentary whether Dramamine's debut led to the ongoing decline in airlines offering airsickness bags, the real story revolved around a small but fascinating group of vomit bag collectors. In the nine months since its debut, more than 300,000 people have watched the video on the brand's YouTube channel, with just 3,870 subscribers.
“Even vomit can have an interesting story, and it was brought to you by Dramamine. It was such clever marketing,” says Shabnam. “The work is to find that universal insight that you can use.”
Get internal buy-in
Of course, creative use of the spectrum of human emotions is not the only ingredient to being a rebel. It also requires leadership that approves the concepts and a marketing culture that enables them.
Shabnam says the first step is knowing how executives view the company. Some may want to expect results next quarter; others may have a long-term view. In some cases, managers are primarily concerned with the bottom line, in others it is with employee satisfaction. As you identify their priorities, also pay attention to the language they use.
“If you don’t learn to speak their language, there will never be progress in communicating and selling the benefits of changing your marketing approach,” she says. “It’s about knowing who your target audience is and how to tailor the message, benefits, etc. to them.”
Once you have executive support, you also need to get the marketing team on board. It's about examining the people and the processes. To create more emotional, joyful, and memorable content, you need people whose interests and passions – the things they consume and invest their time in – reflect what you want to build.
You need people who think creatively and can see the data differently. You need team members who are passionate about content, be it books, movies, podcasts, or something else. They want to know what's happening in advertising and expose themselves to creativity in the wild, like visiting museums.
And don’t forget: leadership is important here too. You have to act the way you expect the team to act. For example, if you set up a Slack channel for an upcoming campaign and ask team members to share podcasts, videos, books, etc. that relate to the topics or examples you want to inspire, you should also contribute.
“People will do what they see as a role model. If it’s not reflected at the top, they won’t model it,” says Shabnam.
In addition to people, processes should also be examined, as these can sometimes stop creativity. Identify points in the process that hinder or encourage team creativity. Commit to getting rid of unnecessary things. Shabnam says if you don't do this post-mortem after every campaign, you should definitely do it annually.
“If you don't constantly think about whether we have the right people and the right processes, you're never going to have the kind of culture that creates that environment of creative thinking and thinking about insights and the type of content you create want,” says Shabnam.
Develop a strategy to embrace joy
Evoking the fear factor is easier, but you can do the harder work to inspire joy and create a stronger connection with your audience.
The best content, says Shabnam, takes into account the full spectrum of emotions. It's not just positive for the sake of being positive.
“It’s saying, ‘Hey, we know these challenges exist. We know there are difficult things, but here you will find inspiring, uplifting, creative, gratitude-filled solutions or ideas that can help overcome these challenges.
She explains: “It’s a lot harder and requires a lot more work. But if we don’t, we can’t possibly rebel against these larger (negative) forces at work.”
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
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