March 11, 2020

Powerful media can change behaviour in only seconds

Stories change lives.

People stopped. It was too good to be true. A t-shirt for only 2 Euros?  Insert coin, out comes t-shirt.  This was well worth the time.  People stopped by the hundreds to take up this offer by Fashion Revolution.  They selected the size of shirt and then were presented with a short and informative video about the true story behind cheap clothing.  After the video played, they were asked, "do you still want this shirt or do you want to donate instead?", 90% of people decided to donate to the cause of helping change working conditions.  

This story went viral within 24 hours.  The message reached over 300 million people in 200 countries in just 7 days!  Celebrities like Ashton Kutcher chimed in.  The video spoke to the brands and they responded.  This powerful ad campaign caused transformation to take place.  

Take the time to be creative and communicate your message effectively and powerful.  You can make a difference.  Watch this video and then read the rest of this article to learn how.  

Powerful advertising tells a gripping story that elicits a response. A compelling need is created for a product or service. This is done best when it is not overtly about that product, but about the beneficial value. In a heavily media saturated society, it takes a unique angle, a highly engaging, or visually captivating ad to capture attention and to trigger a response.  These three key steps are key to focus on when creating effective advertising.  

Engage emotionally

Both the story and the visual content needs to emotionally connect with the viewer. Showing a compelling need that is supported with captivating images contributes to drawing the viewer into the story.  The goal is to keep them engaged right until the call to action so that a response is triggered.

Use a clear simple message

It’s critical to present a single and simple message. A surprising twist or angle can help to accentuate that message. There needs to be focus and simplicity in the story.  It is most memorable when there is a minimal use of substantive words that are presented with clarity.

Call people to action

Effective advertising needs to have a clear call to action. The viewer needs to be brought to a place that they will make a choice and the obvious choice needs to be clearly presented to them. It’s helpful to have a single call to action is in mind and woven into the architecture of the ad.

Many effective advertisements incorporate social causes.  Many of the top awarded Ads of the World engaged with deeply emotional issues such as assisting refugees, freeing child labor, cyber bullying and against violence. While these ads were gripping, they draw the viewer towards a deeper cause to impact humanity.  The apparent solution is to engage in the program, service or use of the product that is presented.  When advertising engages people, presents and clear message with a compelling call to action, it is doing exactly what it was intending to do.

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