Welcome to the 4th edition of STICK — the biweekly newsletter from Harrison and Star’s Department of Strategy and Innovation. Have feedback or suggestions? Please send your thoughts to STICK‌@‌harrisonandstar‌.‌co‌m.       This week we bring you a timeless topic that never goes out of style but is not always talked about enough with our clients — the power of emotions. It’s easy to forget that drugs are more than their efficacy and side effects. But if you think about it, a medication does more than treat a condition, it can make a doctor feel a sense of renewed determination, or empowerment…and it can bring a patient a feeling of serenity or resolve. So how do we introduce more of these emotions into our work? Or build a case for more emotional advertising to our clients? Here are some ideas we found worth sharing. Sincerely, The STICK team (Cat Beurnier, Megan Good and Dan Reed)       STRATEGY: A good story usually has a strong emotional pull that sucks you in. Publicis’ Global CCO, Bruno Bertelli uses the same story patterns used in motion pictures as a formula to create ads that make you forget you’re watching an ad (seriously, you should check them out). Bertelli believes that applying a storytelling formula is key to developing engaging content that also drives business success. How can we apply a similar storytelling approach to our creative in order to infuse emotions that will captivate our customers?       TACTICS: Finance companies tend to get a similar rep as pharma when it comes to advertising….which is that it tends to be safe and a little vanilla. So it was pretty surprising to discover that the Fearless Girl Statue on Wall Street was an advertising tactic developed to promote an exchange-traded fund from an investment management company. Not only was Fearless Girl smart and strategic (installed on Women’s Day in front of the bull statue on Wall St), but it conveyed a feeling of empowerment and inspiration that was so appealing it went viral. So if you are looking for inspiration for how to make a disruptive, emotionally charged big idea happen, we suggest you read this interview with the women behind Fearless Girl.       INSIGHTS: There are times where no amount of data will change people’s minds. Neuroscientist Tali Sharot has studied this phenomenon, and has discovered that certain feelings can motivate people to take specific actions. For example, fear tends to stimulate inaction, whereas hope and validation tend to motivate action. Are there ways we can apply these learnings to the work we are doing? For example, if we want doctors to change course and prescribe a new medication, perhaps we lead with a more hopeful message.       CLIENTS: A recent study conducted by Conran Design Group and emotional analytics company Adoreboard on how pharma makes people feel on social media shows that there is a lack of emotional connection between many Pharma brands and their audiences. A tweet that is intended to be positive may in fact generate high levels of anger, sadness and grief. It turns out the key to creating a positive social media engagement is understanding the human emotions felt along a patient journey. In doing so, “pharma brands can offer more relevant content, products and digital experiences”, says Chris Johnson CEO of Adoreboard. How can we help our clients to leverage the emotions felt along the customer journey when we are developing social media communications (and non personal communications too)?       KOOL: You know that feeling of torschulsspanik you get when you have a tight deadline approaching? You’ve probably felt it, but didn’t know there was a word to describe this very specific feeling. Author and researcher Tiffany Watt Smith has written a book called The Book of Human Emotions that introduces 154 words from around the world for extremely granular emotions. Turns out having a more robust emotional vocabulary isn’t just helpful when writing a creative brief, it is also proven to help you be more in control and in touch with your emotions!