If you’ve been through one of my Headshots sprints, you know we work closely together to articulate your positioning in 5 crisp visual assets.

And the first visual is always a depiction of: your buyer’s pain.

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Not “What problem do they have?”

But rather, the step before that:

“What pain are they experiencing?”

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Those are two different things

A problem could be declining sales...

But the pain for your client, your actual human buyer, could be:

• Embarrassment that their numbers aren’t healthy
• Anxiety about future investment rounds
• Fear of losing hard-earned market share (or their job)

Notice these pains are emotional states.

I find these are the most effective entry points with prospects because, when articulated well, they show you understand what they’re going through at a human level.

This validates their feelings, instills trust, and invites a deeper conversation.

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I watched last night’s Super Bowl ads through the “pain” lens, and here are my top three:

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Most melodramatic:

​Squarespace’s “Unavailable”​

• Emma Stone can’t purchase her own domain name, throwing violent fits and destroying laptops every time she tries to buy and finds out her domain has already been taken
• Pain: Frustration, FOMO
• CTA: Buy your domain before someone else does

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The most cheeky:

​Novartis’s “Tight Ends”​

• A punny play on “relaxed tight ends” suggesting that men are instinctually “tight” when thinking about getting a prostate exam, but are relieved to find out you can do an initial PSA check via a blood draw
• Pain: Anxiety, Fear
• CTA: Don’t worry, just schedule your appt

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Most introspective:

​Pepsi’s “The Choice”​

• Polar bears have long been Coca Cola’s mascot — but here, the polar bear is thrown into an identity crisis after preferring Pepsi in a blind taste test
• Pain: Shame, Confusion
• CTA: You’re not alone, own your evolving preference

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Each of these pain-based ads strike a human tone, capturing the fragile emotional state of a relatable situation, and then offering a very specific (branded) resolution.

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Bump.

Set.

Spike.

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Compare these to some of the others that didn’t address pain at all:

• UberEats used Matthew McConaughey and Bradley Cooper to introduce a conspiracy theory about food & professional sports (??)
• Nerds had Andy Cohen take a new candy gummy shopping for their big reveal (??)
• Coinbase ran 30 seconds of Backstreet Boys karaoke and then flashed their logo (??)

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Granted, many Super Bowl ads are just to drive brand awareness or get people talking, but to me, skipping the pain point makes these seem noticeably ‘meh’ and fall flat despite their expensive star power.

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Now, that’s painful…

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💡

-Wes

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P.S. Are you speaking directly to your client’s urgent pain point?

Learn more about my 1:1 Intellectual Headshots sprint designed to give you the crisp visual and verbal narrative to draw in your ideal consulting clients.

​Initial consults are always free.