Our million years history of evolution made us a kind of species that could guess a lot about the situation of our counter parts just by looking at small gestures and changes in her/his facial expression and body movement.
People unconsciously pay attention to a lot of details about others and continuously reshape the image of those people in their minds.
Thanks to out evolutionary history we are all make similar gestures and movement in our body, no matter which place we were born, when facing similar situations which can show what is going on inside our mind and heart. Most of these movements are tiny gestures such h as eyebrows movements, hands movements and body postures.
For many years scientist and psychologist have done many researches on “Body Language”. They figured out that all human have similar body reactions to same happenings which we might not be able to control. Thus by studying those reactions you probably will be able to understand what one thinks.
For example, when we are afraid of something or amazed, our eyes dial up and our eyebrows go up.
Researches reveal that Body Language is 50 to 70% of our communication.
Learning this non-verbal language especially in communication with customer, colleagues and employees is a great advantage which can bring you much useful information.
The important thing here to consider is not to look at a person’s gestures individually but take them in account as a collection of movements in the context of current situation.
There are lots of such non-verbal communications in ads. The advertiser wants to deliver as much information as possible in a short TV ad so she utilizes body language. Body language has a great impact on audiences. It is very important to show the trustworthiness of a brand or product in an advertisement. To let the audience know if she buys this product, it will not let her down.
There are many gestures that naturally which shows if what we are saying is true. To gain trust of your audiences, you should show that you have nothing to hide. Remember when after a few years you met your loved ones in person. How did they come to you? Probably her arms were open and her palms were upside or toward you. This non-verbal movement is a signature of showing trust.
You can show trust in ads by using other gestures:
۱. Standing straight to show your confidence and energy
۲. Good eye contact which shows your honesty and believe in what you are saying
۳. Neutral head position, not too much toward the audience and not too much back
۴. Keep your body open. Do not wrap your hands around your chest.
۵. And remember that a Smile goes a long way.
An example: Analysis of a TV commercial:
Take a watch at this TV commercial from Modiran Khodro, the importer / manufacturer of MVM cars in Iran. In this commercial they tried to attract people’ attention with a series of raw interviews with buyers of those car and the sales manager of the company to their FIFA World Cup ticket lottery.
The body language of the sales manager which has the longest time of interview is one of the worst body languages I have ever seen in a TV commercial.
This commercial tries to tap into the nationalistic and patriotic feelings of fans of National Iranian Soccer team. Thus show their care and goodwill toward customers.
There are many mistakes in this not-short TV ad:
۱. The voice of the Sales Manager is not strong enough and does not show confident.
۲. He is overexcited.
۳. His breathtaking is wrong which shows he is under stress.
Take a better look at the 40+ seconds and see how he loses his attention, makes a fast head gesture and look at the distance, swallows his saliva to make time to remember his next sentence. It is funny that this distraction happens exactly when he talks about “Supporting National Soccer Team” which seems like he, himself, does not believe in what he says.
Now it’s your turn:
How much do you pay attention to the body language of people around you and in advertisements?
Let me know what do you think.