Creative Advertising – Definition, Ideas and Campaigns

By Hitesh Bhasin

Creative advertising is an advertising practice that brings together a team of creative people to make ad campaigns that can creatively share the brand story to promote and optimize conversions.

Creative ads are proven to be more result-driven. As per the research of Author James Hurman and others on three decades of advertising campaigns, creative ads deliver 11 times higher ROI than non-creative ad campaigns.

Table of Contents

What is Creative Advertising?

Definition – Creative advertising is defined as a strategy to effectively and creatively advertise a brand or product in a way that people remember them.

It moves the customers and forms/changes their perceptions by connecting with them. A clever advertisement doesn’t feel like an ad. It imprints itself on the customer’s heart and mind instead.

Why are Creative Ads Important?

Creative Advertising is more than necessary in a world where people hardly remember an advertisement even after watching it several times during the day. There is comparatively more emphasis on quantity nowadays than quality, leading to a decrease in creative and effective advertisements.

A brand or a product needs to be remembered by the public. If the customers can recall a brand or product and its advertisement, it is likely to prosper in the long run.

According to Harvard Business Review-

“A euro invested in a highly creative ad campaign had, on average, nearly double the sales impact of a euro spent on a non-creative campaign.”

The need for creative advertisement is to effectively and creatively impact customers’ psyche for better branding and marketing of a company and its goods and services. It becomes more critical because people don’t have much time to repeatedly go through boring and conventional advertisements.

It is way too easy for them to skip the ad and move on with their shows and videos. It is where Creative Advertising comes to play. Advertisements with unconventional and relatable content would lead a brand to reach millions. People through Creative Advertising would remember both the ad and the brand.

Features of Creative Advertising – What do Creative Ads include?

Creative ads have some basic features which need to be incorporated in them to make them creatively appealing to the viewers. Some of those features are listed below.

1. The originality of the content

Originality is a crucial factor in creativity. Your creativity comes from within you and not from someone else. Hence, anything that is original and which belongs to you denotes your creative perspective. In advertisements as well, originality and uniqueness have their voices.

The ideas incorporated in the ads need to be unique and not repetitive. There can be newer visual details or original captions and taglines that would attract the viewers. In the case of video ads, there can be new stories, new faces, and new scenes of stories, which will add a hint of creativity.

2. Elaboration of the concept

Once the basic idea of the ad is finalized, illustration is the next important step.

Elaboration can be of two types; it can either add an unexpected twist to the story or elevate it to an altogether new level. The elaboration details awaken the interest of the viewers and make them invest in the company’s product. However, one should take care that the details are not dull or bulky.

There should be crispiness and freshness in these details. Elaboration done without a just cause and track can be mundane and will rather ruin the advertisement than bettering it in any way. It’s a crucial point.

3. The flexibility of ideas

Flexibility means the virtue by which one thing can easily mould itself into several different forms. We live in a hugely diverse world. There are people of different mindsets, ideologies, and thinking patterns. If you want to launch and sustain your product or service in the global markets, you need to cater to every brain and thinking.

It can be done if you impart flexibility to your ads. The stories of the advertisements should be drafted in a way that appeals to most of the people watching it. It stands as the fact that no idea can appeal to every single being in the world. But, you can decide your target audience and work on meeting their expectations. You can put your creativity to test in such cases.

4. Synthesis of the advertisement

The synthesis of a story is its development and the relationships between various characters and objects in the story. In every ad, there is an adequately spun story that speaks about the product or the service it is offering. The characters in the story should be relatable. The incidents should be believable and not seem out of the world.

The words spoken by the characters or the message delivered by the ad should not be out of place. All of these factors should be in synchronization with each other. Only then, the ad, as a whole, will appeal to the viewers.

5. Artistic value

The appearance of the advertisement plays a crucial role in its success. In this, there are three main aspects, namely visual, verbal, and music. The visual appeal is very vital. The colours used in the ad, the type of palette of shades and undertones, the clothes worn by the characters forms the visual appeal. The music and the songs of the advertisements are also essential.

These tunes stay with the audience forever. People go on humming these tunes and enjoy them to the fullest. Next and the most crucial point is the verbal aspect of an advertisement. The dialogues are spoken by the characters and the way they are expressed to the advertisement’s conviction. Also, here comes the most exciting part of an ad which is the tagline.

A tagline is a group of words that represent the product in its entirety. It can speak about the values and uses of the product. There are examples of times when these taglines have broken records of popularity and contributed in a humongous way to the product’s success. Hence, artistic values are also crucial in maintaining the creativity of an advertisement.

15 Creative Advertising Ideas

1. Guerrilla Advertising

It is one of the most popular, creative, and effective ways to advertise a product or brand. It is also known as street art. This innovative advertising can include chalk art, graffiti, stickers, or anything that can be drawn and displayed on the walls of streets.

This type of advertisement is usually so attractive that people generally would take pictures with the art on the road and advertise for the product/brand in that process.

2. Advertisement Through Others

When others advertise for your brand, the advertisement is sure to reach places. So, one way to let others advertise is by installing anything that could also turn into a selfie point for them, besides advertising about the brand.

It could be a vast Instagram frame or Snapchat filters that provide an attraction and advertise for the brand.

3. Cute Animals Sell

The brands create advertisements and make them attractive through various methods. One of them is through cute animals like puppies, horses, or kittens. People are attracted to ads when adorable and innocent creatures make their presence.

Budweiser, for instance, is a beer, but its advertising includes horses that attract the customers so much that they would visit its brewery to see Clydesdale. So, including animals in an ad is a great way to make it both creative and practical.

4. Intended Puns Attract

People love good jokes, and they love it, even more, when the jokes are pun intended. The creative and clever wordplay can prove to be extremely important for an effective advertisement.

Pun intended jokes can also be created through the use of graphics in an advertisement.

5. Sense of Humour is Important

People don’t have time to watch advertisements in the world of premium memberships. So, a very effective way to reach out to the customers is through a humorous promotion rather than boring.

Brands need to give their customers a reason to stop and watch their advertisements. Creating a short ad that also shares an inside joke with customers would provide them with this reason.

6. Jingling Your Way

Creating jingles might seem a cliché, but this can be a brilliant way in the world of Creative Advertising. Lyrics need to be short, crisp, clever, apt, and relatable to be instantly and firmly remembered by the public.

Once a jingle makes its way to people’s minds, it won’t take long to advertise a brand effectively. When played on any screen, an efficient and effective jingle comes along with the lip-syncing of customers. They would automatically start singing with the advertisement, which is one of the best proofs that would portray the brand’s reach.

7. Creating Business Cards

It has always been a pleasure to open birthday cards and look for what is inside. Business Cards can be placed in the same category if they are created to attract and impact customers. Investing in business cards and developing them per the needs of one’s profession can be an excellent idea for Creative Advertising.

Cards don’t need to be of limited kinds. They can also be made to fulfill a couple of customers’ daily needs. Bon Vivant, for instance, gives cheese grater to its customers, which they can also use on usual days.

8. Creativity

Creative advertisement necessitates creativity and thinking out of the box. The portrayal of artistic sides in an ad can prove to be primarily functional in promoting the brand. Creating a funny picture or a 3D poster catering to the brand’s motive is one way to enhance the advertisement with one’s creativity.

Law and Order is a company that is engaged in making an attractive 3D advertisement. Scrabble creatively portrays a goldfish attacking a shark in the word game, thereby increasing the effectiveness of the brand.

9. Inspirational Videos

One of the best tried and tested methods to advertise has been the connection with customers through emotions. Creating inspirational videos is a way to engage with customers and make them talk about the advertisement.

When customers share the experience, the brand is sure to be effectively advertised. One way to create such videos can be sponsoring charitable organizations or initiating a drive.

10. Misdirection

Advertisements about one thing but making it look like the other are misdirection in Creative Advertising. Dull advertisements can instantly be attractive if the graphics are rightly used. It also becomes easy to advertise through attractive graphics. Companies like Selvera use this tactic for promoting their brand creatively.

A France-based company also used this strategy to advertise and school people about the rate of illiteracy in France. The advertisement has a girl standing in a bikini, making people think that the ad is about a bikini. In reality, it urges people to help illiteracy make a national cause.

11. Sponsored Quiz

Everyone loves talking about themselves. They love it, even more, to imagine themselves in the shoes of their favorite characters or what kind of life they would have led in Game Of Thrones. This is what Sponsored Quizzes like Buzzfeed are about.

It is a brilliant way to advertise a brand through this process because people are generally attracted to the quizzes that tell them about themselves. Interesting quizzes related to famous and the most liked candies, series, movies, or characters can be sponsored by brands and companies. It attracts people and, in the process the Creative Advertising takes place.

12. Environmental Advantage

Brands need to advertise themselves in the most creative way they can. One way can be through the help of the environment. Various environmental ads feel like a thought coming out of a child’s imagination.

Frontline, for instance, used a massive poster of a dog designed on the floor of a mall. They clicked a picture from above and made normal people look like flies. Creative Environmental advertisements turn a boring ad into an interesting one, and extraordinary comes from a common space.

13. Give Away

Various companies hand out several goodies to their customers. Giving away stuff is always a creative way to advertise a brand. It will attract more people because who don’t love getting things for free. Wordstream gives away free water bottles with the motive to save the planet from plastic.

Besides, it also gives away small items like sweatbands, t-shirts, bottle openers, pens, etc. It is an advertisement and an assurance that people would like to get these things again and remember the brand for a more extended period.

14. Grid on Instagram

After getting introduced to a brand, the first thing a customer is expected to do today is to search it on Google and Instagram. Google is guaranteed to give them results, but an attractive Instagram Grid is something not many will expect to come across. Creating an attractive grid of pictures on Instagram is an excellent way to advertise a brand creatively.

Social media is meant to be reaching people. A brand will quickly be promoted if people on social media love it. Reynolds Kitchen uses this tactic, and their Instagram grid is so creatively made that if the attractive pictures of individual dishes are brought together, it will give the grid a look of a huge banquet table.

15. Power of the Internet

Social Media Challenges have always attracted people, and some challenges have done rounds on the internet. ALS awareness leading to Ice Bucket Challenge, running man challenge, or the famous Mannequin challenge is a few to name among many others.

The owner and the co-workers coming together for any challenge is one great way to advertise a brand creatively. The power of the internet would be best used when a challenge on social media is circulated and engages with the customers. Connecting with people is the purpose of social media, so creatively advertising on this platform will attract the audience.

Examples of Creative Advertising Campaigns

Some of the popular examples of creative advertising ideas used to connect and convince consumers and other target audiences are mentioned below-

Zoho

At the time when Zoho’s competitor puts on one of the biggest marketing conferences in the world, Zoho hired five pilots for spelling out “Zoho.com/outsmart” in the sky. They opted for this creative and highly relevant creative advertising during Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference and it was for sure a creative way for driving traffic to a post-click landing page.

GoPro channel

GoPro used one of the most engaging creative advertising ideas through which they involve their customers to do marketing for them. GoPro Awards call on different content creators for submitting their best GoPro videos, photos, and clips. As per Wall St. Daily, Via user-generated content, GoPro more than doubled its net income from 2010 to 2011 to $24.6 million while it only but only spent $50,000 more in marketing costs for executing it. In the same way, in the year 2013, they repeated the same feat by just increasing its marketing costs by $41,000 and making $28 million more in net income.

Weight Watchers

The creative print advertising used by Weight Watchers is quite basic but it is quite effective in communicating the brand’s value proposition. Conveying its message by showing how easy it would be to walk in through a big door of WeightWatchers and come outfitting via the smaller one.

9 Best Creative Advertising Campaigns

Honestly speaking, there is nothing good or bad about creativity. If you can create something new, that is your victory. When it comes to advertisements, you can judge the creativity of it based on factors like its popularity, flexibility, and artistic value. Here are some of the most creative ads which will leave you amazed.

1. NHS Smokefree

The NHS (National Health Service) of the UK has always strived to bring out the most creative ads to inspire people to live a healthier life. It is no news that addictions of any sort are harmful to your health.
Severe habits like smoking and alcoholism can also prove to be fatal. Hence, the NHS came up with an ad promoting no smoking.

It showed a man with a fish hook on his mouth. It represented that smoking will kill you the way fish is killed when taken out of the water using the fishhook.

2. Heineken

Heineken is a leading brand of cold drinks and soda. Despite so many cold-drinks and soft-drinks in the market, Heineken has managed to attract people due to its creative advertisements.

It has put up printed ads in the form of hoardings on the streets of prominent cities. These hoardings have a 3D picture of the bottle. It is designed so beautifully that one is prompted to grab it until he/she realizes that it is just a picture.

It makes the viewers buy the bottle for themselves, thus increasing the sales of this product.

3. Adidas

Adidas is a leading brand of sports apparel and sports equipment. They have come up with brilliant ads for many years. But, the larger than life ad near the Munich airport is one of its kinds. Often huge ads become gaudy and bulky.

But, this ad is of a footballer in a sprinting position. It covers the whole width of the highway and justifies its size. It is creativity amplified to another level. It attracted viewers coming especially to see the ad and gained huge media acclaim.

4. Nivea Night

Nivea is one of the most popular and best brands producing various kinds of skin creams. They have creams for day and night uses. Their advertisement of the Nivea Night Cream is an ode to beauty in simplicity.

It has no caption, no tagline, and no characters. There is nothing but the original product. The pack of the cream which is in dark blue has the cream of white colour inside it.

The ad features the pack opened slightly, which looks like the moon’s crescent in the night sky shown by the dark blue background. This is an example of simplifying creativity to the extent that it becomes an epitome of innovation.

5. Pepsi Creative 

Pepsi has come up with different creative ad strategies that have been an instant hit with their target audiences. They opted for various innovative ideas based upon their product and target niche, which enabled them to optimize their success ratio.

Some of such creative advertising campaigns are Pepsi Mini Cans, Pepsi Light- Spine, Man or Spine- Woman, Pepsi Ask for more- Straw, etc.

6. British Airways

With changing market dynamics, new strategies are used by companies.

British Airways used one such creative advertising with their electronic ad that updated you about the plane which is flying overhead. It was as unique as engaging also and played a crucial role in pulling in more audiences.

7. Garnier 

Garnier came up with a visually appealing and enticing campaign for its hair product.

The Ad copy has a Swiss caption that says “for any hair type.” The ad image was so powerful and fresh in depicting this via its optical illusion that you will not be able to avoid using your creative senses while analyzing the pic.

8. Panasonic Nose Hair Trimmer 

In this creative ad, you can see what out-of-the-box advertising is.

The ad adeptly utilized the natural surroundings of the place where the ad is placed. They used the existing telephone wires as an integral part of their ad image by interestingly, creatively, and relevantly incorporating them in the ad image.

9. BBC World 

If we talk about one thing in life that can empower us to have a better understanding of different situations, people, and choices in our lives, then it is nothing but understanding different perceptions. BBC world came up with one such creative ad that adeptly demonstrated two sides of a story.

Conclusion!

On the concluding note, it is clear that creative advertising is a way of running ads or conducting events that people enjoy, like to remember, and even do word-of-mouth marketing for the brand.

But, if the brand’s target audiences do not relate to the brand’s story and message, the ad would not be considered an effective ad.

So, it is important that your creative advertising communicates what is relevant to your brand.

All in all, creative ads should contribute to perception, connection, emotion, or rational understanding that compels the target audiences to opt for a product or service or convert for the brand message.