We all love watching Super Bowl ad commercials during football season. Remember the most recent Super Bowl ad for Amazon’s Alexa?
Some of us may even watch the Super Bowl just for the commercials (come on, don’t lie). This is not the case every other day of the year, however.
According to college professor Jon Anderson, the first rule of advertising is that people will never go out of their way to look at advertising- unless those ads are special.
Nowadays, it’s called “going viral” when we find these special ads.
So how do you go viral?
The first requirement for going viral is truth. What truth can you bring forward that people will be able to relate to in their lives? For Dove Beauty, the key was to look into the unfortunate truth of how women often view themselves. Consumers all around felt compelled to watch these ads and share the #RealBeauty sketches across their social media networks. Time and time again, truth will deeply connect you and your customer.
The second requirement is emotion. Like it or not, humans crave emotional connection in their lives. This is true even when we are shopping around. For instance, you may be considering an economy car because it gets great gas mileage. But in reality you want to feel like you are being wise with your money. Ever wonder why Nike is so popular? It’s because they use their platform to tell a story and inspire change and hope. Take for instance, the ad Toyota ran recently:
Lastly, you need to tell a story. This is true in many other areas of the marketing world and is the trusty secret to being successful in the business world. Stories are important because they engage and draw us in, or even reward us in some way.
The only hard part about following these three rules is trying not to say or do too much. In other words, keep it simple. If you can do these three things well, then you are on your way to being a boss advertiser!
For more information on this topic, check out Faktory’s post on Medium.
