The ROI of Emotion in Brand Experience
- Darren O'Mahony
- 4 hours ago
- 2 min read
Why feeling something is still the most powerful metric
We talk a lot about engagement. Clicks. Interactions. Dwell time. But the experiences that actually change minds, the ones people talk about afterwards, have something harder to measure. They make you feel something. And that feeling is where the real value lives.
What Is an Emotional Brand Experience?
It’s not about sentimentality. It’s about resonance. An emotional brand experience is one that moves someone. It might make them laugh. It might surprise them. It might prompt reflection or spark curiosity. But it lingers. That’s what turns a moment into a memory. And memories drive behaviour.
Why Emotion Matters in Experience Design
People forget facts. They remember feelings. Especially when those feelings are connected to a place, a brand, or a story they were part of. We’ve seen it again and again in our own work:
A child feeling seen by a Naughty-or-Nice Meter in a busy shopping centre
A family laughing together while triggering animations on a giant Christmas keyboard
A visitor gently nursing a digital sea turtle back to health in an aquarium rescue experience
A passer-by lighting up when their face appears inside a digital watch demo on the street
None of these were designed for showreels. They were designed to make people feel good, feel connected, or feel curious. That’s what created the impact.
Why Emotion Drives ROI
Emotion creates dwell time.
Emotion drives word of mouth.
Emotion fuels organic reach, repeat visits, and stronger brand memory.
It also makes the experience worth sharing, which turns a physical moment into a digital one and stretches the impact well beyond the footprint. In short, emotion is not a soft metric. It’s a multiplier.
So How Do You Design for Emotion?
It’s not about adding sentiment. It’s about finding the feeling at the core of the brief, and building the experience around that. We start by asking:
• What do we want people to feel?
• What’s the emotional arc of the interaction?
• Where’s the moment of surprise, joy, or connection?
• How do we make that moment land intuitively, without friction?
The tech should support that. Not distract from it.
The Future of Brand Experience Is Emotional
As budgets tighten and attention fragments, brands will need to work harder to stay memorable.Not louder. Not bigger. Smarter. And the smartest experiences are the ones people connect with on a human level. That doesn’t mean walking away from innovation. It means using it in service of feeling and emotion.
Want to Build Something People Remember?
If you’re planning a project and want to lead with clarity, resonance, and results, we’d love to talk.
Send us your problem. We’ll come back with ideas.
