ASMR Ads: Reaching New Publics One Tingle at a Time
Published on September 9, 2021, at 3:00 p.m.
by Rachel Breeding.
Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response is a phenomenon characterized by a “tingling” sensation felt after hearing pleasing sounds, commonly called “triggers” in the ASMR content creator and fan communities.
ASMR has become a booming topic on YouTube over the past few years, with some of the largest ASMR creators reaching the same subscriber and viewership levels as popular and well-known traditional YouTubers.
If there is money to be made, companies and people will follow, and mainstream brands and content creators are taking notice of ASMR’s incredible popularity online, too.
W Magazine currently has a YouTube series where celebrities do interviews in ASMR. Many of the videos have several million views, and the most popular video in that series currently has 8.7 million views.
The beginning of ASMR advertisements
The first ASMR advertisement was created by Dove Chocolate in 2015. Since then, many other brands have followed suit by producing their own ASMR commercials.
In 2019, Anheuser-Busch debuted the first televised ASMR advertisement during Super Bowl LIII, featuring Zoe Kravitz whispering about Michelob ULTRA.
Reaching new publics one tingle at a time
Ikea and Lindt Chocolate are two companies who are currently running ASMR advertisements on YouTube, and the success of their respective campaigns is proof that there is money to be made and publics to be reached by trying new promotional media and methods.
Ikea’s ASMR ad experience, “Oddly Ikea,” currently has over 3 million views on YouTube, and Lindt’s “Lindt Excellence” has over 674,000 views and counting.
The ASMR community creates a unique corner of the internet that was not always met with the level of enthusiasm and interest it is receiving now. Prior to 2015 and the beginnings of a mainstream interest in ASMR, the concept of ASMR was often misunderstood by people outside of the ASMR community.
Now, with more large companies and brands embracing the ASMR trend, it establishes a level of trust and acceptance from publics who appreciate that ASMR is being more recognized in mainstream media. ASMR ads let ASMR lovers and content creators know that the companies and brands creating ASMR advertisements are OK with embracing something that could be seen as “weird” to others, and that makes a positive impact on the public perceptions of those companies and brands.
By capitalizing on a trending topic, the companies producing ASMR advertisements and content are reaching more publics and expanding their outreach, and that’s the kind of clever PR work that will give you tingles.
