Today’s consumers see and interact with countless ads every day. They are bombarded with branding and marketing messages, so much that they all seem to blur together. At the same time, you need visibility and memorability to make your marketing campaign successful.
So what can you do to make your ads stand out in the modern age?
The Inundation of Modern Advertising
Marketing and advertising are priorities for most modern businesses. It’s one of the best ways to gain new visibility for your business – and in some ways, it’s necessary if you want to truly distinguish yourself from your competitors.
The problem is, an inundation of ads has somewhat polluted our attentional environment. We see and interact with hundreds, and potentially thousands of ads every day. This causes fatigue in many consumers; some people become annoyed by ads, while others see them blur together in a haze of white noise.
On top of that, the sheer volume of ads makes it hard for any individual ad to stand out. If you’re advertising the same product as 100 competitors, it’s not easy to make your product more noticeable or more attractive.
The Role of Innovation
Novel approaches and innovation can help you stand out in this era of persistent and abundant ads. If you can find a way to change the formula, present new ideas, or present your ideas in new ways, you can help your brand stand out.
This is a tough challenge, however. It’s not easy to think or act in fundamentally new ways, especially if your brand has been around for years or if your marketing team has a long and consistent history.
There are many potential solutions. Some firms choose to hire and work with a fractional CMO, bringing in outside perspective and experience to evaluate past efforts and brainstorm new paths forward. Others choose to shake up internal leadership. Still others simply commit to more novel experimentation, using both creative brainstorming and objective testing to figure out how their ads can perform better.
What Makes an Ad Stand Out in the Modern Age?
So what exactly makes an ad stand out in the modern age?
- Specific audience targeting. Your ads aren’t going to work unless you know who your audience is and how to target them. This is especially true when there are so many ads in circulation. If you want to make your ad more visible, more noticeable, and more attractive, you should make it as relevant as possible to the most specific audience you can. In the modern age, an ad that tries to target everyone, everywhere simply isn’t going to work; it’s not going to be relevant and it’s not going to stand out to anyone. It’s typically better to focus on a narrow niche, get to know that niche in-depth, and make your ad uniquely appealing to it.
- Appropriate medium. Similarly, you can help your ads stand out by choosing an appropriate medium. Your choice should depend on your budget, your target audience, and your specific message. Thankfully, there is no shortage of advertising mediums today, but in some ways, this makes your choice even more difficult. You’re aiming for visibility, relevance, and cost-effectiveness – but you also need to consider the competitors also using that medium.
- A novel approach to messaging. Don’t recycle the same stale phrases and hooks we’ve all seen a million times. Every brand thinks their product is the best. If you want your ad to stand out, you need some kind of novel approach to your core messaging; you need to be original. You can do this by presenting a truly unique message or using a traditional message in a novel and transformative way.
- Humor or surprise. Both humor and surprise are linked to higher rates of memory. If you can include elements of humor or surprise in your ad, it’s going to be much more memorable to the people who notice it. It’s a way to differentiate your ad and boost its long-term potential.
- Exceptional production quality. Ads that look like they were made for a middle-school graphic design project aren’t going to cut it anymore. If you want to be on even footing with your rivals, you need to be ready to invest in top-notch production quality.
- Consistent, but infrequent appearances. It’s important to make your ads consistently visible, but you also don’t want to annoy or overwhelm your consumers.
Making an ad stand out in an era overwhelmed with ads is difficult, even for marketing experts with decades of experience and practically unlimited budgets. But if you’re willing to adapt your approach and continue refining your tactics, you’ll have a much better chance of getting an edge over your competition.