3 Ways Your Brand Can Harness the Tingly Power of ASMR

When I first encountered ASMR, I didn't know what was going on.

Why were these people tapping their fingernails on hard surfaces and wetting their mouths close to the microphone?

It seemed kinda yuck.

But then I put my headphones in, and...I got it.

I got that tingly feeling Cardi B so eloquently describes in her own ASMR video for W Magazine.

Some people feel more than tingles, too. Apparently, ASMR (or Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) has the power to relax you AND create feelings of euphoria.

If you're lucky.

While not everyone experiences this when they see and hear ASMR content, obviously plenty do. In 2021, AMSR-related videos racked up more than 65 billion YouTube views.

So yeah, it's a pretty popular form of content creation.

But what triggers the tingly hit?

Usually, it's caused by whispers of voices and the sound of everyday objects being handled (often with long fingernails, I've noticed).

The best ASMR video I've seen is called ASMR Kitten Massage. In this masterpiece, a woman uses gentle acupressure, hypnosis, and gua sha to relax her foster kitten.

Many ASMR videos go in for this 'doting upon' theme. They speak softly into the mic... kinda like they love you. And yeah, some of them are pretty weird.

Despite there being many specific ASMR niches, it's a surprisingly easy trend to bring into your marketing strategy. And with a whopping 83% of Gen Z watching soothing content on YouTube, it's worth incorporating.

So how do you do it?

1. Create a product video.

If you're selling a physical product that someone can handle, you're already winning!

Get someone, anyone, in front of a camera. Make them unbox your product and speak gently. Or they could tap their nails on it and rustle it around close to the microphone.

If you're lucky enough to be selling food, mukbang-style ASMR goes hard.

As long as the voices are soft and there are some satisfying 'crunchy' sounds (honestly, how else would you describe it?) you're good!

SKIMS did a great job of this, getting aforementioned ASMR fan Cardi B to unbox their shapewear. This was a simple and fun way for the brand to jump on the ASMR train without having to do much except provide some product and a microphone.

2. Partner with a creator.

Another option for tapping into the ASMR community to leverage your product is to go straight to the source and partner with an expert.

Lush did this well, asking ASMR Darling (literally her Youtube name, not my clever phrasing) to do an ASMR nighttime routine with their products. They then popped this 16-minute video onto their YouTube channel and got 1.8 million views.

Truly, the experts on ASMR are the creators themselves.

And because it's a sllllightly weird community (forgive me, but it is), people usually become dedicated to one or two specific creators. So if you can get a popular creator to use your product, there's a good chance of turning their followers into your new customers.

3. Use ASMR in your video campaign.

Another option is to harness the relaxation of ASMR in your video content while keeping high production value.

Burberry is doing this really well at the moment. The brand is creating TikTok videos that are high-production and draw on the things that make ASMR so appealing to us overstimulated TikTokers.

Take this video, for example.

There's no background music. Instead, we get to hear the satisfying sound of a sewing machine and buttons being popped on a board while watching a painting of a Burberry fabric slowly come to life.

It's relaxing, but it's still advertising. What good balance to strike.

So, play around with immersing your audience in an ASMR experience that gives them the tingles.

Because the feeling of relaxation you create will see future customers connecting more with your product or brand.

That's it from me. I'm off to re-watch that kitten massage video.

-Maggie, Copywriter