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:
