How to Create an Advertisement

by James McKenna

Crafting an advertisement that entices potential consumers might seem difficult,

but it's simpler than you think. The simpler the better, in fact. An ad sums up everything
that is smart, innovative, and distinguished about your brand, and is almost indispensable
in today's economic marketplace. Note that in today's digital environment, ads are
evolving rapidly. There are many companies using little if any traditional advertising and
instead relying on social media. Although the platforms may change over time, the basic
tenants of advertising will continue to apply. To plan, write, design, and test an ad, follow
the steps.

But what exactly defines an advertisement?

According to Wikipedia, an advertisement:

“…is an audio or visual form of marketing communication that employs an openly

sponsored, non-personal message to promote or sell a product, service or idea”.

Business Dictionary comes with a similar but more diverse definition. According to

them, advertising refers to

“Paid, non-personal, public communication about causes, goods and services, ideas,
organizations, people, and places, through means such as direct mail, telephone, print,
radio, television, and internet”.
 Steps on how to make an advertisement

1. Understanding Your Audience

Identify a target customer. Your business or product may appeal to a broad range of
consumers, but for the purposes of advertising, it is usually helpful to think only about
a specific subset of this potential audience. A single ad cannot appeal to or target
every single person - accept this and then consider which consumers are most
important for this project.

For example:

If you are creating an advertisement for a baby stroller, the audience is more likely
going to be new moms than people who don't even have a baby.
2. Describe your target customer. The more descriptive your team can be here,
the more targeted and effective your ad will be. Imagine your target customer
in your mind's eye, and ask yourself the following questions:

 What approximate age or gender are they?

 Do they live in a major city or a more rural setting?

 What is their income range? Are they wealthy CEOs or college students on
a budget?

 What other products do they use or enjoy? Do they use other products made
by your company?
 3. Describe the target customer's relationship to your product. Once you've
described your target consumer's basic lifestyle and demographic information,
now consider how that person interacts with your specific product. Consider
the following:

 When will they use it? Will they use it immediately, or when they need it?

 How often will they use your product? Once? Daily? Weekly?

 Will they immediately recognize its benefits/functions or will you have to teach
them?
4. Identify the competition. You have hopefully already designed your product
with the competition in mind. You should now consider how your ad might
specifically challenge (or complement) your competition's advertising efforts
and how they might react to your advertising actions.

Ask yourself: do other products exist besides yours that perform similar functions?
If so, focus on the differences, especially how your product exceeds the
competitor's.
 5. Describe the current market. Consider how your product is currently
positioned. It is a hot and popular item right now? If so, ask yourself if and
how you can distinguish your product from what is already available on the
market. You should also consider the competitive landscape and the customers
who are currently in play.[5] Ask yourself the following:

 Do customers recognize/trust your brand already?

 Are you hoping to convert people currently using the competition's product?

 Will you target those without a current solution? If your product the only one like
this?
Develop a strategy. Based on the information you've now compiled about the
audience you're trying to reach and how they might view your product, you're now
ready to think about an ad strategy. Your strategy should take into account what are
commonly known as the 3 C's: Company (you), Customer (them, your target), and
Competition.

Strategy is a complex topic, but by focusing on the desires, strengths, and possible
future actions of the 3 players on the field (yourself, your customer, and your
competition), anyone can build a complex strategy over time.
7. Come up with a catchy, snappy tagline. Keep it short and sweet; the average
product needs no more than six or seven words. If you say it out loud and it sounds
like a mouthful, edit it down. Whatever it is, it should grab the consumer's
attention and convince him or her that your product is different from everyone
else’s.[7] Consider using:

 Rhyme – “Do you Yahoo?”

 Humor – “Dirty mouth? Clean it with Orbit chewing gum!”

 A play on words – “Every kiss begins with ‘Kay’”

 Creative imagery – Yellow Pages: “Let your fingers do the walking”

 Metaphor – “Red Bull gives you wings”

 Alliteration – “Intel Inside”

 A personal pledge – Motel 6: “We leave the light on for you”

 Dry understatement – Carlsberg beer has a big sign in downtown Copenhagen that
reads, “Probably the best beer in town”.

8. Make it memorable. Your

message needs to be top of mind at the consumer's point of purchase. The second
your ad borrows a familiar advertising phrase (for example, “new and improved,”
“guaranteed,” or “free gift” — is there any other kind?), it becomes
interchangeable with thousands of others. What’s more, listeners are so used to ad
clichés that they don’t even hear them anymore. (Just listen to Tom Waits’s Step
Right Up to hear how meaningless clichés sound when strung together.

 What matters most is how the consumer feels, not what they think. If they feel
good about your brand, you've done your job.
 Startling the reader into paying attention is especially useful if you have a lot to
say. For example, this long, environmentally-oriented announcement wouldn’t
turn many heads if it weren’t for the unusual, confrontational tagline; if the reader
wants to get the joke, she or he has to read more.

 Know how to walk the line between controversial and entertaining. Pushing the
limits of good taste to help your ad grab attention is common practice, but don't go
too far — you want your product to be recognized on its own merits, not because
it was tied to a tasteless advertisement.

9. Use a persuasive technique. Note that persuasion doesn't really mean

"convincing." The point is to make the consumers feel better about your product
than anyone else's. For most people, how they feel determines what they buy. Here
are some tried and true methods that advertisers rely on to make their ads stick.
These include:

 Repetition: Getting your product to stick by repeating key elements. People often
have to hear your name many times before they even know that they heard it
(Jingles are one way to do this, but can also be annoying). If you go this route,
brainstorm a more creative, less obvious repetition technique such as the one that
was used in the Budweiser frog commercials (“bud-weis-er-bud-weis-er-bud-weis-
er”). people think they hate repetition, but they remember and that's half the battle.
  Common sense: Challenging the consumer to think of a good reason why not to
purchase a product or service.

 Humor: Making the consumer laugh, thereby making yourself more likeable and
memorable. This pairs especially well with refreshing honesty. Not the most
successful business in your class? Advertise that your lines are shorter.

 Exigency: Convincing the customer that time is of the essence. Limited-time only
offers, fire sales, and the like are the commonest ways to do this, but again, avoid
meaningless phrases that will slip under your customers’ radar.

10. Appeal to the target audience. Take note of your target audience's age group,
income level, and special interests. You should also consider the tone and look of
the ad. Check in with your audience often to see how they are responding. Even if
you have created the best ad ever, it won't be effective if it won't appeal to the
people buying your product.

For example:

Kids tend to be over-stimulated, so you will need to grab their attention on multiple
levels, with color, sound, and imagery.
Young adults appreciate humor and tend to respond to trendiness and peer influence.

Adults will be more discerning and respond to quality, sophisticated humor, and value.

11. Find a way to connect the desires of consumers to what you're advertising.
Check back in with your strategy here. Make sure you are focusing on the most
appealing aspect of your product. Why should it entice people? What sets it apart
from other similar products? What do you like best about it? These can all be good
starting points for an advertisement.

 Ask yourself if your product or event is aspirational. Are you selling something
that people would buy in order to feel better about their social or economic status?
For instance, you might be selling tickets to a benefit gala that is designed to feel
elegant and luxurious, even if the ticket price is well below what most wealthy
people would be able to pay. If you are selling an inspirational product, try to
make your advertisement exude an air of indulgence.
 Determine whether or not your product is for practical means. If you're selling
something like a vacuum cleaner, designed to perform common tasks or make life
easier for the consumer, spin it in a different direction. Instead of emphasizing
luxury, focus on how the product or event will provide relaxation and peace of
mind to your consumer.

 Is there an unmet desire or need, any frustration in the mind of your consumer, that
will create a market for your particular product? Assess the need gap that exists for
the product or service.

12. Make sure all the relevant information is included. If your consumer needs to
know your location, phone number, or website (or all three) in order to have
 access to your product, provide this information somewhere in the ad. If you're
advertising an event, include the location, date, time and ticket price.

The most important element is what's called a "call to action". What should the consumer
do immediately after viewing the ad? Be sure to let them know!

13. Decide where and when to advertise. If you're advertising for an event, start
promoting it at least 6 to 8 weeks beforehand if it's going to accommodate more
 than 100 people; if it's less than that, start advertising 3 to 4 weeks ahead. If you're
advertising a product, think about the time of year when people are more apt to
buy what you're selling.[13]

For instance, if you're promoting a vacuum cleaner, it might sell better in the spring,
when people are undertaking spring cleaning.
14. Choose a memorable image. Simple but unexpected is often the best route to
take. For example, these stark, colorful silhouette ads that barely even show the
iPods they’re peddling couldn’t get much more straightforward, but because they
don’t look like any other ads, they are instantly recognizable.

15. Distinguish yourself from your top competitor(s). A burger is a burger is a

burger, but if you let yourself think like that, you’ll never make your sale. Use
your ad to highlight your product’s advantages over that of your competitors.[14]
To avoid lawsuits, keep to statements about your product, not theirs.
For example, this Burger King ad mocks the size of the Big Mac while speaking the
literal truth: that is a Big Mac box, after all, leaving McDonald's no legal ground from
which to retaliate.

16. Design a business logo (optional). A picture says a thousand words, and if a logo
is effective enough, it can render text unnecessary (the backwards Nike
checkmark, the Apple bitten apple, the McDonald's arches, the Chevron shell). If
you're running a print or television advertisement, try to develop a simple,
appealing image that will stick in the minds of viewers.[15] Consider these points:

Do you already have a logo? If you can, think of fresh and creative ways of re-imagining
it.
Do you have a commonly-used color scheme to work with? If your brand is instantly
recognizable by the colors in the ad or the logo, use this to your advantage. McDonald's,
Google, and Coca-Cola are good examples.

17. Tell customers to ask for someone by name. If customers have the option of
calling your establishment in response to an ad, for example, direct them to “ask
for Mike.” On another ad, direct them to “ask for Laura.” It doesn’t matter if Mike
or Laura even exist; what does matter is that the person taking these calls records
how many people ask for whom. This is a free way to track which ads are bringing
people in and which aren’t.