Interest
Ads and videos written to this emotion: 169. 166 make the Say move, 0 make the Avoid mistake.
The Emotion Map's entry, written for B2B buyers.
What it is
Light, open attention toward something that draws you in. Less intense and less committed than curiosity.
Where it shows up
A reader who saves a post but is not ready to talk.
Sounds like
"Send me something to read."
Say
A useful thing with no strings attached: a benchmark, a checklist, a diagnostic.
Avoid
Treating interest as intent. Asking for a meeting here spends trust you have not earned yet.
In consumer ads
Say: A useful thing with no strings attached: a free sample, a booklet, a recipe or a guide the reader can use whether or not they buy.
Avoid: Treating interest as intent: asking for the purchase, the subscription or the long commitment before the reader has tried anything.
Doing it right
Ads that make the Say move.
A free almanack with a silk loop for the wall, postal rates, Derby winners and motor marks earns a year of use, and the close only hints the reader may 'adopt them'.
British Institutes correspondence courses ad, al-Kawakib 1961
It lists engineering and commercial subjects from diesel to secretarial work, and asks only for a letter to Dept T.3 to receive a detailed programme and a new careers booklet, not an enrolment.
Hood's Cook Book Number Three, free recipe booklet
The cook book is free to every housekeeper from druggists or by postal card, with all-new recipes, and the Sarsaparilla pitch stays in one-line asides instead of a demand to buy.
Coca-Cola soft drink calendar ad, al-Kawakib 1952
Each month the back cover hands readers a free calendar page and a new colour aerial photo, here Sporting Egypt, asking nothing beyond the bottle placed beside them.
Weston Electrical Measuring Instruments sales letters, 1924
It offers a free booklet, Compliments of Weston, reprinting the letters written to brief its own salesmen, for the engineers and educators who asked for more than a catalogue gives.
Fouad I Museum of the Egyptian State Railways ad, al-Ithnayn wa al-Dunya 1940
It shows the merely interested what is inside, models, maps and lit pictures of transport, with a photo of the staircase, and asks only 20 milliemes to walk in.
Dr. Tibbles' Vi-Cocoa free sample card
A card entitling the reader to a Dainty Sample Tin free for a halfpenny stamp and a name asks nothing more, so testing Vi-Cocoa's merits costs almost nothing.
Robbialac car enamel paint ad, al-Lataif al-Musawwarah 1925
Instead of asking for a sale, the coupon asks only for a free printed leaflet of car-painting instructions, a small no-cost step for an owner who still thinks repainting is workshop work.
Beecham's Help to Scholars reference booklet
Times tables, weights and measures, the metric system and a sol-fa modulator are handed free to schoolchildren, with a 'Name' line on the cover, while Powders and Germolene ads wait between the tables.
Hawaa magazine spring issue ad, al-Musawwar 1962
Next to the spring festival name, a free 16-page booklet, Shyness in Women, comes with the issue at the usual 4 piastres, a useful extra that asks nothing more of the reader.
World's Dispensary Medical Association ladies' note book, 1909
The cover shows only a laughing toddler and 'Compliments of', most pages are left free for her own notes, and the selling waits for one last page and a 50-cent salve by post.
Sheikh Sharib al-Shai tea ad, al-Musawwar 1936
The bearded mascot, whose face is also the teapot logo, acts out five framed brewing steps down to 'never use the leaves a second time', a free lesson that asks for no purchase.
جربت تطبيق يكافئك على سواقتك؟ جرب درايف التعاونية
It offers a useful thing with no strings: the app is free and open to people with no Tawuniya policy, so the first ask is a download, not a purchase.
It offers a useful tool tied to a game people already play and asks only for a download, not a line, a plan or a bigger commitment.
اعلان البث المباشر لهاتف هواوي بي ٢٠ برو
It offers something useful with no strings, answers to the viewer's own questions about the phone, and asks only that they tune in at 6:30.
It offers a useful thing with no strings, free checks with reports to keep, and asks only for a visit, not for a policy.
It meets a light, open attention with a no-strings sample: two free months of higher speed, without asking for a bigger plan or a commitment first.
Doing it wrong
Ads that make the Avoid mistake.
No ad in the library does this yet.
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