Creative Advertising Techniques:
Advertising techniques are tools. The tools you use to attract attention, engage minds, trigger emotions, and change what people think. All of which can lead to sales. Or votes. Or clicks.
Make a metaphor
Create a symbolic representation of the key idea you want to communicate by using two images or statements that are completely different, but when placed together create a new idea.
You can use words. Or visuals. Or both. You can create a metaphor to represent a characteristic of the brand. Or a feature of the service. Or a benefit of the product.
To create a metaphor, use one thing - a vivid statement or dramatic visual - to suggest another thing - your company, product or service.
Promise a benefit
Promise readers a compelling benefit that the product or service can deliver.
A benefit is something of value to the target audience. Ask, “What can this product or service do for me?” And the answer is a benefit.
The persuasive energy in a benefit ad comes from two characteristics. First is the importance of the benefit to the reader. Second is the specificity of the benefit.
A good example, the headline, “Introducing a washer so gentle it can actually help your clothes last longer."
Mention a problem
Problems. Everyone has them. And some products solve them.
A TV commercial opens with the kids screaming, “We’re hungry, mom!”
A headline reads, “Do you have enough money for retirement?”
This is a technique to grab attention, to engage people who have the problem. Or people who want to avoid getting the problem.
Get really real
Show what people really think. About the opposite sex, their job, or relatives.
Show how people really feel. About money, their spouse, or financial security in old age.
How people really dress and act at home. What people really think about at work? Like sex and petty insults. Depict the attitudes, jealousies, and insecurities that rattle around inside us all.
Create a character
Create a character that adds interest, story value or recognition to your campaign.
Could be an actor playing a role. Or a cartoon character. Or a dead politician. He, she or they are all "created" characters because you define the role they play in the advertising.
While a brand character must represent a characteristic or the personality of the brand. An invented character does not.
Inject dramatic conflict
Create a campaign that uses drama to focus attention, to heighten interest in your message.
The essence of drama is conflict. And that conflict can be between:
Husband vs. wife.
Molly vs. insanity, a struggle with mental health.
Dog vs. mailman.
Teenager vs. her conscience.
Creative Director vs. client.
Your hero should have a goal, an objective, something she really really really wants to achieve. Or has to accomplish to save the planet.
And you might need bad guys, bad creatures, bad luck, bad weather, bad relatives or bad aliens. Come to think of it, bad relatives can be almost identical to bad aliens. But don't use bad politicians or bad lawyers. There are enough of them already.
It's always nice to have a resolution to the conflict, you know, like a happy ending in the movies. But it's not necessary. Because dramatic conflict is essentially a way to engage viewers in your ad.
Exaggerate
Take the basic idea you want to communicate, your concept, and then exaggerate it. Take it to extremes. Push it beyond reason, beyond reality. In the copy. With visuals. Or both.
Exaggerate the benefit. Exaggerate the problem. Exaggerate size, the physical appearance.
Just make sure to exaggerate your exaggeration. Because a BIG exaggeration is interesting, and a powerful way to get communicate your concept. A small exaggeration is simply a misleading ad.
Eye candy
Create a visual so luscious, unusual and striking that it leaps off the screen to grab attention.
Eye candy ads work the same way a Salvador Dali illustration works. These ads stop and engage readers with the look of "Wow. I've never seen anything like that."
Eye candy is the visual equivalent of "Let me show you something new and interesting."
Frequently, the product is the hero in an eye candy ad. But visually rich advertisements can communicate brand characteristics as well. Including a sense of style, an appreciation for fine design, that readers or viewers can associate with.
But usually the creative and persuasive energy lies in the look, the visual. Bang, it grabs and engages eyeballs.
The challenge here is not only creative, but you must also have a generous budget for photography, special effects or image editing.
Make it human
Give human characteristics to your product,
or to something that represents your service.
This technique - personification - can help you create ads that are more interesting, and relevant to viewers. More human and engaging.
You can literally turn the product into a person. Or give it human abilities, such as speech, thought or emotion.
Or go the other way, and blend something about the product into a real person. For example, to depict someone who is a heavy computer user or text message sender, you could show keypad letters embossed on finger tips - and fingertips in the concave shape of the keys.
Make an offer
Make the audience a compelling offer, and tell them exactly how to get it.
This is the essence of direct response advertising. "Hey, Mr. Viewer, Here's what you can get, and here's how to get it."
There are two characteristics that influence the effectiveness of your offer, strength and relevance.
Strength:
"25% off" is stronger than "10% off." "Win a new Toyota 4 Runner" is stronger than "Win a digital camera."
Relevance:
A free brochure offering "10 Ways to preserve the resale value of your new car" is more relevant to people shopping for automobile financing than, "10 ways to protect your good credit."
Be sure to get your offer up front - in the headline or subhead. Put it at the top of the mailer or email. And support it with photos and visuals.
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This is free.
Check here on the blog for the assessment task details.
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