1. Concentrate on the basics: As some would say, K.I.S.S. = Keep It Simple Stupid! Advertising is all about impressing people and what a better way to impress your target audience by flattering them, though flattering advertisements are not always the best way to attract the right attention. An advertisement should be something that catches the imagination of the people, such that it completely resides in their sub-conscious mind. Advertisements therefore have to simple, yet catchy.
History is witness to the fact that the most loved advertisements are often the simplest ones! Money can’t buy you creativity!
2. Market Research: Market research can help you find just what the audience needs and therefore help you design your advertisement accordingly. Rather than using a trial-and-error approach to work in the advertising world (which can prove to be deadly), use a logic and reason based approach coupled with inputs of market research statistics! Market research often plays the deciding factor in catapulting an advertisement’s success. A much neglected area for the newcomers, but one of the most important, market research is the way to go!
3. Visual Cues: From times immemorial, humans have always been fascinated by what they saw rather than what they could just hear. Of course, strange noises did make them wonder, but it was the images that they could preserve very easily. Thus it should be explicitly mentioned here that the best advertisements have to be visually appealing more than anything else.
4. Why skip the Audio? It is often a simple jingle that keeps ringing in our minds, even though not consciously; and if it is paired with a solid visual advertisement then it just refuses to leave us without playing in our minds over and over again!
5. Online Tools: The internet has thrown open before us, never before known sources of inspiration and of course tools! Free software available on the internet is often more than enough for beginners; what’s more the internet can itself be source of tremendous resource and inspiration on the same. It can be rightly pointed out that the most successful of the internet gurus are also one of the best advertisers. All they applied is a little creativity and came up with something very simple, yet unique!
6. Observation: Observation is perhaps the single most important aspect of designing the best advertisements. The successful advertisers have great observation power. What may not be catchy to one’s eyes, the creative person person’s eyes scan and scavenge the ‘unique selling point’ of the same thing and thus create advertisements!
7. It’s all in the mind guys! Ask any successful advertiser and they will have only one thing to say – ‘It’s all in the mind, guys’! No wonder, most of the award-winning advertisements are so unique. It is amazing to know and feel what the human brain is actually capable of producing! Rack out your brains, don’t try to hard, just let it gently flow into your thoughts. Give an image to your thoughts, add some sounds and you’ll have an advertisement ready at hand!
