If you wanted to learn more about building the best advertisements, how would you go about it? For us, the answer is pretty simple. We learn best by studying and analyzing impressive social media marketing tips and design examples. In this blog, we will define 13 essential marketing tips and design elements we rely on to create effective advertisement messages. We also illustrate with the best examples of each that we could find.
It is an excellent way to learn and stimulate design ideas. Let’s get started:
Generate fan togetherness
Biltwell makes motorcycle accessories, and they also make great engagement happen on their Facebook page with some fantastic helmet art. Check out this example of the fan helmet art they routinely highlight, which encourages fan submissions and generates a feeling of togetherness around the brand. It seems to be an ongoing campaign of Biltwell’s.
Grab and hold the attention
Did you see Nike’s Re2pect … a Tribute to Yankee Shortstop Derek Jeter? As most of us know, future Baseball Hall of Famer Derek Jeter recently retired. So, one of Jeter’s long-time sponsors, Nike, released a commercial paying tribute to him. The ad’s name “ RE2PECT” is a tip of the cap to Jeter’s jersey number – and a host of athletes and celebrities can be seen paying tribute to the Yankees captain.
Use extraordinary prizes
I think tickets to the World Cup are the single best title that marketers could offer this year, how about you? Hyundai teamed up with YouTube channel Copa90 for a contest with the World Cup of prizes. Check out their video.
Emotional influence
The Zillow real estate company has built an entire marketing campaign on changing home buyers with emotional impact. Have you seen any of them? We like them so much that we have searched for them on YouTube frequently.
“Homecoming” is Zillow’s sixth TV spot, the latest in the company’s highly successful national advertising campaign. You cannot beat these ads. There are no better means of influence or the power of persuasion than emotion. Hands down the best, in our opinion.
Experiences that trigger our emotions are saved and consolidated in lasting memory because the emotions generated by the experiences signal our brains that the skills are important to remember.
The homecoming commercial ending message says it all:
You are not just looking for a house; you are looking for a place for your life to happen.
This commercial focuses on emotional appeal in grand fashion. It is the secret of this business’s success. It creates strong persuasion in our opinion. An excellent example of a successful advertisement design.
If you are going to compete in a picture contest, why not compete in a grand way? National Geography launched a competition on Facebook where fans can experience the thrill of having their photo on a National Geographic magazine cover. Wow, now that is a great incentive, yes? Fans just upload their photos to Facebook, caption it, and they are entered to win a travel package. It seems like a great image generator that fans will also want to share on their Facebook pages.
Social media marketing tips … Four Seasons’ company page
One in three professionals online is on LinkedIn. How many of those are making hotel reservations around the world and spending company money? Plenty. That’s why it’s so smart for Four Seasons to build a helpful, engaging LinkedIn presence.
They feature great videos and graphic content, and they also post job listings. It’s a great example of a LinkedIn company page done well (and they were also selected as one of LinkedIn’s top company pages of 2013).
Social media marketing tips … customer end state needs
Focus on client needs end state and not the means. The end state is the only priority.
A good example of this is this Prudential’s billboard ad. This commercial considers the end state needs of its customers … the retirement needs of target customers are the business’s objective. An excellent interactive graphics drives home the purpose.
Make the message as clean and straightforward as possible. You cannot overachieve on the simplicity of the message. A message that the reader will quickly understand. Keep in mind that pictures are far more valuable than words.
This Guinness “Empty Chair” commercial salutes the character of a community as they honor one of their own who is out of sight, but not out of mind. The choices we make reveal the true nature of our character. Guinness proudly raises a glass to those who are #MadeOfMore.
Social media tips and tricks … relevant to your target market
Misty Copeland is only the third African American female soloist ever to dance for the American Ballet Theatre. But her route to the top was anything but an easy one. She only danced ballet for the first time at the age of 13, a full eight years later than most dance pros start training. And when she began to grow into a woman, she developed muscle tone, large breasts, and big feet – not exactly the accepted shape for a ballerina.
However, her refusal to give up on her dream is celebrated in this impressive new campaign for sports brand Under Armour, called ‘I Will What I Want.’
Have you seen this commercial? If not, take the 60 seconds to review it. It will indeed create a topic of discussion for you and your friends. That is certainly Under Armour’s objective, isn’t it?
Build a Best Vine Challenge
Easter social media contests are tricky. There’s only so many bunny or chocolate references that consumers can withstand. I enjoyed how Mashable brought Easter to Vine with this creativity-inspiring campaign. They explain: “In many countries around the world, decorating Easter eggs is an annual spring tradition. So for this week’s Mashable Vine Challenge, we want you to fire up your imagination, and decorate your own.”
Social media design examples … visual elements
Use pictures/visuals to convey the message much better than words. “Seeing is believing” and “actions speak louder than words” are two common sayings that reflect a bias and preference for visual presentation.
Here is a four minute Samsung ad with 15-20 new features shown for their iPhone. No talking. And so simple that you quickly grasp the features and don’t lose interest. And the coordinated music has a way to keep you tied in emotionally. Creating customer interest doesn’t get any simpler than this, does it? A very simple, yet entertaining design, don’t you think?
Letting the visuals totally carry the messages.
Microsoft’s company page
Sometimes overlooked as one of the big social media channels, LinkedIn is actually the third most popular alongside Facebook and Twitter, according to recent research. If you’re looking for ideas on how to kickstart your LinkedIn efforts for marketing, take a page out of Microsoft’s book. They include behind the scenes looks at the company; question-and-answer posts; blogs and thought leadership; and more.
Storytelling
Have you seen the remarkable branding video design from this South African business? The Bell’s TV commercial features a father whose intrepid spirit demonstrates just what it takes to be a true man of character. The video was created to market and build the brand. It is a very simple story.
It advocates learning to read no matter your age or status in society. To us, it creates pure magic with the story, the visuals, the music and the emotion. It certainly finds emotional triggers
If you haven’t seen it, watch it now, it is only 2 minutes and it will inspire you. It is certainly easier in our top 5 of all time.
Social media design examples … authentic
What do you feel is the single most significant factor in the design of an advertisement? Being the most authentic advertisement design is probably not the top factor, but it is certainly in the top 5, don’t you think? It certainly influences the action taken considerably.
We like to examine advertisements to learn what drives the best ones to be the best and the terrible ones to be that bad. Today we will examine one of the best we have seen in a while. Perhaps one that is the most authentic we have ever seen.
Here is the commercial for you to judge for yourself:
Terry Bradshaw Talks Shingles
Integrated campaign
Your ads should be integrated components of an integrated marketing campaign. Remember; stop interrupting what people interested in, and be what people are interested in.
It was in early 2009 when IBM began its Smarter Planet marketing campaign strategy. At the time, the strategy seemed very ambitious … maybe even a bit risky, even for IBM. But their success was based on a strategy to build out a long-term campaign.
To do this they defined a theme around their vision (Smarter Planet). They used the theme to craft a marketing strategy connecting and integrating many smaller marketing objectives and tactics as they could. They also linked their core competencies to this theme, vision and challenge.
This very successful campaign continues today, 6 years later.
The bottom line
Building a positive social media community engagement is very similar to making friends. Keep it simple and be genuine.
Being social with a great positive engagement isn’t a new way of marketing; it’s a way of doing business. Follow these simple initiative examples and you will be leading the way.
Remember, it is not what advertising does with the consumer; it is what the consumer does after reading the advertisement. After looking over these enablers and Allstate’s mayhem ads … how do you think they did?
What are some of your experiences with advertising as a component of an integrated marketing campaign?
Do you have an advertising design experience to share with this community?
Need some help in capturing more customers from your advertising? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with your customers?
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy improving your advertising design?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
More reading on social media lessons from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Have you ever wondered about how to be more persuasive or influential? Certainly, an important question if you are in the marketing profession, isn’t it? It is certainly a secret to WOMM. Let me explain why.
Emotional word of mouth conversations is sparked when consumers are highly aroused. Have you noticed that people choose emotionally and then justify logically?
Fleur, a florist shop in Chicago, puts a bucket full of bright balloons by the door of their shop both inside and out, with a handwritten sign that says: “Take a balloon.” That’s all. No logos, no catch. It is just a small action to make people smile. Inside the store, it makes a pretty display, and outside the store, people are likely to ask where you got the balloon.
That’s a simple, fun way to create some emotion and get a conversation started without a marketing message. A bucket full of balloons is a bucket full of the word of mouth memories waiting to happen. It doesn’t have to be branded or a part of a larger campaign — in fact, the simpler you make it, the better.
Surprise people
Surely you have seen the tear-jerker commercials for abused or abandoned puppies or kittens. Not something you’ll often share with friends, is it?
North Carolina’s Wake County SPCA tried a very different approach to this problem. They made a lip-synching music video to ABBA’s song “Take a Chance on Me”, with the entire shelter staff and most of the adoptable animals.
A success? It was watched on YouTube over 3.4 million times the last time we looked. Just because others do the standard tear-jerking videos doesn’t mean they are popular.
Surprise your audience with original things that are fun and approachable like this SPCA did. It may even surprise you.
Word of mouth marketing examples … emotional influence
The Zillow real estate company has built an entire marketing campaign on influencing home buyers with emotional influence. Have you seen any of them? We like them so much that we have searched for them on YouTube frequently.
“Homecoming” is Zillow’s sixth TV spot, one of the latest in the company’s highly successful national advertising campaign. You cannot beat these ads. There are no better means of influence or the power of persuasion than emotion. Hands down the best, in our opinion.
Experiences that trigger our emotions are saved and consolidated in lasting memory because the emotions generated by the experiences signal our brains that the experiences are important to remember.
The homecoming commercial ending message says it all:
You are not just looking for a house; you are looking for a place for your life to happen.
This commercial focuses on emotional appeal in grand fashion. It is the secret of this commercial’s success. It creates strong persuasion in our opinion. A great example of using emotion for a successful advertisement design.
Word of mouth marketing ideas … storytelling
Have you seen the remarkable branding video design from this South African business? The Bell’s TV commercial features a father whose intrepid spirit demonstrates just what it takes to be a true man of character.
The video was created to market and build the brand. It is a very simple story. It advocates learning to read no matter your age or status in society. To us, it creates pure magic with the story, the visuals, the music and the emotion. It certainly finds and puts emotional triggers to work.
If you haven’t seen it, watch it now, it is only 2 minutes, and it will inspire you. It is certainly easily in our top 5 of all time.
Likewise, have you ever wondered why movies like Toy Story are so compelling and successful? The best writers in the world speak to universal human themes—the things that drive every one of us no matter what our worldview is.
Look for word of mouth triggers.
Compelling storylines work because we see ourselves reflected in the characters. Their story is our story. A great script looks us right in the eye and says, “I see you.” Contrast that feeling with the one you get when you’re speaking to someone at a party, who is looking over his shoulder for the next most interesting person to enter the room.
That’s exactly how you don’t want your customers and clients to feel.
Great storytellers make us feel like they’re speaking directly to us. And so it goes for great brand storytelling. The best brand stories make you feel like the company understands and is speaking just to you. The goal is to be more like Pixar and nothing like that guy at the party. You achieve that by remembering ‘the rule of one.’
Speak to one person at a time. Make that person feel like she’s being looked in the eye. That’s the foundation of a winning emotional story.
The bottom line
Emotion is the secret language of the brain … works on emotion if you want to improve your persuasion or influence.
What are some of your experiences with utilizing emotion with word of mouth marketing messages?
Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Leo Burnett once said: The secret of all effective advertising is not the creation of new and tricky words and pictures, but one of putting familiar words and pictures into new relationships. If you wanted to learn more about building the best advertisements, how would you go about it?
For us, the answer is pretty simple. We learn best by studying and analyzing awesome advertisement examples.
In this blog, we will define 13 important advertisement design elements we rely on to create effective advertisement messages and the best examples of each that we could find.
Did you ever see a commercial that you liked and watched it? Can you remember the brand? We would love to hear what it was (OK to say you can’t remember the brand). Would you do us a favor and tell us in the comments section? It would be greatly appreciated by us and our readers.
It is a great way to learn and stimulate design ideas. Let’s get started:
The Zillow real estate company has built an entire marketing campaign on influencing home buyers with emotional influence. Have you seen any of them? We like them so much that we have searched for them on YouTube frequently.
Related post: Ten Deadly Sins of Advertising Design
“Homecoming” is Zillow’s sixth TV spot, the latest in the company’s highly successful national advertising campaign. You cannot beat these ads. There are no better means of influence or the power of persuasion than emotion. Hands down the best, in our opinion.
Experiences that trigger our emotions are saved and consolidated in lasting memory because the emotions generated by the experiences signal our brains that the experiences are important to remember. Check out the homecoming ad.
The homecoming commercial ending message says it all:
You are not just looking for a house, you are looking for a place for your life to happen.
This commercial focuses on emotional appeal in grand fashion. It is the secret of this commercial’s success. It really creates strong persuasion in our opinion. A great example of successful advertisement design.
Do you ever see a commercial that you liked and watch it? Can you remember the brand? We would love to hear what it was. Would you do us a favor and tell us in the comments section? It would be greatly appreciated by us and our readers.
Written advertisement examples … Grab and hold attention
Did you see Nike’s Re2pect … a Tribute to Yankee Shortstop Derek Jeter?
As most of us know, future Baseball Hall of Famer Derek Jeter recently retired. So, one of Jeter’s long-time sponsors, Nike, released a commercial paying tribute to him. The ad’s name “” RE2PECT” is a tip of the cap to Jeter’s jersey number – and a host of athletes and celebrities can be seen paying tribute to the Yankees captain.
The commercial features Jay-Z, Billy Crystal, and Spike Lee – and even a couple of begrudging Red Sox fans – tipping their cap to the Bronx legend. Of course, the sportswear giant’s original sponsorship king — Michael Jordan himself – also makes a cameo.
Define a value proposition
When Panera began, they decided to bake fresh bread from fresh dough. That made them wonder, what else could they do the right way? A great question that made them think differently.
There are several simple ways that Panera highlighted good things that they could do right. Telling you about creating delicious food that you can trust. And most importantly they ended up coming together with their communities to help feed people in need.
Several unique selling points that truly discriminate them from their competition. It is essential that you give your customers reasons to select you. Paint the picture of value … make the value stand out. And advocate for issues your customer community cares about.
Examples of advertising media … customer end state needs
Focus on customer needs end state and not the means. The end state is the only priority.
A good example of this is this Prudential’s billboard ad. This commercial definitely considers the end state needs of its customers … the retirement needs of target customers are the commercial’s objective. A great interactive graphic drives home the objective.
Simple messages
Make the message as clean and simple as possible. You cannot overachieve on the simplicity of the message. A message that the reader will quickly understand. Keep in mind that pictures are far more valuable than words.
This Guinness “Empty Chair” commercial salutes the character of a community as they honor one of their own who is out of sight, but not out of mind. The choices we make reveal the true nature of our character. Guinness proudly raises a glass to those who are #MadeOfMore.
Relevant to your target market
Misty Copeland is only the third African American female soloist ever to dance for the American Ballet Theatre. But her route to the top was anything but an easy one.
She only danced ballet for the first time at the age of 13, a full eight years later than most ballet pros start training. And when she started to grow into a woman, she developed muscle tone, large breasts, and big feet – not exactly the accepted shape for a ballerina.
However, her refusal to give up on her dream is celebrated in this awesome new campaign for sports brand Under Armour, called ‘I Will What I Want’.
Have you seen this commercial? If not, take the 60 seconds to review it. It will certainly create a topic of discussion for you and your friends. That is certainly Under Armour’s objective, isn’t it?
Define your positioning
Your positioning is the current frame of reference. Make comparisons to your competitors if you can solidly substantiate the claim.
The uncola campaign, the Avis campaign, or Apple’s think different campaign are all great examples.
Advertisement design examples … visual elements
Use pictures/visuals to convey the message much better than words. “Seeing is believing” and “actions speak louder than words” are two common sayings that reflect a bias and preference for visual presentation.
Here is a 3 minute Samsung ad with 15-20 new features shown for their iPhone. No talking. And so simple that you quickly grasp the features and don’t lose interest. And the coordinated music has a way to keep you tied in emotionally.
Creating customer interest doesn’t get any simpler than this, does it? A very simple, yet entertaining design, don’t you think?
Letting the visuals totally carry the messages.
Advertisement design examples … storytelling
Have you seen the remarkable branding video design from this South African business? The Bell’s TV commercial features a father whose intrepid spirit demonstrates just what it takes to be a true man of character.
The video was created to market and build the brand. It is a very simple story. It advocates learning to read no matter your age or status in society. To us, it creates pure magic with the story, the visuals, the music, and the emotion. It certainly finds emotional triggers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1gxHQlJn3I
If you haven’t seen it, watch it now, it is only 2 minutes and it will inspire you. It is certainly easier in our top 5 of all time.
Authentic advertisement design examples
What do you feel is the single most significant factor in the design of an advertisement? Being the most authentic advertisement design is probably not the top factor, but it is certainly in the top 5, don’t you think? It certainly influences the action taken considerably.
We like to examine advertisements to learn what drives the best ones to be the best and the terrible ones to be that bad. Today we will examine one of the best we have seen in a while. Perhaps one that is the most authentic we have ever seen.
Here is the commercial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSI2AZQmEsU
Integrated campaign
Your ads should be integrated components of an integrated marketing campaign. Remember, stop interrupting what people interested in, and be what people are interested in.
It was in early 2009 when IBM began its Smarter Planet marketing campaign strategy. At the time, the strategy seemed very ambitious … maybe even a bit risky, even for IBM. But their success was based on a strategy to build out a long term campaign.
To do this they defined a theme around their vision (Smarter Planet). They used the theme to craft a marketing strategy connecting and integrating many smaller marketing objectives and tactics as they could. They also linked their core competencies to this theme, vision, and challenge.
This very successful campaign continues today, 5 years later.
A great ad design element is to match what viewers see with what they hear. Check out this recent Budweiser commercial for great coordinated music and video:
The Budweiser puppy love commercial was, by most accounts, the biggest winner from the 2014 Super Bowl. Check out this ad here:
A great example of a successful advertisement design.
People expect and prefer coordinated audio and visual messages because those messages are easier to process and understand. Audio and visual messages that are out-of-sync may gain attention, but customers usually find them uncomfortable.
The bottom line
Remember, it is not what advertising does with the consumer, it is what the consumer does after reading the advertisement. After looking over these enablers and Allstate’s mayhem ads … how do you think they did?
Look for ways to optimize.
Did you ever see a commercial that you liked and watched it? Can you remember the brand? We would love to hear what it was (OK to say you can’t remember the brand). Would you do us a favor and tell us in the comments section? It would be greatly appreciated by us and our readers.
Need some help in capturing more customers from your advertising? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with your customers?
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your advertising design?
Do you have a lesson about making your innovation better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find him on Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
It is a simple concept. People don’t read ads; they read what interests them. So if you are going to generate winning advertisement design goals, you are going to have to create some creative ideas and compelling copy.
And, oh, by the way, it must be more interesting than the millions of other advertisements out there. Now that is a daunting task, isn’t it?
Are you one that believes that advertisement design creativity can be learned? We are among that group. We also believe in suggestions for design thinking can boost team creativity through effective collaboration. Through a series of sparks and not a single flash of insight. Certainly our way of thinking.
It has been said that advertising is the price to be paid for being unremarkable. That may be true, but I have noticed, despite the growth in online marketing, that even remarkable businesses also advertise the old fashion way.
Here are key critical enablers we rely on to create compelling advertisements that can do both:
Advertising design goals … messages and content
Use simple words complemented with powerful visuals
Make your messages simple
So simple that the reader will quickly understand. Keep in mind that pictures are far more valuable than words.
Your Logo
If your business’s logo/name doesn’t contain what you do, make sure to clarify that in the ad. For example, saying “Ron’s European Inc. Collision Repair” instead of just “Ron’s Inc.”
Add information about what your business does and how you intend to help your potential customers.
Less is more
Don’t overwhelm people with information. Keep it as simple as possible while getting useful information across to the viewer.
You only have a few moments to communicate, so use powerful, focused and straightforward words – such as ‘free,’ ‘unbelievable,’ etc.
Use easy arguments
Easy cases are the conclusions people reach using inferences without a careful review of available information. Find and use original arguments that work because it is almost impossible to succeed when working against them.
Optimize the content
A call to action is crucial. Make it large and prominent to catch give the viewer’s an incentive.
Keep your message personalized – address it to one person, not to masses of people.
Ask a question to get the viewer thinking.
Give the readers a reason to act right away (for example – ‘today only’).
Support your messages with visual elements like a photo or graphics. This can be your logo, a picture of your business, or a graphic to support your messages.
Show and don’t tell
“Seeing is believing” and “actions speak louder than words” are two common sayings that reflect a bias and preference for visual presentation.
Use symbolic language and images that relate to the senses?
People prefer symbolic language and images that relate to their feelings. People are far less receptive and responsive to language and images that relate to concepts.
Life is experienced through the senses and using symbolic language and images that express what people feel, see, hear, smell or taste are easier for people to understand, even when used to describe abstract concepts.
Use compelling videos to convey your messages
The truth is that the processing capacity of our brains is limited and words may get in the way of emotionally powerful visual images. When powerful visual images dominate – when “a picture or video is worth a thousand words” – be quiet and let them do the talking.
Articles with images get 94% more views than those without. And posts with videos attract 3X more inbound links than plain text posts. A study by 3M showed that 90% of the information sent to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text.
And this holds up when you look at how the social world is evolving. The meteoric rise of sites like Vine, Instagram, and Pinterest, as well as the efforts by Facebook and Twitter to add more visual elements to their platforms, are only following the trend that visual content is the best way to reach short-attention-span audiences in a world filled with so many content choices.
McDonald’s is always coming up with innovative new ways of advertising, this brilliant print ad being its latest offering. The eye-catching visual design features a box of fries, carved from the very ingredient from which they’re made. Simple but conveying a powerful yet memorable message.
Jeff Bullas … emotional influence
Create emotional impact wherever you can
Bullas says to tell a simple story that evokes emotion
A good story has a beginning where a sympathetic character encounters a complicated situation, a middle where the character confronts and attempts to resolve the situation and an end where the outcome is revealed.
A good story does not interpret or explain the action in the story for the audience. Instead, a good story allows each member of the public to understand the story as he or she understands the work.
This is why people find good stories so appealing and why they find advertising that merely conveys information boring.
Convey basic emotional appeal
Experiences that trigger our emotions are saved and consolidated in lasting memory because the emotions generated by the experiences signal our brains that the skills are important to remember.
There are eight basic, universal emotions – joy, surprise, anticipation, acceptance, fear, anger, sadness, and disgust. Successful appeals to these basic emotions consolidate stories and the desired calls to action in the lasting memories of audiences.
Effective advertising techniques … design and layout
The biggest design and layout mistake? Too much information.
Information hierarchy
Choose information that’s most important and make it your primary element of the ad. Every piece of information in your ad should be weighted according to its importance. Make sure it is prioritized from most critical to least.
Use space wisely
Don’t use every inch of white space because you can. Leave some “breathing room” so people can digest your message. We believe the more, the better.
Use contrasting colors for fonts and backgrounds to make sure that your copy is readable. The best combo is a dark type on a light background, so it’s easier to read.
Fonts, fonts, and fonts
Use mostly sans-serif fonts and use different font sizes to differentiate the importance of the copy. Avoid using too many font types or too many font colors (think one or two max). A little color and a lot of white space go a long way.
The layout makes a difference
Be sure that your ads flow from left to right (as the eye travels left to right)
Pay attention to color schemes … avoid designs that are too busy
The size of the headline font should be big, and powerful enough to grab the attention of the reader.
This hard-hitting print ad aims to raise awareness of child labor… a simple but effective offering. Two things that could use some improvement, however: The ad is in black and white (when all the other ads on the page were color, and most of the fonts are the same size and too small. By adding color and font size increase and variation, they could have spiced things up!
Advertising and design … effective value proposition
Sometimes the value proposition is the packaging, not the product.
Define a value proposition that discriminates you from your competition. It is essential that you give your customers reasons to select you. It is amazing to us that many campaigns neglect this.
Match what viewers see with what they hear
People expect and prefer coordinated audio and visual messages because those messages are easier to process and understand. Audio and visual messages that are out-of-sync may gain attention, but customers find them uncomfortable.
Identifiable music
Music can be a rapidly identified cue for the recall of emotional responses remembered from previous advertising. Making the same music a recognizable aspect of all advertising signals the audience to pay attention to more relevant content.
A great TV ad by Dell that celebrates new business startup successes. Check out this memorable music that does a fantastic job of complementing the ad’s messages … ‘this magic moment.’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja61fxmY77Q
Advertisement design … have a call to action
A simple call to action is needed on all ads.
Say exactly why people should contact your business and what you can do for them. For example “Come home to a life that is SIMPLY MAGNIFICENT.”
Make the desired call to action a part of the story
A good story that is very entertaining but does not make a direct connection between the call you want to act and the story is just a very fun story. The whole point of the story in advertising is to efficiently deliver the desired call to action.
If the audience does not clearly understand the call you want to action after seeing the ad, then you are missing the real opportunity. Remember this: having an entertaining story and clearly delivering the desired call to action are not mutually exclusive.
Make your ad a component of an integrated marketing campaign.
It’s key to have social integration across all areas of the business. Social media is a tool to be used across all functions: HR, sales, marketing, product design, online, and customer support.
Look for how all areas of social (listening, research, support, content, and analytics) come together to have an impact on customer experience and employee collaboration.
Embed social media in the fabric of the company and empower your staff to use it to achieve better results for clients and the business. This is the best way to create an integration in your marketing.
So if you remember one thing from this article, remember this:
Marketing or advertising, you need to create information that your customers find interesting and worth talking about and remembering.
The bottom line
Make your thinking vivid by including what comes naturally to you. For example, you may not be able to imagine sequences of images very well, but you may excel in imagining other modalities such as smell, touch, and sound.
You may be excellent in infusing your visualization with emotional charge and great feelings. DO not feel compelled to stay within any single modality but make your visualizations and imagination vivid and rich by including numerous modalities.
Your senses are wonderful tools for you to engage while unleashing the power of the imaginative mind. Make your imagination your ally and your best friend.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is entirely up to you.
It’s up to you to keep improving your innovation and creativity in ad designs. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, your competitor may be providing ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that struggle gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find him on Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
In this blog, we will define important Neil Patel design examples we rely on to create effective advertisement messages and the best examples of each that we could find. These are social media design examples.
If you wanted to learn more about building the best advertisements, how would you go about it? For us, the answer is pretty simple.
We learn best by studying and analyzing awesome advertisement design examples.
The secret of all effective advertising is not the creation of new and tricky words and pictures, but one of putting familiar words and pictures into new relationships.
Related: What Makes These Extraordinary Commercials so Captivating?
It is a great way to learn and stimulate design ideas. Let’s get started:
Neil Patel design examples … generate fan togetherness
Biltwell makes motorcycle accessories, and they also make great engagement happen on their Facebook page with some fantastic helmet art.
Check out this example of the fan helmet art they routinely highlight, which encourages fan submissions and generates a feeling of togetherness around the brand. It seems to be an ongoing campaign of Biltwell’s.
Grab and hold the attention
Did you see Nike’s Re2pect … a Tribute to Yankee Shortstop Derek Jeter? As most of us know, future Baseball Hall of Famer Derek Jeter recently retired.
So, one of Jeter’s long-time sponsors, Nike, released a commercial paying tribute to him. The ad’s name “ RE2PECT” is a tip of the cap to Jeter’s jersey number – and a host of athletes and celebrities can be seen paying tribute to the Yankees captain.
Watch this cool commercial here.
Social media design examples … use extraordinary prizes
I think tickets to the World Cup are the single best prize that marketers could offer this year, how about you?
Hyundai teamed up with YouTube channel Copa90 for a contest with the World Cup of prizes. Check out their video.
The Zillow real estate company has built an entire marketing campaign on influencing home buyers with emotional influence.
Have you seen any of them? We like them so much that we have searched for them on YouTube frequently.
“Homecoming” is Zillow’s sixth TV spot, the latest in the company’s highly successful national advertising campaign. You cannot beat these ads.
There are no better means of influence or the power of persuasion than emotion. Hands down the best, in our opinion.
Experiences that trigger our emotions are saved and consolidated in lasting memory because the emotions generated by the experiences signal our brains that the experiences are important to remember.
The homecoming commercial ending message says it all:
You are not just looking for a house; you are looking for a place for your life to happen.
This commercial focuses on emotional appeal grandly. It is the secret of this commercial’s success. It creates strong persuasion in our opinion. A great example of a successful advertisement design.
Neil Patel design examples … photo contests
If you are going to compete in a photo contest, why not compete in a grand way? National Geography launched a contest on Facebook where fans can experience the thrill of having their photo on a National Geographic magazine cover. Wow, now that is a great incentive, yes?
Fans simply upload their photos through Facebook, caption it, and they are entered to win a travel package. Seems like a great image generator that fans will also want to share on their own Facebook pages.
Neil Patel design examples … Four Seasons’ company page
Neil Patel knows one in three professionals online is on LinkedIn. How many of those are making hotel reservations around the world and spending company money? Plenty.
That’s why it’s so smart for Four Seasons to build a helpful, engaging LinkedIn presence.
They feature great videos and readable content, and they also post job listings. It’s a great example of a LinkedIn company page done well (and they were also selected as one of LinkedIn’s top company pages of 2013).
Customer end state needs
Focus on customer needs end state and not the means. The end state is the only priority.
Here is another excellent example:
That is this Prudential’s billboard ad. This commercial considers the end state needs of its customers … the retirement needs of target customers are the commercial’s objective. A great interactive graphics drives home the objective.
Neil Patel design examples: simple messages
Neil Patel makes the message as clean and simple as possible. You cannot overachieve on the simplicity of the message. A message that the reader will quickly understand.
Now … keep in mind that pictures are far more valuable than words.
This Guinness “Empty Chair” commercial salutes the character of a community as they honor one of their own who is out of sight, but not out of mind. The choices we make reveal the true nature of our character. Guinness proudly raises a glass to those who are #MadeOfMore.
Neil Patel design examples … relevant to your target market
You might be wondering …
Misty Copeland is only the third African American female soloist ever to dance for the American Ballet Theatre. But her route to the top was anything but an easy one. She only danced ballet for the first time at the age of 13, a full eight years later than most ballet pros start training.
And when she started to grow into a woman, she developed muscle tone, large breasts, and big feet – not exactly the accepted shape for a ballerina.
However, her refusal to give up on her dream is celebrated in this awesome new campaign for sports brand Under Armour, called ‘I Will What I Want.’
Have you seen this commercial? If not, take the 60 seconds to review it. It will certainly create a topic of discussion for you and your friends. That is certainly Under Armour’s objective, isn’t it?
Visual elements
Neil Patel uses pictures/visuals to convey the message much better than words. “Seeing is believing” and “actions speak louder than words” are two common sayings that reflect a bias and preference for visual presentation.
Here is a four-minute Samsung ad with 15-20 new features shown for their iPhone. No talking. And so simple that you quickly grasp the features and don’t lose interest.
And the coordinated music has a way to keep you tied in emotionally. Creating customer interest doesn’t get any simpler than this, does it? A very simple, yet entertaining design, don’t you think?
Letting the visuals totally carry the messages.
Microsoft’s company page
Sometimes overlooked as one of the big social media channels, LinkedIn is the third most popular alongside Facebook and Twitter, according to recent research.
If you’re looking for ideas on how to kickstart your LinkedIn efforts for marketing, take a page out of Microsoft’s book.
They include behind the scenes looks at the company; question-and-answer posts; blogs and thought leadership; and more.
What does Neil Patel feel is the single most significant factor in the design of an advertisement? Being the most authentic advertisement design is probably not the top factor, but it is certainly in the top 5, don’t you think?
It certainly influences the action taken considerably.
Neil likes to examine advertisements to learn what drives the best ones to be the best and the terrible ones to be that bad.
Today he will examine one of the best we have seen in a while. Perhaps one that is the most authentic we have ever seen.
Here is the commercial for you to judge for yourself:
Terry Bradshaw Talks Shingles
Integrated campaign
Your ads should be integrated components of an integrated marketing campaign.
Remember; stop interrupting what people interested in, and be what people are interested in.
It was in early 2009 when IBM began its Smarter Planet marketing campaign strategy. At the time, the strategy seemed very ambitious … maybe even a bit risky, even for IBM.
But their success was based on a strategy to build out a long-term campaign.
To do this, they defined a theme around their vision (Smarter Planet). They used the theme to craft a marketing strategy connecting and integrating many smaller marketing objectives and tactics as they could.
They also linked their core competencies to this theme, vision, and challenge.
This very successful campaign continues today, six years later.
Here is the bottom line
Building a positive social media community engagement is very similar to making friends. Keep it simple and be genuine.
Being social with a great positive engagement isn’t a new way of marketing; it’s a way of doing business. Follow these simple initiative examples, and you will be leading the way.
Remember, it is not what advertising does with the consumer; it is what the consumer does after reading the advertisement. After looking at these enablers and Allstate’s mayhem ads … how do you think they did?
What are some of your experiences with advertising as a component of an integrated marketing campaign?
Do you have an advertising design experience to share with this community?
Need some help in capturing more customers from your advertising? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with your customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy improving your advertising design?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More related reading from Digital Spark Marketing’s blog library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
Ever wanted to build the best marketing campaigns, or thought about it? We’ve done marketing for our clients in small businesses for the past 5+ years and learned a few things about making creative marketing campaigns and advertising look professional even on a tight budget.
And the true measure of successful marketing campaign design? That is having customers remember and talk about them.
Ten years ago, social media was in its infancy. Nobody even heard of mobile marketing, content marketing or big data. The iPhone hadn’t even been launched yet. If you took a reasonably competent marketer from 2007 and transported her to today, much of what she knew about her job would be irrelevant.
We’re at a similar point now. Many of the most powerful technologies that will shape marketing over the next ten years are just emerging and many marketers will be left behind. Clearly, anybody who thinks that they can get by doing more of what they’re doing today is kidding themselves.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to exactly predict the future, but we can look at today’s technology and make some basic judgments. Big data and artificial intelligence will become much more powerful and interact more completely with the physical world. That, in turn, will transform how we identify and serve customers to something very different from today.
We like what Seth thinks about this.
We don’t have an information shortage; we have an attention shortage.
-Seth Godin
Many small businesses don’t have a lot of time or resources to have their marketing campaigns or ads professionally designed. Marketing or advertising, you need to create information that your customers find interesting and worth talking about and remembering. Customers read and remember things that interest them.
So what’s a small business to do?
Here are eight important marketing design elements we rely on to design creative marketing campaigns and the best examples of each that we could find. Great way to learn and stimulate marketing campaign design ideas:
Best marketing campaigns … consumer insights
Consumer insight is a simple truth that applies to a significant set of your target community. Businesses must understand what customers are and aren’t buying and why. They should also understand the way and why customers behave the way they do.
Here are two examples of customer insights that we like a lot:
The first example is Sam Walton who put large stores in sparsely populated locations – the opposite of retail orthodoxy – because he ‘understood’ that the vastly improved highway system had made it easy for shoppers from the larger urban areas to travel to these stores and for the suppliers to deliver goods cheaply.
Another example is Steve Jobs insisting that the iMac was launched with four colors because he got that color is a way that people express themselves and makes the computer personal. This did not go down well with the left-brained people who could say the negatives: delayed launch, higher inventory, more pressure in forecasting, etc.
Specific, attainable objectives
The objective of creative marketing campaigns is to position your business as a better but less expensive alternative to your best competitors. You should specify what your customer community should think, feel, and do.
Focus on using emotions as much as possible. You’ll be surprised at the results.
Create the customer persona to represent your target community (think community and not an audience. Why you may ask? A community is about multi-way way engagement in the group, while an audience signifies one-way transmission.)
Listen to these personas, collect quotes and comments, as well as testimonials.
Successful marketing campaign examples … target each campaign
Creative marketing campaigns address issues that are specific to given objectives. So one campaign strategy won’t be effective for all of your objectives obviously.
Design marketing campaigns to specific business objectives. Think about your objectives, ok?
Think strategically, not predictably
You want to think strategically and avoid predictability. Think branding, the positioning of your messages, and direct responses.
Branding – Your branding is all about showing consistent messages and personality all the time. This is not about us, but how people perceive us and our story, what we look like, and what value we offer others.
Positioning – Positioning is about finding a niche in customers’ minds, and filling it with a tag line and unique selling position (USP) that will capture their attention and be remembered. A USP is one of the fundamental pieces of any solid marketing campaign. Simply stated, it’s a summary of what makes your business unique and valuable to your target market. It answers the question: How do your business services benefit your clients better than anyone else can?
This is because a USP can give a great deal of clarity to your business model, what your company does and why you do it. It can define your business and most important business goals in just a sentence.
Direct response – A direct response is a trigger you want from customers that result in an action you are seeking. The final result will hopefully yield new business for your company.
Good stories immediately focus on engagement, experiences, and emotion … central tenets that are attractive to most customers. The narrative makes your message relevant and memorable through personalization.
Stories are a great means for sharing and interpreting experiences, and great experiences have this innate ability to change the way in which we view our world.
Here is an example. It is one of my favorite examples of a company going viral and creating a story worth talking about. The company is WePay, and their story is a stunt of leaving a 600-pound block of ice in front of a PayPal conference.
Have you heard of them?
WePay’s execution here was brilliant: for years, people had been complaining about how PayPal would “freeze” their accounts, locking them out from withdrawing the money they earned. If you sell goods online, your PayPal account could be a big part of your livelihood, so to be locked out and ignored was obviously enraging for many people.
No surprise, then, that WePay’s jab at PayPal’s willingness to freeze your money was so well received! Press around the story was whirling, starting with coverage on TechCrunch:
Since some of the biggest points of difference that WePay offered were dependability, security, and customer service that PayPal has often been accused of lacking.
Taking a jab at their competitor with this stunt wasn’t just for the random, pointless press; it got people talking about a problem WePay truly hoped to address.
And their results were truly amazing.
Emotional influence and persuasion
Budweiser puppy love that was, by most accounts, the biggest winner of the 2014 Super Bowl. There are no better means of influence or the power of persuasion than emotion. Hands down the best, in our opinion.
Experiences that trigger our emotions are saved and consolidated in lasting memory because the emotions generated by the experiences signal our brains that the experiences are important to remember.
Check out this ad here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQB7QRyF4p4
There are eight basic, universal emotions – joy, surprise, anticipation, acceptance, fear, anger, sadness, and disgust. Successful appeals to these basic emotions consolidate stories and the desired calls to action in the lasting memories of audiences.
Budweiser is awesome at playing to all these emotions. Their results prove it.
Build creative marketing campaigns … visual elements
Use pictures/visuals to convey the message much better than words. “Seeing is believing” and “actions speak louder than words” are two common sayings that reflect a bias and preference for visual presentation.
Does Samsung have another winning marketing strategy?
Here is a four-minute Samsung ad with 15-20 new features shown for their iPhone. No talking. And so simple that you quickly grasp the features and don’t lose interest. And the coordinated music has a way to keep you tied in. Creating customer interest doesn’t get any simpler than this, does it? A very simple, yet entertaining design, don’t you think?
This ad subtly grabs and holds attention based on a great music soundtrack, no speaking, and a total reliance of superb visuals.
Letting the visuals totally carry the messages.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LHv1FPd1Ec
Creating customer interest doesn’t get any simpler than this, does it? A very simple, yet entertaining design, don’t you think?
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of word of mouth marketing. And put it to good use.
It’s up to you to keep improving your creative marketing efforts. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improve your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
