Have you ever dreamed of having your product or brand “go viral”. You open up an email from a colleague or relative only to find a photo of some innovative advertising campaign that has people talking, and you think to yourself, “that could be me.” In a world where approximately 42% of Americans carry smartphones capable of taking and sharing pictures with a sprawling social network of friends and acquaintances, advertising with impact can be more valuable than ever before.
Here are some tips for creating advertisements with some real appeal:
1. Embrace Off-The-Wall thinking.
Visual advertising does not have to be about only vertical surfaces. Ads located in unexpected places can prompt an valuable second look from the casual observer. Multi-plane advertising can take things even further. Want to promote your non-stick cookware? Have a traditional wall sign appear to have “slid” down the wall and halfway onto the floor. Your travel agency advertising great prices on air travel? Capture your graphic signage in “mid-flight” across the ceiling.
2. Make Them Look Twice.
Optical illusions in advertising have a way of making their way onto internet lists, and email forwards like few other techniques. Have life-sized images of people “interact” with your traditional signage, or use forced perspective to create outlandish three dimensional spaces. The high resolution and durability of today’s graphic advertising allow you to create realistic looking doorways and windows in solid walls or imaginary staircases and pitfalls in the floor of the local mall. Using these types of illusions can create an ad that interacts with the environment and the customer, giving greater impact and viral potential.
3. Take a leap down the rabbit hole.
One of the greatest obstacles faced by modern advertising is that many consumers are exceptionally media savvy. They know they are being sold to and they can often detach themselves from your pitch. When appealing to a younger under-40 market, a great way to do this is with knowingly strange advertising that subverts traditional advertising convention.
Whatever approach you choose, remember that boundaries are becoming a thing of the past. Advertising is not only done by advertisers anymore. Word-of-mouth has taken a turn for the high tech and dynamic ads that spark one person’s interest can be seen by thousands of people within an hour. Large scale print advertising is a more versatile method than ever to tap into this new world.