Advertising Ideas

How To Influence Purchase Behavior

With Creative Communications

You may have noticed that Apple recently passed Google as the world's most valuable brand.

The "I'm a Mac" TV campaign certainly contributed to that achievement.

But Apple gets it right across all three core creative competencies, as we like to show on AdCracker.com:

> 1 Creative Briefs

A creative brief is the starting place for every campaign - it's where you capture information about the product or service, the audience, and what you want that audience to think, feel or do.

It's also the place to answer such essential questions how the product should be positioned in relation to competitors, and how the brand personality should be expressed.

> 2 Strategic Creative Concepts

The creative concepts that have the greatest financial consequences for advertisers are branding, positioning and direct response.

Like Apple, you should define then express those creative concepts in everything from print ads to social media pages, from email to TVCs.

> 3 Advertising Techniques

These are the copywriting, concept and design tools you use to achieve a variety of persuasive objectives, such as:
- Attract attention
- Engage minds
- Attack competitors
- Create visual recognition
- Trigger emotion

You'll make more effective ads, faster, if you know which techniques work best.

> Advertising ideas Main Page

Creative Advertising Ideas 2011

Here are some examples from Ad Annual # 11, including case studies, TV commercials, print, email and digital media.

Judging criteria:

- Creative use of media.

- Creative expression of contemporary branding, positioning and direct response characteristics.

- Creative and effective use of advertising techniques.

> Advertising ideas Main Page

Great Advertising Ideas

Start With Great Creative Briefs

Catch some tips on writing effective objectives, creating audience personas, and using strategic creative approaches.

> How To Write A Creative Brief

> Sample "Classic" Creative Brief

> Creative Brief Blog

> Creative Brief Templates & Samples

10 Maxims To Max Your

Direct Response Results

The "click and track" nature of digital media is perfect for direct response. And the demand for direct response creative skills is on the rise.

Unfortunately, direct response theory is dominated by details and minutiae. Take the book on Amazon.com titled, "2,239 tested secrets for direct marketing success." That's a lot of "secrets" to apply to your ads.

Here's a better way.

The great Chinese military strategist, Sun Tzu, Author of "The Art Of War" used maxims, or general principles, to guide his military campaigns.

Some examples:

"Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt."

And ...

"The expert in battle seeks his victory from strategic advantage and does not demand it from his men."

AdCracker Creative Director and Creative Manager both feature 10 proprietary maxims to guide your direct response advertising campaigns.

One example:

Direct Response Maxim # 5:

"It's not what you spend,
but what you pocket that counts."

Clients who are focused on a fixed budget, or have a rigid view of direct marketing, never seem to understand this common sense maxim.

Here's the deal. A DRTV spot might cost more than a direct mail package. But the quality of respondent, total number of respondents, as well as average total purchase, is usually much higher with DRTV. So much higher, in fact, that the ROI can be much higher.

This is not to say that you should switch your direct budget from mail to TV.

This maxim simply argues that you should evaluate creative and media options in terms of what you could earn, not only by what they cost.

The "Miss Penny" campaign, above, is one of several examples that prove this maxim.

AdCracker's Creative Director and Creative Manager CD sets include all 10 direct response maxims, plus the 10 most effective direct response offers, as well as other proprietary direct response insights.

> More on Creative Director and Creative Manager
http://www.adcracker.com/store/index.htm

> Advertising ideas Main Page

How Nike Can Help You

Define A Brand Personality

It is rare to find a company that can say this:

"Here's how we define our brand, and how we express that brand in every interaction with customers: from Facebook to TV commercials, from our blog to direct response campaigns."

One exception is Nike. And one reason that Nike is an exception is that their marketing team can articulate a clear definition of the Nike brand personality.

If you work on a Nike creative account you'll learn that the Nike brand personality reflects the personality of real athletes.

You'll learn that Nike was started by a track coach, Bill Bowerman, and a former athlete, Phil Knight.

And you'll learn that the Nike brand personality is personafied in former distance runner Steve Prefontaine of the University of Oregon.

That's one of the ways that Nike brings the brand personality to life for the creative team.

And that helps the creative team bring the brand to life in TV, print, and digital direct response.

That may sound simplistic. But it works. And today the Nike swoosh can add $50 to the retail value of a pair of running shoes.

Ka-ching.

> More on branding
http://www.adcracker.com/brand/Branding.htm

Advertising ideas come in several flavors:

If you own a small business, your "advertising idea" might be a postcard mailer, a radio or TV spot, perhaps AdWords text ads or a print ad in the local newspaper. That's media.

If you are a copywriter or art director at a multinational ad agency then the term "advertising idea" means something quite different. You get paid to think conceptually, so your "ad idea" might be a vivid metaphor to position the product in a crowded market. Or a sketch of a memorable brand character. Or perhaps a compelling direct response offer. Those are creative concepts.

Advertising ideas include:

- Media, including email, websites, TV commercials, direct response TV and infomercials, newspaper, direct mail, twitter tweets, a facebook page or Google AdWords text ads.

- Strategic advertising concepts such as > branding, > positioning or > direct response.

- Tactical concepts or > advertising techniques such as dramatic conflict, problem / solution, or sex.

- Unconventional ideas, such as viral videos, ambient displays or guerrilla activities. > See creative media.

More clicks:

> Advertising ideas Main Page

> Creative Briefs

> Advertising Techniques

> Strategic Branding

> Strategic Positioning

> Strategic Direct response

> Advertising Ideas 2010