Creative Advertisements: Psychology of Winning Ads - The Big Picture
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In short, it all can be narrowed down to contribution. The guideline that can be used is the following: your product and/or service must contribute something to your customers and/or consumers. Otherwise, it is unnecessary and nobody needs your product or service. And in this case, nobody can help you; it is pretty much irrelevant what you are selling. If it’s not needed, then it won’t sell. Makes sense, right?
What kinds of contributions are we talking about here? Regardless, it must be something that improves the quality of our lives, provides solutions and “quick-fixes” to our dilemmas, ends our problems right away, strokes our ego and increases our self-image, contributes to the highest good of all, and so forth.
Can you see the kinds of contributions we are referring to? Needless to say, you aren’t just increasing your sales number (or page hits, or clicks on the ads, etc.), because you are providing something in exchange. This is a fair deal and you can expect it on a consistent basis. You can even develop long-term relationships between your customer and you or your company. You are changing the world by making it a better place.
Right before you start your creative brainstorming session for advertisements, try to define your product in terms of human needs. Memorize Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs and try to find at least one “connotation” for each of its levels. However, if you can mix more than one and it’s from the base of the pyramid, then it’s way better!
After you’ve found the needs that can be fulfilled by your product or service, then phrase a subliminal suggestion. To convey that message exceptionally well, you need to really think about the details. Always leave space for imagination; you don’t want to limit the imagination of the potential customer. Let his/her mind run wild.
Your ad should garner the attention of the clients by standing out from others. Once the potential consumer has glanced over your ad, it must be so well-designed that s/he takes the time to interpret its message. This often requires less than a message. The less text written on it, the better. You don’t want to deliver sentences here. Check out the attached online advertisement below. It contains very few words.
The slogan is nothing but “Live. Love. Learn.” Can you see the power of those words? Each of them stands for a basic need of humans. You should also notice lots of other connotations in this ad, if you have been paying attention. What else do you notice? What are the odds that each visitor can find a brunette like that on the site? Sure, there are 12.5 million registered single users. You get my point…
Another success ingredient that I would also like to mention is the dominant image of the advertisement. You may find it surprising (or not) that almost all of the ads have an image of a beautiful woman as a cover model. There are exceptions, of course, when the ad wouldn’t look great (depends on the community it targets) with a sex symbol on it. But let me tell you, these exceptions are low in number.
I mentioned earlier during our Wonderbra analysis that female figures work better because they stimulate both sexes: first, they garner attention from males - why this happens doesn’t need further explanation. But consequently, they are also appreciated by women, generally. If the product or service in question is used by beautiful and sexy women – such as those that appear in the ad- then it gives off the impression that we should all be doing that in order to look that gorgeous.
In certain cases it works all right with male sex symbols too. But if you are paying attention, then you may find that in those cases there are women involved too. Just think of Bvlgari, Calvin Klein, AXE, and other male-centric ads. The male models are showing off a great physique and they are attractive to women – and next to all of this, they are also using the advertised product. Thus, if you want the same results, you should also give it a try. I truly hope that you can see where I'm leading.
The advertisement you can see above is of Calvin Klein’s perfume EUPHORIA. There are versions for both sexes, so the advertisement should work for everybody right? Now put on your analytical glasses. What can you see? An attractive couple where the stud is caressing his woman. She is in the height of ecstasy, feeling good, her eyes slightly shut and neck slightly tilted.
Obviously, the women is gorgeous and truly sexy, while the man is apparently quite a sex-symbol himself. Then we actually pay attention to the advertised product. Oh, yes, the euphoria perfume and its mighty fragrance.
So if you ladies want to get caressed, loved, and be in the height of pleasure, then you’d better get this product and seduce men with its womanly fragrance! But have no fear, all of you guys out there. If you start using this perfume, then attracting amazing women is going to be much easier thanks to your inner sexuality and whatnot. No one should miss this product – it’s going to turn you into a sexual magnet for the opposite sex. So that’s it – amazing advertisement nonetheless.
All in all, achieving peak performance in advertising does require lots of creativity, but it is not limited to that. You also need to know the “current” status of the world, the trends that dominate, the genres that people often find interesting, etc. You need to frame, model, and phrase your ads so that they correlate with the public’s mindset right now in this era. Ads that worked 30 years ago are outdated!
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