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. It is a key component of your marketing campaign, for awareness or consumer education of your value. Lots of helpful information in this guidebook that will assist in creating advertisement ideas.
Stop interrupting what people are interested in, and be what people are interested in.
Check out our thoughts on creative marketing.
Before we continue, let me ask you a question.
What works best for advertising design in your business? We would love to hear what it was. Would you do us a favor and post it in the comments section below? It would be greatly appreciated by us and our readers.
The ultimate goal of all the points I list below is this: eliminate the fluff from your marketing strategy and focus only on the things that work.
According to Nielsen, there are 27,000,000 pieces of content are shared each day. And Statistic Brain says that our average attention span has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds – one second less than a goldfish!
We check our phones 150 times per day. We check our email up to 30 times an hour. And the amount of information in the world continues to double every 18 months.
All this available information and data is creating a battle for customer attention between brands, publishers, and every one of us who creates content. But more importantly, its forcing businesses to think and act like publishers.
Note that this is a long guidebook. If you would like me to send you a copy, please send me your email in a note requesting a copy. Mike@digitalsparkmarketing.com
Ever written an ad for print advertising, or thought about it? I’ve done marketing for my clients in small businesses for the past 4+ years and I’ve learned a few things about making advertising look professional even on a tight budget. Many small businesses don’t have a lot of time or resources to have ads professionally made. So what’s a small business to do?
If everyone is creating content, how does a business break through the noise? How do we reach our customers in a way that engages them?
Let’s take a look at this important question.
Advertisement ideas … start with an advertising strategy
This is a critical place to start your thinking. So what is an advertising strategy exactly?
Simply put, it is a campaign developed to communicate ideas about your products and services to potential consumers in the hopes of convincing them to buy those products and services. This strategy, when built in a rational and intelligent manner, will reflect other business considerations (overall budget, brand recognition efforts) and objectives (public image enhancement, market share growth) as well.
As Portable MBA in Marketing authors, Alexander Hiam and Charles D. Schewe stated, a business’s advertising strategy “determines the character of the company’s public face.” Even though a small business has limited capital and is unable to devote as much money to advertising as a large corporation, it can still develop a highly effective advertising campaign.
The key is creative and flexible planning, based on an in-depth knowledge of the target consumer and the avenues that can be utilized to reach that consumer.
Today, most advertising strategies focus on achieving three general goals, as the Small Business Administration indicated in Advertising Your Business:
promote awareness of a business and its product or services
stimulate sales directly and attract competitors’ customers
establish or modify a business’ image
In other words, advertising seeks to inform, persuade, and remind the consumer. With these aims in mind, you should follow a general process which ties advertising into the other promotional efforts and overall marketing objectives of the business.
Check this out:
Before undertaking the creation of an advertisement strategy, consider the following questions:
What would you like to accomplish with your ad campaign?
What are you offering to your potential customer?
Why is your product or service unique?
Are you looking to generate brand awareness or conversions with your ad?
All of these questions are essential to defining the advertising strategy. You’ll also note these points equally apply to other marketing elements. Here are some additional factors to consider:
Target the end state values to your customers
A good example of this is Dell’s fast delivery of a custom computer.
Be relevant to your target market.
Keep in mind that one message does not fit all. It starts with knowing insights into your target market.
Define your positioning
Your positioning is the frame of reference. Make comparisons to your competitors if you can.
Clearly link your messages
Link your messages to your brand. Remember the AFLAC duck or E-Trade’s talking baby … these are great linkages to the brands.
You need to also consider the strategy stages:
As a business begins, one of the major goals of advertising must be to generate awareness of the business and its products. Once the business’ reputation is established and its products are positioned within the market, the number of resources used for advertising will decrease as the consumer develops a kind of loyalty to the product.
Ideally, this established and ever-growing consumer base will eventually aid the company in its efforts to carry their advertising message out into the market, both through its purchasing actions and its testimonials on behalf of the product or service (i.e. word of mouth marketing, which we discuss in another chapter).
With these concrete objectives, the following elements of the advertising strategy need to be considered: target audience, product concept, communication media, and advertising message. These elements are at the core of an advertising strategy.
Again, what needs to be stressed from the beginning is clear planning and flexibility. And the key to these aims is creativity, and the ability to adapt to new market trends.
Target consumer
The target consumer is a complex combination of persons. It includes the person who ultimately buys the product, as well as those who decide what product will be bought (but don’t physically buy it), and those who influence product purchases, such as children, spouse, and friends.
In order to identify the target consumer, and the forces acting upon any purchasing decision, it is important to define three general criteria in relation to that consumer:
Demographics
These include age, gender, job, income, ethnicity, and hobbies.
Behaviors
When considering the consumers’ behavior an advertiser needs to examine the consumers’ awareness of the business and its competition, the type of vendors and services the consumer currently uses, and the types of appeals that are likely to convince the consumer to give the advertiser’s product or service a chance.
Needs and Desires
Finally, marketing must determine the consumer needs—both in practical terms and in terms of self-image, etc.—and the kind of pitch/message that will convince the consumer that the advertiser’s services or products can fulfill those needs.
Product concept
The product concept grows out of the guidelines established in the “positioning statement.” How the product is positioned within the market will dictate the kind of values the product represents, and thus how the target consumer will receive that product.
Advertising Campaign … Are the Geico Happiness Ads Effective?
Therefore, it is important to remember that no product is just itself, but is a collection of values. Whether couched in messages that emphasize humor, romance, science, masculinity, or femininity, the consumer must be able to believe in the product’s set of values.
The broadcast media
The broadcast media is the means by which the advertising message is transmitted to the consumer. After deciding on the medium that is 1) financially in reach, and 2) most likely to reach the target audience, an advertiser needs to schedule the broadcasting of that advertising.
Message development
When starting your advertising message, have your marketing objectives right in front of you. Also let the copy, art, and production values guide iteratively as you go. This combination is best realized after the target consumer has been analyzed, the product concept has been established, and the media and vehicles have been chosen. At this point, the advertising message can be directed at a very concrete audience to achieve very specific goals.
Other critical areas you should consider are:
What are the product’s unique features?
How do consumers evaluate the product? What is likely to persuade them to purchase the product?
How do competitors rank in the eyes of the consumer? Are there any weaknesses in their positions? What are their strengths?
Copy
When composing advertising copy it is crucial to remember that the primary aim is to communicate information about the business and its products and services. The “selling proposal” should be the driver here, ensuring that the advertising fits the overall marketing objectives.
Many companies utilize a theme or a slogan as the centerpiece of such efforts, emphasizing major attributes of the business’s products or services in the process. This ‘tagline’ concept will be discussed further in a future chapter.
When writing the copy, the theory is that the less the audience has to interpret the message, the easier the message will be to read, understand, and act upon.
Artwork and overall design
The visual means of conveying ideas, which simply means that the entire advertisement, including blank space, should have a priority in its design. A meaning and logic. We recommend that you use short paragraphs, lists, and catchy illustrations and graphics to break up and supplement the text and make the document both visually inviting and easy to understand.
Remember, an advertisement has to capture the reader’s attention quickly or it won’t happen at all.
Advertisement ideas … design elements to employ
The true measure of successful advertising design is having customers remember and talk about the message.
Marketing or advertising, you need to create information that your customers find interesting and worth talking about and remembering.
So what’s a business to do?
Here are 12 important ad design elements we rely on to create effective advertisement messages and the best examples of each that we could find. Great way to learn and stimulate design ideas:
Grab and hold viewers’ attention
Interesting information gets and holds attention. Keep in mind that people don’t read ads … they read what interests them. Be different and avoid normalcy at all costs. Stand out is the mantra. It’s OK to be controversial and to create conversation through the ‘buzz’. Headlines are the first place for attention.
‘Will it bend’ marketing campaign
Funny. Memorable. Manly. The keys to success from the ‘Will It Blend’ marketing campaign. Any certainly something you’ll want to employ. Like Blendtec did very successfully.
Tom Dickson, is the star of the videos. You see him put different crazy things in the blender and say “Will it blend? That is the question”. While the item is blending he smiles and waits for the process to end. When it does, he empties the contents and the subtitle “Yes! it blends” appears.
Once the videos got rolling, Blendtec engaged their fans seeking ideas for things to Blend. Fans become more fanatical when their favorite brands go out of their way to invite them in on the fun.
Define a value proposition
A unique selling point that truly discriminates you from your competition. It is essential that you give your customers reasons to select you. Paint the picture of value … make the value stand out. We’ll have much more to say about value propositions in a later chapter.
Have you seen any of the recent Dawn TV commercials? They started as YouTube videos and grew out of the success on that platform.
Power of persuasion through advocacy advertising
If not, you should invest 1 minute now and check it out.
Two of the most effective value propositions we have seen in a while are shared in 10 seconds. As the volunteers are cleaning oil off the ducks, they state that Dawn Liquid effectively cuts grease and is gentle. Don’t need to say much as the video does the talking. Powerful.
Consider the end state values of customers
Focus on customer needs end state and not the means. The end state is the only priority.
Grabbing attention?
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 graphics drives home the objective.
Make your messages simple
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.
Emotion is key to the Apple marketing strategy
Have you seen the recent Apple iPhone5 TV ad?
If not, you should invest 1 minute now and check it out. It will prove beneficial in reviewing the ad analysis.
Superb visuals and visuals are so simple that you quickly grasp them and don’t lose interest. Keep in mind that pictures are far more valuable than words. And the music has a way to keep you tied in.
Creating customer interest does not get any simpler than this, does it? A very simple, yet entertaining design, don’t you think? And the real message at the end that is very soft not selling.
Be relevant to your target market.
Keep in mind that one message does not fit all.
Emotion is the key to persuasion.
It starts with knowing your target market. Here the target market is families with young children and people with a high focus on car safety. Notice the focus on the emotion to deliver the persuasion. Certainly safety and fear is relevant to this target market, 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 Kindle Ad campaign.
The Amazon Kindle certainly knows who its major competitor is and takes his head on as its strategy. An excellent move we believe, as the Kindle has three key advantages in comparison to the Apple iPad Air. It is 20% lighter, has 1 million more pixels resulting in a better quality picture, and is 24% less expensive.
Emotional influence and persuasion
Budweiser puppy love that was, by most accounts, the biggest winner from 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.
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.
A great example of a successful advertisement design.
This puppy love commercial focuses on emotional appeal in grand fashion. It is the secret of this commercial’s success. The focus of the advocacy helps create emotional support, doesn’t it?
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 total reliance on superb visuals. Letting the visuals totally carry the messages.
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.
Tell a story
A good story has a beginning where a sympathetic character encounters a complicating situation, a middle where the character confronts and attempts to resolve the situation, and an end where the outcome is revealed. It does not interpret or explain the action in the story for the audience.
Instead, a good story allows each member of the audience to interpret the story as he or she understands the action. This is why people find good stories so appealing and why they find advertising that simply conveys facts and information boring.
Guinness marketing strategy
Here is a link to the Guinness ad video to refresh you or for you to review in case you haven’t seen it.
Guinness’s marketing strategy has flipped traditional beer advertising on its head by getting rid of the template and telling a story – a real story – that connects with people. The responses were overwhelmingly positive … customers and particularly the target customers are looking for meaningful stories. The marketing strategy certainly is addressing this end state in our opinion.
Clearly link your messages
Link them to your brand. Remember the AFLAC duck, E-Trade’s talking baby, or the Geico gecko … these are great linkages to the brands.
Geico and the Gecko.
Anyone who has watched television in the United States even briefly knows the Geico brand — talking British geckos, ancient cavemen, greasy-haired announcers with mock baritones, all of them essentially running gags used to get the company’s name to stick in peoples’ heads.
Make your ad a component
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.
Similar logo theme … but just different enough for each campaign element
To do this they defined a theme around their vision (Smarter Planet). They used the theme to craft a marketing strategy connecting and integrating as many smaller marketing objectives and tactics as they could. They also linked their core competencies to this theme, vision, and challenge. Obviously, they made sure they were all obvious to their customers.
This very successful campaign continues today, 6 years later.
Coordinate identifiable music
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:
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.
So remember this:
You just can’t say it. You have to get people to say it to each other.
– James Farley, CMO Ford
It is not what advertising does with the consumer, it is what the consumer does after reading the advertisement. So after looking over these enablers … how much have you learned?
Advertising Design Steps
Here are 6 creative steps we recommend you follow to create or critique your advertisements:
Define your theme
Many themes to choose from … visual design, attention-grabbing, music, and emotion, just to name a few. There is no better theme as a means of influence or the power of persuasion than emotion. We can’t say it enough. Hands down the best, in our opinion.
As we have previously said, 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.
Build the message
Focus on customer needs end state and not the means. The end state is the only priority. 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.
Ask a thoughtful question
You can always depend on asking thoughtful questions to grab the attention of your customers and getting them to think.
A good example is this Prudential commercial. Have you seen this ad design? You know … the one with the visualization design central to their story. Quite clever isn’t it, and likely one you will remember and maybe even talk about, right?
The ad starts out with the commentator asking people a simple, yet thoughtful question:
How much money do you have in your pocket right now?
After he collects everyone’s answer, he asks a second, more probing question:
Could something that small make an impact on something as big as your retirement goal?
Connect the dots
Your ads should aid readers in connecting the dots with other elements of your integrated marketing campaign. Remember; stop interrupting what people interested in, and be what people are interested in.
A simple story
A good story allows each member of the audience to interpret the story as he or she understands the action. This is why people find good stories so appealing and why they find advertising that simply conveys facts and information boring.
Create a visual analogy
Look for ways to illustrate your messages with visualization. Visual analogies are even better. A great example of this technique is the Prudential commercial we discussed previously. You know … the one with the visualization design central to their story.
To make this point with a visual analogy, the commentator points to a series of dominoes, smallest to largest. When he makes his point on putting away investments consistently over time, he knocks over the smallest domino, which causes the chain reaction to topple all the dominoes. A great analogy to the retirement goal being achieved … as the dominoes fall the emotion rises.
The keys to ad effectiveness
Messages and content
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 short as possible while getting useful information across to the viewer.
You only have a few moments to communicate, so use powerful, focused and simple words – such as ‘free’, ‘unbelievable’, etc.
Use easy arguments
Easy arguments are the conclusions people reach using inferences without a careful review of available information. Find and use easy 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’.
Use an interactive ad
For example, have your viewer participate in a game or survey.
Key body basics
The body of the copy should state the benefits of using your product or service. It should emphasize how they are different, or better than your competitors’ benefits.
Use testimonials
Make it easy
Easy for the customer to reach you. Add the telephone number, mailing address, and the web address.
Appeal and attention
The present appeal that grabs consumer attention
Hold viewers’ attention
Interesting information is the foundation. Keep in mind that people don’t read ads … they read what interests them. Your ad messages must be interesting to your target communities.
Another way of creating a good advertisement is to establish the appeal. This is the reason the reader will buy or request more information.
Headlines are the first place for attention
Here are techniques that we have found to be most effective:
Using the appeal in the headline
Define your benefit
Create curiosity
Employ variation is key
Use multiple creatives
Our best performing campaigns are the ones that change banner creative often. We highly encourage new creative every couple of weeks for a fresh new look, and to decrease burnout.
Visual elements
Visual elements should be part of the story
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.
Use symbolic language and images that relate to the senses
People prefer symbolic language and images that relate to the senses. 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 powerful 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 is worth a thousand words” – be quiet and let the images do the talking.
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 simply 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.
Design and layout
Information hierarchy
Choose information that’s most important and make it your main 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.
Use contrasting colors for fonts and backgrounds to make sure that your copy is readable. The best combo is 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 that makes a difference
Be sure that your ads flow from left to right (as the eye travels left to right)
Keep your text length short and non-cluttered
Leave as much white space as possible
Pay attention to color schemes … avoid designs that are too busy
Size of the headline font should be big, and powerful enough to grab the attention of the reader.
Identifiable music
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 an identifiable aspect of all advertising signals the audience to pay attention to more important 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
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 desired call to action and the story is just a very entertaining story. The whole point of the story in advertising is to effectively deliver the desired call to action. If the audience does not clearly understand the desired call 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.
Part of an integrated marketing campaign
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 employees to use it to achieve better results for customers and the business. This is the best way to create integration in your marketing.
Key takeaway
Don’t forget: marketing or advertising, you need to create information that your customers find interesting and worth talking about and remembering.
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 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 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 at how reasonable we will be.
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
13 Remarkable Visual Content Marketing Examples
SEO Mistakes That Will Kill Your Content Marketing Performance
What Marketers Need to Know about Personalization Strategies
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