A marketing campaign is an organized operation for promoting and selling a product or service. Most brands do it, especially when they want to reach a broader audience. Today we are going to talk about some of the best advertisements and ad campaigns.
However, what makes an ad campaign successful? It’s the higher revenues it generates, indeed. There’s another factor, though – the fact it touched the customers in a way, making them feel more connected to the brand.
How you approach the task of launching one is entirely up to you, your budget, demographics, and product. Still, the past showed that successful marketing hallmarks do exist. Every business can learn something from these characteristics.
Let’s take a look at some of the best examples of advertisements that blew up and discuss which general rules you can derive from them and apply yourself.
What Makes A Good Ad Campaign
We’ll start by reviewing the universal building blocks among the best-performing ads, regardless of the brand category.
- Simplicity: You don’t want to completely dumb down your advertisements, especially if you’re promoting a more complex product. Still, a well-told, simple story is quicker to remember and makes the entire campaign punchier.
- Relatability: People love seeing ads that are for people like themselves. If you speak directly to the customer, addressing what they care about, they’ll develop an emotional relationship with your ad.
- Storytelling: The best ads tell a story with a plotline that engages the audience, giving them a glimpse of the world the advertised brand created.
- Humor: Jokes and wit make ads more memorable, especially for younger people. Still, be sure you’re using age-appropriate humor. It otherwise might seem like you’re trying too hard, and that’s a bad look.
- Branding: Finally, the best ads have a strong sense of branding, connecting the narrative to the product they’re selling. You can use cues through audio and video, with characters and music that help consumers identify your brand.
Top Ad Campaign Examples
Of course, each customer has a favorite brand and a commercial that resonated with them the most. Reviewing the top examples of powerful campaigns that affected millions can still be useful, though.
Speaking To Emotion
People love feeling cared for and understood, and these campaigns made it happen.
Dove – Real Beauty
This ad carries a powerful message, pointing out the disparity between how you see yourself and how others see you.
This beauty-product brand made people believe that they are beautiful, even if they don’t see themselves that way, which also addresses significant issues, especially among women.
Always – Like A Girl
This brand sought to empower girls through the Like a Girl ad, encouraging them to ‘kick-ass’ and be themselves, even if that breaks the stereotypes.
Procter & Gamble – Thank you, Mom!
House and cleaning products are not always easy to sell, but P&G made its ad emotional, associating its brand with a happy, prosperous home.
Although it carries a slightly sexist connotation of women doing household chores, it reminds people that these tasks are necessary for success. A healthy family makes strong individuals.
Google – Year In Search
While, in retrospect, 2018 wasn’t the worst year we experienced globally, at the time, its ups and downs seemed massive.
As a result, ‘good’ was the word googled more than ever before in that year. The ensuing commercial gives off a sense of hope that made people feel warm inside.
Humor & Memorability
Sometimes, all it takes is a good, well-delivered script to make the magic happen.
Budweiser – Whassup
This campaign is simple, clear-cut, and as powerful as it gets. The one word – Whassup – gets repeated in this funny, simple conversation between friends. Budweiser did wonders with a single term, making its campaign unique and oh-so-memorable.
Old Spice – Man Your Man Could Smell Like
Old Spice is famous for its entertaining bits of advertisement, and this one is a shining example. The funny script, well-delivered bits, and simplicity made people want to buy Old Spice for the joke, even if they’re not big on the product itself.
Inspiring & Actionable
Finally, we have the ones still telling a story and connecting the brand to it, but also including a clear call-to-action.
Nike – Find Your Greatness
This ad is simple, encouraging you to challenge and motivate yourself – of course, in Nike training gear.
WestJet – Christmas Miracle
WestJet promises to make people’s wishes come true in this commercial. It helps keep customers loyal to them. The company avoided the tricky pitfall of making big promises, too, which added to the campaign’s effectiveness.
Coca Cola – Share A Coke
This one makes the experience of drinking Coke, a relatively normal thing to do, personalized. The named bottles made more people go out and seek their names, making them feel represented.
How To Launch An Ad Campaign
If any of these gave you an idea for launching an ad campaign of your own, let’s briefly examine the steps required for doing so.
The most important question to ask yourself is – does this idea convey my company’s message or mission? If not, analyze why you went into the market and how you want to help people. Only then is it time to consider the particulars. The following list could help:
- Identify target demographics. Depending on how long you’ve been in the business, your research methodology will differ, but this step is a must.
- Choose a medium. From television to social media, there are numerous options for reaching your demographics nowadays. For example, if you’re dealing with seniors, a TV commercial might be the best. If you’re reaching out to teens, including an advertisement video on a monetized YouTube channel works better.
- Pinpoint and develop brand trademarks. From a logo to a catchy tune, you need something to help people immediately connect to your brand.
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The Bottom Line
Finally, one of the most important things to remember is that you can’t merely copy another company’s approach and expect the same results. If you’re unsure which avenue to go down, test several markets to see which ones are the most effective for your product.
These ad campaigns are massive and as efficient as it gets, but it’s possible to pursue an entirely different approach and make it work. Innovation is key to promotion, so use these as examples and guidelines, not rulebooks.
