Write Better Advertising Ideas With These 21 Creative Thought Starters by Craig Barber

1. Write Better Advertising
Ideas With These
By Craig Barber
21 Creative
Thought
Starters

2. 1. Topical
A great way to get some traction with your audience
is to write your creative around a current topic,
event or seasonal item coming up or of the
moment. It could be a popular news item, a cultural
event or reference, Valentines Day, Halloween or
even a sporting event.
It’s a great way to make your creative relevant and
current, and also opens the door to doing some
potentially risky work for a brand that you wouldn’t
normally get away with other time of the year.

3. 1. Topical

4. 2. Sex
The age old sex sells method has been around for a
long time, the key is to make it not so blatantly
obvious and crass. Axe is a fantastic example of the
old sex sells method, they do it an amusing way
most of the time, rather than just showing a sexy
guy or girl holding the product they write a whole
back story and really dramatise man’s mission to
attract the opposite sex with the use of the Axe
product.

5. 2. Sex

6. 3. Get Weird
More and more creative’s are throwing out the old,
clever ‘boom tish’ style of advertising for stuff that
just doesn’t make any sense at all. Confectionary is
a rich territory for just doing something that is fun
and not necessarily communicating a benefit or a
proposition — a lot of people will recall your ad
simply because it was so weird, in turn it will move
product. It is a hard sell but with the public wanting
to be entertained more and more by marketing it is
a way of doing something that will be enjoyed.

7. 3. Get Weird

8. 4. Personify
Showing a human side to a product or problem can
quickly create a connection with your audience, it
gives you the opportunity to inject a real personality
and tone into the product immediately without too
much work needing to be done. Sometimes the
slightest tweak can really create something quite fun
and memorable for your brand or product.
It could be dressing the product up in human clothing,
making the product move in a human way or simply
the positioning of it in a human environment. It’s not
for every product, and mostly comes off as comical but
it can yield some great creative.

9. 4. Personify

10. 5. Reality Check
Using extreme, interesting or unknown facts about
your product or service can be a great way to win
over consumers’ confidence in your brand. The
trick is to express these real facts in a striking way
that engages the audience more than just writing it
in a simple copy line. It can also be an educational
process for the consumer, adding to the depth of
the creative with a useful piece of information they
may use later in every day conversation.

11. 5. Reality Check

12. 6. The Mash Up
Fresh creative can be achieved when two worlds
meet in the same place that you wouldn’t normally
see together. An example would be the internet
world mashed up with the real world, the past
brought together with the present or even the
animal world brought together with the human
world.
Your message can be delivered in a way that people
do not expect, seeing things out of place but clearly
making a point is a fantastic way to deliver the
same message in a new way.

13. 6. The Mash Up

14. 7. The Character
The creation of a character to champion your
campaign can be a very lucrative and a long
running idea. The Old Spice guy is a classic example
of a very strong character based campaign. The
character embodying the alpha male that every
man wants to be and every woman wants to have,
these properties being delivered by the character in
a very dramatic, amusing way.

15. 7. The Character

16. 8. Twist It
Distorting reality can be an engaging exercise,
twisting something to look like something else or
visualising the proposition in an odd way can really
yield some great creative. Most of the time twisting
this reality is best expressed with photography or
film as apposed to illustration as it can be a lot
harder hitting.

17. 8. Twist It

18. 9. Celebrity Appeal
Snickers used Mr T as an ambassador for their Get
Some Nuts campaign, using a celebrity can bring a
lot of weight to the creative especially if they are
playing the same character that they have played in
a movie or television series, they can quickly and
easily communicate an attitude, mood or message
that is inline with the tone or personality of the
brand that you are advertising.

19. 9. Celebrity Appeal

20. 10. Emotional Appeal
Tugging at people’s heartstrings can be a very
powerful way of creating recall and great,
memorable creative. The emotional appeal can be
achieved through a number of techniques whether
it be music, slow motion evocative imagery or a
combination of all of the above. The emotion can
also be called upon via people’s tendency to
empathise with other people’s misfortune, animal
rights, children or even sporting moments.
The emotional appeal doesn’t have to be negative;
it can be very positive playing on people’s
childhood or even their own personal experiences.

21. 10. Emotional Appeal

22. 11. Target a Demographic
Creatives target particular audiences all the time,
it’s always in the brief. Particular audiences provide
a richer territory then others, an 18 year old male is
much easier to crack out ads for then say an 80
female. Insights into particular demographics can
provide rich territories for your creative.
Most of the time it can be around a particular
common attitude amongst the target audience, a
particular problem the demographic commonly has
or even physical attributes of the group.

23. 11. Target a Demographic

24. 12. Problem / Solution
Presenting the problem up front is always a good
way to crack creative especially with products. The
problems can be obvious everyday problems or
even obscure problems that only your target
audience may encounter.
The key is to express these problems in the most
engaging, humorous or direct way. The solution can
be simply represented by a pack shot of the product
or just the logo. A lot of the time people will see
and know that problem and can immediately relate
to it, thus making the connection with your brand.

25. 12. Problem / Solution

26. 13. Exaggeration
Exaggerating the benefit or a quality of the product
or service can be a rich territory for some fantastic
creative. It’s really about stretching the truth to the
point of the ridiculous but still maintaining a
quality or message that people can relate to.
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to crack great
exaggeration style ads because it is a method
creative’s have been using for years but it still can
be done well and in an original way, whether it’s
time, volume or emotional exaggeration it can still
be a sweet spot for some great work.

27. 13. Exaggeration

28. 14. Scale
Scale is always an interesting, fun way to
communicate the proposition of your brief. Seeing
things way smaller or way larger than you would
normally see them in reality is always a great, clear
way of saying something.
Often just seeing something blown up so large is
engaging enough in itself to open up a way of you
pushing your message out to the consumer, and as
with some of the other techniques it’s an
international piece of communication that can be
understood in any language.

29. 14. Scale

30. 15. Make Art Not Ads
Positioning your product or service within the artistic
space is often a route that a lot of creative’s employ to
bring attention to the brand. Using artists to bring
creative expression to a brand is often viewed as a
shortcut to getting in bed with the in crowd. Alcohol
brands do it all the time; Tiger Beer and Absolute
vodka are two examples of this.
They often provide the canvas for artists to do their
thing but there is always an obvious link to the
product, BMW is another classic example of this with
their series of cars that they commissioned artists to
paint a number of years ago.

31. 15. Make Art Not Ads

32. 16. The Demonstration
Visualise how the product or service can help your
audience, directly show or tell the target audience
‘hey our product does this!’ It may seem obvious,
but it really depends on how original and
interesting the demonstration of the benefit is.

33. 16. The Demonstration

34. 17. Visual Stories
Visual stories can be a great way to express a
proposition, and can often provide a cheap but
interesting way of executing your idea. Through a visual
story you can demonstrate a benefit of the product or
service or clearly define it without the use of words.
A visual story will often engage people more as it looks
interesting from the outset, they don’t necessarily look
like a traditional ad and can be viewed or interpreted as
a puzzle or game to be solved by the consumer, thus
providing a more memorable engaging experience.

35. 17. Visual Stories

36. 18. Symbolism & Metaphor
Showing the benefit of the product or service in a
metaphoric or symbolic way can really create great,
clear communication that can be understood in any
language in any market throughout the world.
A lot of great examples show the product forming
or building into a symbol representing a truth or
quality of the product, or it could shot from a
particular angle, multiplied or even decomposed
and split into parts. It is mostly of course a visual
exercise.

37. 18. Symbolism & Metaphor

38. 19. The Peoples Brand
The use of real people to convey your message is
always a good angle. Often the creative can write
itself if you speak with real people and they express
to you how they feel about the product or service
you're selling.
Employing these ambassadors can often create
characters that are more believable and resonate
better with your target audience also.

39. 19. The Peoples Brand

40. 20. Use The Medium
Using the medium to bring the proposition to life
can be one of the most original and rewarding ways
to execute a creative idea.
Exploring and sourcing these new mediums to base
your idea on or within can be great, as they do the
heavy lifting in bringing the idea to life
communication.

41. 20. Use The Medium

42. 21. Attack The Competition
Take a shot at the competition. Find your competitor
and start some controversy with a fact or just do
something lighthearted and fun. Loads of great
campaigns have come from this type of thinking.

43. 21. Attack The Competition

44. Thank you for reading.
Craig Barber is a forward thinking creative, art
director and team leader with over 15 years agency
experience in Sydney and London.
Check out my blog
Follow me on Twitter
Steal My Startup Ideas