5 ways to express your creative advertising skills!

In 2014, Tim Collins published " 100 ways to create a great ad" , which was based on his experience in advertising. This book is not a profound professional work, but a more popular reading material. However, based on a large number of case summaries, this book can indeed provide some reference and reference for the creative tasks of advertising practitioners and practitioners in the broader field of marketing communications.

Tim Collins from Manchester, England, used to work in the advertising industry, and later became an author and writer of humorous children's history books, winning several awards.

We will introduce Collins' "100 Ways to Advertise" in a simple way, 5 ways at a time.

Our basic views are fourfold:

【1】The creative approach to advertising is the basic idea that determines the overall picture of the advertisement. The "expression method" mentioned here includes two situations: first, the way of conveying the meaning of a certain aspect of the advertisement; second, the formal characteristics of a certain aspect of the advertisement to capture the audience's attention. The "expression method" mentioned here serves the "creative method".

【2】Advertising presentation is a “tool” and the presentation method itself cannot reflect the quality of an advertisement.

【3】An advertisement may use a combination of various presentation methods, but there will always be one dominant method.

[4] There are many real-life examples of the methods mentioned in the book, but we only use the examples in the book in our explanation.

Reveals

The key feature of the revelation method is: it seems to be saying A, but it actually means B, and the latter is the true meaning of the advertisement.

Simply put: first mislead the audience into thinking the ad is about A, then reveal that what the ad is really about is B. There is often a strong opposition or even diametrically opposite between the revealed B and A, thereby constructing a sense of surprise, which is where the attraction lies.

For example, Nike released an ad called "1966" in 1994, with the following text: '66 was a great year for English football. Eric was born.

The advertising idea comes from Simons Palmer Denton Clemmow & Johnson in London, England.

The A meaning of this advertisement seems to be: In 1966, England won the World Cup for the only time. The implication is clear, for this is an epic event in English football.

But the copy then changed the subject: it actually refers to Eric Cantona being born in 1966.

For example, on February 5, 2010, the men's bath and skin care brand Old Spice released an advertisement titled " The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" , the idea of ​​which came from Wieden+Kennedy in Portland, USA.

The first half of the advertisement shows the sea, beach, oysters, etc., so it seems to show a man standing on the beach. But in the end, as the scene changed, the advertisement revealed that the man was actually riding a horse.

In 1986, The Guardian published an advertisement called "Points of View", the creative idea came from AMV BBDO in London, England.

The first half of the ad shows a man running towards another man carrying a bag, as if he is going to rob him; but in the end the man is trying to rescue the man carrying the bag from being hit by falling objects from above.

Mash-Ups

The mashup approach combines apparently dissimilar objects in an attempt to create tension at the level of meaning and appeal at the level of form.

It is worth noting that mix and match does not mean random mixing; the choice of mix and match objects should serve the dominant meaning of the advertisement.

In 2016, the Natural History Museum in London released an advertisement called " New recruit wanted" , the idea of ​​which came from isobel in London, UK.

The advertisement mixes children's faces with the appearance and costumes of explorers, as if to say: By visiting the museum, children can deeply experience the feeling of exploring the natural world.

In 2002, the National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) released an advertisement titled " Real Children Don't Bounce Back" , the idea of ​​which came from Saatchi & Saatchi in London, England.

In the ad, a real father and a cartoon child appear in the same world. This is impossible. This impossibility has a meaningful intention and is of course very attractive in form.

Double Meanings

A pun means that the same word has two meanings at the same time, with the words being one thing but the meaning being another.

There are three types of puns in advertising: puns in meaning, puns in pronunciation and puns in vision.

Pun refers to the use of multiple meanings of the same word or sentence so that the word or sentence can be interpreted in different ways.

In 1983, Albany Life Assurance published a report titled "Are You Planning for Your Wife's Death?" 》 (Are you making plans for your wife's death?)

The ad shows a knife, some bleach, some pills and a pillow. The advertisement can be understood as "Are you planning how to murder your wife?" or "Are you making plans in your life for your wife's (possible) death?" For example, the knife in the advertisement, as emphasized by the text below, is actually a household tool in the kitchen, not a murder tool.

In 1997, the British holiday company Club 18–30 released an advertisement with the text: Wake up at the crack of Dawn (or Lisa, or Julie, or Karen ….

The idea comes from Saatchi & Saatchi in London, UK.

The word "crack" in the advertisement has multiple meanings: it means early morning and also means sex. In particular, there are three very typical female names in brackets: Lisa, Julie, and Karen.

In fact, advertisements also emphasize sexual appeals in the form of text.

Therefore, this advertisement actually highlights sexual appeal.

In 1978, the British Conservative Party released an advertisement titled "Labour Isn't Working", the idea came from Saatchi & Saatchi in London, England.

The ads showed images of people lining up outside unemployment offices to receive benefits. “Labour Isn't Working” means both “the labour force isn't working” and “the Labour Party is ineffective”. Because the name of the British Labour Party is “Labour Party”. It is said that this ad had a significant impact on the 1979 British general election.

Puns

Phonetic pun refers to replacing words or phrases with the same or similar pronunciation (what we usually call "homonyms") to give words or phrases a double meaning.

In 2003, Durex released an ad called "Roger More".

This ad is actually a homophone of the name of Roger Moore, the star of "007". "Roger" is one of the euphemisms with sexual connotations in English.

Visual Puns

Visual puns are images that convey double or multiple meanings. Visual puns are more vivid and figurative than verbal puns, and are easier to construct obvious appeal in form.

In 1975, Fiat released an ad called " Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" .

This advertisement seems to indicate at the same time that this car has both the gentleness of a sheep and the strength of a wolf.

In 2007, the British high-end department store Harvey Nichols released an advertisement called " Karate Catfight" , the idea of ​​which came from Adam&Eve DDB in London, UK.

This advertisement directly presents "catfight" as two fighting cats, but the clothes and actions of the two cats easily make people think of another meaning of "catfight": a fight between women (it is often women who rush to buy during promotions) . "Catfight" itself refers to a fight between women.

Author: Big Marketing

Source: Big Marketing