5 Captivating TV Commercials That Will Entertain You
Feelings have a critical role in the way customers are influenced. A critical fact from David Freemantle, Have you occasionally watched amazingly captivating TV commercials? Not too often, you say? But still, it happens, doesn’t it? David Freemantle says a lot of the captivation is about feelings and simple, meaningful messages.
Ever written a commercial, 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 captivating even on a tight budget. And the true measure of successful advertising design is having customers remember and talk about the message. Captivate your audience.
Many small businesses don’t have a lot of time or resources to have ads professionally made. Marketing or advertising, you need to create information that your customers find interesting and worth talking about and remembering.
Related: Ten Deadly Sins of Advertising Design
Let’s examine 5 recent extraordinary commercials to see if we can uncover what makes them so awesome. Maybe even apply what we learn to future commercial design efforts.
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. They remind us that a true test of character is what you do when no one’s looking.
The choices we make reveal the true nature of our character. Guinness proudly raises a glass to those who are #MadeOfMore.
Guinness has made 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. Guinness certainly gets it and tells an interesting story as it weaves the message together.
Panera Live Consciously
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.
This commercial uses a unique way to combine unique selling propositions with advocacy advertising as part of its customer community. Did you mind watching this spot? Were you influenced?
Samsung …the Best Smartphone Ad Ever?
Samsung has made a huge advertising push around mobile phones in the past couple of years, which has paid off in ever-increasing market share. It’s not just that Samsung spends a lot of money, the ads are really good. In fact, the new commercial for the Samsung S5 smartphone is the best mobile phone ad ever made, says research firm Ace Metrix, in Mountain View, Calif.
Since 2010, Ace Metrix has measured the effectiveness of 33,000 ads across 96 categories. Few have ever scored as well as this new Samsung commercial.
Ace Metrix bases its results on a survey of 500 people who are “representative of the U.S. TV viewing audience.” They measure effectiveness across six components: Desire, Relevance, Information, Likeability, Attention, and Change. The highest possible score is 950.
The Samsung 715 score is 28% higher than the average mobile phone ad, according to Ace Metrix.
The Samsung ad scored above 700 on all six component measurements, which is an extremely rare feat, Ace Metrix stated.
For comparison, check out Apple’s FaceTime commercial from 2010, which had no data, no specs, and no words at all – just a Louis Armstrong song. Great positioning with its number one competitor, isn’t it?
Which one do you prefer? Does the Samsung ad make you want to buy a Galaxy S5 phone?
Kentucky Fried Chicken Stairs
In a charming ode to family, this ad shows a young boy running down the stairs to meet his father who has brought home a bucket of KFC. As he moves from room to room and down the stairs we see him grow older and the scenery and clothing change. This is intended to reflect the times, until he arrives downstairs, to his own son bringing home dinner. The ad demonstrates that the famous KFC family recipe has been passed down over generations and is still used today.
Superb visuals 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.
Derek Jeter and re2pect.
Popular TV Commercials … Re2pect … a Tribute to Yankee Shortstop Derek Jeter
As most of us know, this is future Baseball Hall of Famer Derek Jeter’s last season. Recently, one of Jeter’s long-time sponsors, Nike, released a commercial paying tribute to the future Hall of Famer. 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.
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.
This commercial could not have picked a better topic or timing for the launch on the eve of baseball’s All-Star game. Check out this ad here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGRpMa1lL3U
So remember this:
It is not what advertising does with the consumer, it is what the consumer does after digesting the advertisement. After looking over these commercials … how much have you learned?
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.
It’s up to you to keep improving your innovation and creativity in advertising 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 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.
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.
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.
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