It has been said that advertising is the price to be paid for being unremarkable. That may be true, but I have noticed that even remarkable businesses advertise. Effective advertising design is an essential component of your marketing campaign. It creates awareness and consumer education of your value.
Here is a short video on ad design trends to get you started.
Check out our thoughts on creative marketing.
Ever written an advertisement, or thought about it? I’ve done marketing for my clients in small businesses for the past 7+ years. In that time I’ve learned a few things about making advertising look professional even on a tight budget.
And the actual measure of effective advertising design is having customers remember and talk about the message.
Many small businesses don’t have a lot of time or resources to create professionally made ads. But that may be because they make it too complicated. In marketing or advertising, you need to create information that your customers find interesting, entertaining, and worth talking about.
“Last year was marked by intensely emotional events, and video advertising was in some ways a reflection of this. The Olympics brought many uplifting pieces of creative from brands like Hershey’s and P&G, while brands like Zappos and Microsoft tackled social issues like homelessness and female empowerment,” said Peter Daboll, CEO of Ace Metrix, in a statement.
“The presidential election opened the door for brands to deliver messages of inclusion and unity. As usual, the Super Bowl brought us some of the year’s funniest ads, including Doritos final installment of Crash the Super Bowl.”
Does a commercial have the power to encourage the right sort of conversations? That is the objective, isn’t it? Let’s explore why this is so important.
Here are the best recent effective advertisement design examples that represent extraordinary design elements:
Grab and hold viewers’ attention
Catch attention with interesting information. Keep in mind that people don’t read ads, they read what interests them. Your ad messages must be compelling to your target communities.
At a time when some people might be struggling to gain the acceptance of their family, this Danish commercial about a father getting a gift for his transgender teen daughter is great.
What gets me the most is the initial fear of rejection on both sides and the shy, understanding smiles in the end.
Create curiosity
I was fully prepared to dislike this Mercedes-Benz commercial about a young teen getting his dad to drive him to his date during one of the worst snowstorms of the winter.
But Wow it if I didn’t start to well up when his date, who he thought had ditched him, showed up to the empty movie theater, too.
Effective advertising … use of story
This “English for Beginners” commercial has been watched over 12 million times, and it’s no surprise why. From the cute dog to the adorable grammar mistakes, the whole ad is as charming as anything I have viewed in a long while.
But it’s the ending that will clutch your heart and twist your tear ducts. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Define a value proposition
Have you ever heard of Safelite Autoglass and their business model? They have created The Safelite Advantage™ as a bundle of unique selling propositions providing what consumers have identified as their primary vehicle glass service needs. It’s why leading insurance and fleet companies, as well as more than four million drivers, choose Safelite each year.
Consider the end state values to your customers
Not only does this commercial have two old men coming adorably together, but it shows that some things like real friendship and bad knees are universal, no matter your faith.
By the end of this commercial, you’ll be laughing and crying at the same time.
Effective advertising methods … use of music
We used to think of music in commercials as only support. No longer the case in today’s world.
Take this Jeep commercial as an example in point. The music is the centerpiece of the ad and indeed holds you to the script. At least it does me.
Make your messages simple
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr6lr_VRsEo
So simple that the reader will quickly understand. Keep in mind that pictures are far more valuable than words.
This silly commercial is from the perspective of Buster the boxer dog who wants nothing more than to jump on his family’s new trampoline but watches in vain as nocturnal animals steal his spotlight. Until it’s finally his turn.
Though this commercial isn’t sad exactly, there’s something about watching this happy dog bounce on a new trampoline that will bring tears of joy to your eyes.
Be relevant to your target market.
Keep in mind that one message does not fit all. It starts with knowing your target market.
Here is a very relevant message.
Use of surprise
Watching two adorable teddy bears walk through the airport might sound banal, but they are oh-so-endearing.
And when you finally realize who they are, it makes this commercial all the cuter with this surprise ending.
Define your positioning
Your positioning is your frame of reference. Make comparisons to your competitors if you can.
Sometimes you want to position yourself as close as possible to your best competitors, as these ads.
Doritos’ Super Bowl commercial “Ultrasound” came in second place for the funniest ad of 2016, while Avocados From Mexico’s game day spot came in second for the funniest ad of the year. Other brands that scored points with consumers last year were Kohler, Microsoft, and Always.
Use of emotion
If you haven’t seen Apple’s full Frankenstein Christmas commercial, get ready to weep. It follows Frankenstein as he tries to make a human connection by replacing his neck bolts with light-up Christmas bulbs.
Watching him on his lonely mountaintop finally have the courage to journey down and connect with the townspeople is haunting, but sweet.
Unique
Make your ad as unique as you dare. Note we believe you can never be too unique, as this ad shows.
Clearly link your messages
Link your messages to your brand. Remember the AFLAC duck or E-Trade’s talking baby … these are excellent linkages to the brands.
Hershey’s “Hello From Home” ad featuring US Olympic wrestler Jordan Burroughs was linked to people who like to be motivated. The ad, created by Arnold, features Burroughs as he opens a care package filled with chocolate and words of encouragement from his family.
Inspire
According to Ace Metrix, which conducted the research by measuring the frequency of emotive words and phrases in viewer comments on nearly 8,000 videos, Nike’s “Unlimited Scout Bassett” ad was the most inspirational ad of 2016. Created by Wieden + Kennedy Portland, the video was part of Nike’s “Unlimited” campaign that ran during the Olympics.
Employ humor
One of the funniest ads recently was Cheetos’ “The Lie Detector,” according to Ace Metrix, which features a husband who catches his wife and kids sneaking Cheetos behind his back.
Creative
Johnsonville Sausage took the cake for the most creative ad of 2016 with its “Regular Speed Chase by Brett” video that launched last spring. Created by Droga5, the video was part of a campaign for the brand that tasked employees with coming up with ideas for the brand’s ads.
The bottom line
Ace Metrix scores every national television ad, and an expanding proportion of digital ads, across 96 categories creating a complete comparative database—Ace Metrix LIVE®. A unique panel of at least 500 consumers, demographically balanced to the U.S. Census, scores each ad in the same manner.
The results are presented on a scale of 1–950, which represents scoring on creative attributes such as Attention, Likeability, Information, Change, Relevance, Desire, and Watchability. Ace Metrix applies a natural language processing algorithm to the hundreds of qualitative verbatim responses collected for each ad, deriving additional metrics related to emotional engagement.
Remember, it is not what advertising does with the consumer; it is what the consumer does after reading the advertisement. Â 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 experience to share with this community?
