We Review: Big Brand Advertising and Marketing

Zack Greenfield • October 27, 2021

Today we're going to go over some actual online ads that we picked out, right off the internet, and we're going to pick them apart using the things we've learned on this channel and figure out how we can apply some of these ideas to ads for you and for other small business owners. So we can be better advertisers. 

All right, welcome back guys. So today we're going to go over some ads. I'm going to bring up here. We're going to figure out exactly, you know, some of the key elements that we've talked to on this channel in the past. And you know, maybe what we could use in some of our own ads by looking at real ads that people are paying to run online right now. So these are actually ads. We pulled off from this morning and we're going to bring them up here. We're going to start with an ad from Geico. Geico has the first thing about this ad right away that you notice just this, that big combined headline. So if you imagine this on a big webpage, combined is going to be the word that really pops, and then you kind of go down, I think, and you sort of goes away, but could save. 

You see how this is like visually lined up right here combined, and then could save sort of brings your eye out. And then they have this awesome circular graphic logo. They put together for this, and they've got the car, the house, the apartment motorcycle and the boat. And they're really showing that this is what Geico envisions as combined coverage. This sort of circle of care, if you will. So I think the graphic was worth the extra time to put together for this. They did some clearly some thinking about it. They started with car cause that's what they're known for at the top. It's visually right below the word saves or kind of draws your eye down to this. So your eye sort of moves right through the word, save and down. So there's some cool visual, very good design layout work here. There's also the little subheading more than just car insurance. 

So that's kind of like a new little sub tagline. And then the call to action is get a quote, right? They want you to see if you could save, right? So there's two things going on with the word could, it's a legal disclaimer, cause there's not a guarantee on this ad. And then the other thing is there's some intrigue with the word could and they want you to get a quote, right? So two things from this that are takeaways, great, three to five word headline with a strong message leading off the top, spend some extra time on the graphic, which is great. And then we've got a visible and clear call to action on the ad about what the person should do. If they're interested, let's go to the next one here. This ad is basically total crap. I pulled it off as a pretty bad example. 

There's no emotion, no imagery on this ad. The call to action is barely visible. Despite it being in a contrasting color, even on my computer, I'm not even really sure what the hell that said. Um, and you know, get a $5 domain sounds cheap I guess. But do we really know since there's no reference, it's not like save today. There's no urgency in this ad, like get a T get a $5 domain in the month of October, or it's just all sorts of weird, which makes me think that this is ads by Yahoo, that this ad was actually put together by like an algorithm or some sort of mixer. That's mixing messaging on this lame color background. Cause there's no imagery. There's no happy business owner that got their $5 domain. There's no person setting up a website. I mean, nothing is associated with that. 

It's just very dry. So I doubt this performs very well. Even though network solutions definitely been around for awhile. They've got a good name, but they're not even really doing a great job of leveraging that in the ad either. So moving on, this is the kind of stuff I would avoid. It just looks like lazy, lame work and it's not compelling, no urgency, no imagery, no emotion. And what is we don't as a buyer really care if they're the original domain registrar, that's not relevant, right? This is about them. And remember you want to focus your ads about your customer and what they value. Next one here, big brand and for big powerful brands, we've got Amazon and down here, the American express logo, which is very recognizable, you've got prime and AMAX sort of double badging. This ad right here, which is really cool. 

So they're leveraging of course their established business and selling us this nice black credit card. So it's got that sort of high-end feel, which is cool. It's targeted at business owners and they're giving you that classic advertising copy, which is small business, big perks. And that's our format, right? Which is your small business. You think you have obstacles? No, you don't have to have those obstacles. Even if you're small, you can have big perks even though you're small. So it's kind of a clever get this without that pain. We've talked about that structure before on the channel. And it's just a really quick little punchy version of that. They stayed again, their primary message is three, four words up top Amazon business prime card. Anybody can read that. They know exactly what the ad is about. Learn more as the call to action. So you're going to find out more about the credit card and what the terms are super straightforward, the best elements from this ad. 

Great graphic again, high-end imagery sort of says that this is a premium card for a business owner. That's doing, you know, wants to do it well or is doing well. So it appeals to that aspirational business owner or customer, and then very clear messaging and clear call to action on nice white space. So pretty decent stuff there. We're going to do some more of these. So stick with us. If you guys liked this video and he liked doing these sort of reaction to advertising videos, having fun with him all over the internet, it's a great place to learn. I want you guys to start to deal with decode ads for the elements that you can use in your ads. Go ahead and smash that like button, see you on the next one. 
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