We Review: Big Brand Advertising and Marketing - Part 3

Zack Greenfield • November 10, 2021

Today we're going to do some more dissecting of ads so we can all work on decoding, the psychology and the design of what works and what doesn't works in advertising. So stick with me and I've got some examples to share with you today. 

I went and looked at some interest, you know, sort of websites, fitness, and some other things to pull some different ads from different categories that were what I would consider cold ads, just as much as, you know, retargeting sort of based on the interest group. So if you go to a high interest blog site around your niche, you should be able to see ads that people are using as cold advertising, targeting that interest group for whatever your business is. So let's take a look here. The first one we got right here is advertising the new Google pixel phone. Now this ad was basically the entire like across the entire page. So it was very readable, but there's two things going on here that I liked about this ad. One is all the way over here. 

You have just an elegant product image, which is, you know, obviously what they're trying to sell. It's this sort of beautiful new phone and then some really nice black text on white that tells you what you can do now. Right? You can pre-order this phone and then not just lead your eye right over here to the buy now button, which is in this really nice contrasting blue. So the color use here, I think is quite good. They've got this sort of lime, whatever green that is nice white space, and then the blue big button. So the button in this example is actually quite large relative to everything else, but it's a very strong call to action. And I liked that about this ad. So you've got kind of the elegant product image there all the way over, and then this nice call to action and a little bit in between to explain. 

And again, just using four words, they're, pre-order Google pixel six, that's it. And that's all it needs. It's not a bad ad. I'm sure that it's probably performing pretty well, but the takeaways here are the image being clean and professional, and then this nice call to action being really overt. Let's take a look at the next one. This is from Caesar's sports book. This one is great. And here's the core element to this it's right here. First bet, up to $5,000 risk free. This is the biggest objection, right to gambling and, and to some degree for all purchasing that people make, they're going to feel like they're taking a risk, right? But this ad right here just eliminates a $5,000 worth of risks. So it's a really excellent ad in terms of reducing objections to making a, an, a move. And that's something for all of us to think about in our advertising is what are your buyer's objections and how could you quickly remove them in two lines like this? 

I mean, it just only using 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, like six words, big yellow and white on this black background, really the center of the message. Risk-free. Download the app, start making bets. I think it's pretty obvious what they do because it's called a sports book right up top here. Caesars is a pretty recognizable name. Of course, in the gambling business, got a little bit of legal stuff on the bottom. Nobody cares about all that, but you do need to think about that. If you're in a business, that's got regulations and then, you know, the action yours download the app and get involved. But the big thing for all of us as advertisers is to see as just this really powerful use of removing the biggest objection that your buyer might have. And the next one, this one, works in a couple of different ways. And I'll, and I'll tell you my thoughts about couple of things. 

Cool. They're going on here? Pretty white ad got the avocado and the water bottle clearly fitness-based ad this was a, on a interest website. I went to the fitness website. And so this is a cold advertising. I've never shopped for any of this stuff before. So it wasn't a retargeting ad. And what's happening here though? The text is, and then again, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 words is falls are three to five word rule fitness starts with what you eat. Now, if you read that out loud for a second, your mind goes, wait, what? I thought fitness started with lifting weights, right? Fit. I thought fitness started with a gym membership. Why does fitness start with what I eat? That's a different category, right? So there is what I would call. And I think in the, in, you know, in this business called contrarian marketing is to say something to your prospect. 

That's really, it's nothing they've heard before and goes against the main stream messaging that they're being exposed to daily because it makes them stop and pause and say, wait a second. Something's going on different here.  And being different is a very powerful form of advertising. It's not to go with the herd, but to stake out some ground, that's all yours over here and say, fitness, doesn't start in the gym fitness, doesn't start with weights. Fitness starts with what you eat, what? Right. But for people that are really want to be focused on diet, and they're interested in things like avocados and drinking, good amounts of water and all that, this speaks to them and to everybody else it's contrarion and it makes you wonder, right? So what are you going to do? You're going to sign up for this personalized newsletter. There may be a to personalize it. 

I would think I didn't click on it. And all they want is your email and they sign up, right. So it's an opt-in, but it's an opt-in for this sort of special messaging, good things that are happening here again are just that clean imagery, white on black, super readable. Exactly like a police car. Right. I mean, there's a reason for that. And then you got that contrarian messaging, so you can incorporate contrarian messaging into your copy, that going to be very powerful. So if you guys enjoyed those, go ahead and smash that like button and we'll see you again on the next.
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