Creative Advertising in 2024: 10 Digital Marketing Ideas Curated For You

In 2020, a creative advertisement on a UK billboard made the headlines. The BBC show Dracula executed the art of creative advertising very cleverly. Some stakes were randomly placed on the billboard, and when the sun would go down, the lighting of the poster would project a shadow depicting Dracula. The stake has a close correlation with Bram Stoker’s Dracula; a seemingly random billboard during the day turned into a masterpiece at night. 

It is the act of persuading someone to take action after viewing an advertisement that makes it work. It is deceptive in its simplicity. In a sense, the purpose of creative advertising is to persuade users to take the desired action.

Persuasion can be used in almost any medium and is a robust tool for connecting with potential consumers. It requires being economical and, as the term suggests, creative. Moreover, there are many creative advertising ideas in 2024 that can bring user interest to your product. After all, with the pandemic aftermath, people will begin capitalizing on the time to improve their ad copy. 

And this is encouraging because it helps tap into a niche effectively. The pandemic enabled ad agencies to tap into their creative side and create ad campaigns that spoke to people on a deeper level. Also, advertisers who had fun making ads in a new dynamic will continue with the same energy.

How to make creative adverts in 2024?

Creative advertising is more memorable and works better with lesser media spending. What’s more, it is effective and builds a community faster. But numerous laboratory experiments have found no direct correlation of creative advertising ideas in 2024 with higher sales revenues. But this doesn’t mean that your product will not gain traction among users if you try out creative advertising.

Let us discuss two salient trends in creative advertising in 2024:

1. One trend that was clear even before the pandemic was the shift from traditional to digital media. But, the pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation journey for many companies. 
2. Another trend is consumers and agencies are communicating differently. Most ad campaigns are tailored to digital media and attempt to persuade customers who are active on social media. This can be in the form of short videos or mobile advertising; sharing stories can become a vital medium for gathering interest in your product.

One of the essential rules of creative advertising is to ensure the person can take away something valuable from your ad. Hence, making an impression on your client is crucial. And ad agencies need to become creative in their methods of solving the problems of their clients. They should be asking questions like: how can this ad build my client’s brand? 

Instead of selling the product, the focus is now on improving the overall experience. The customer experience with a brand is crucial to building its image. The consumer will want a positive message as the world slowly comes back into its original place. That is why optimism will drive many of the ad campaigns in 2024. 

Also, a happy message can work well as it creates a positive association with the product. Here are some creative advertising ideas in 2024 for your look at.

Creative Advertising Is Finding A Resurgence

The pandemic introduced a breath of fresh air in the industry of creative advertising. Creative ads during the 1960s were ground-breaking in nature, and advertisers had legendary status. But, the post-pandemic aftermath has brought the focus back on the advertising industry. With the introduction of digital marketing, a bigger advertising budget means more room for creativity and reaching the right consumers.

However, no funds can make up for the creativity needed for making great, engaging ads. The ads need to generate traction and engagements to build a community faster. Only an understanding of trends and creativity can make your ad memorable. If the ad isn’t out of the box, no one will buy the product. 

So, let’s start listing some creative advertising ideas in 2024 to bring excitement to your marketing strategy:

1. Create a challenge: The internet is full of challenges on Tik Tok, Instagram, and other social media platforms. The concept behind it is to create a challenge that social media users can do and post on social media. Challenges are basically UGC or user-generated content and provide a large consumer base for brands. Having users engage in challenges is almost like free promotion. You can spread the word about your challenge by creating a hashtag. And then everyone will make it go viral.
2. Hold periodic contests: Another way to encourage more UGC is to create competition among consumers. It essentially offers a prize at the end of a task. And it is suitable for businesses who are new and haven’t made a name. And it is a method to get users to engage with your brand on various social media platforms. Draw in your customers by offering a prize, and you will get better insights into your target audience. You can try doing a photo contest, video contest, etc.
3. Create and share videos: Video marketing statistics show that videos are the most popular and consumed content on the internet. To promote your brand, you can create walkthroughs or explainers that encourage users to invest in your product. Moreover, using high-quality videos to create ads is also great to get users to engage with you. Videos also allow you to target your audience and speak to them on their issues.
4. Hold quizzes: These are not just a novelty, but they allow you to communicate with your audience. Your consumers will enjoy a fun quiz once in a while. And if it is in a particular niche, then it will grab their interest. Ask them an interesting question, and watch how their answers vary. It will give you an idea about how many people are informed regarding your niche.
5. Create a poll: These are fun to participate in, and creating one is a good idea. Since users often respond to polls because they are less time-taking, you get an idea of what your consumers are looking for. Try asking the right questions, and you can generate some intelligent insights into your target audience. Also, using polls helps you bring together user opinions and create a discussion around your product. 
6. Add humor to your marketing: Some companies utilize humor as a great icebreaker to spark a discussion among social media users. And businesses with a quirky sense of humor can create memorable ads. After all, look at the Budweiser ads for Super Bowl; these are shared prolifically on video-sharing platforms. Despite being broadcast only in the United States, these ads are the gold standard in humor in advertising.
7. Make memes and parodies to engage users: Google is a master at this making memes in 2024. They create pastiche that is hard to resist for users. For instance, memes are a great way to connect with a younger audience looking for a quick laugh. Parodies are also effective in drawing engagements. For example, the ad wars of BMW, Audi, Mercedes Benz, and Jaguar are famous. The intrigue in parodies is that all the competitors take it as a challenge to outshine each other with the more creative ad.
8. Use pop culture references: If you have an older audience, you can connect with them using carefully placed references to shows, movies, songs, and much more. Using pop culture references generates interest in viewers as they immediately relate to the content shown. Take the Macaulay Culkin Google Assistant Parody, for example. It connected with Gen-X and Gen-Y because they had all watched Home Alone and could understand the references.
9. Create a Youtube Channel: Engaging with videos is not enough. You need to go on Youtube and start vlogging. After all, Youtube can give you reliable audience insights. This feature is crucial for businesses targeting a large demographic with their ads. What’s more, Youtube has a global reach of 2 billion people. Video marketing allows your business to create a sense of authority. And this enables customers to engage and connect with your brand.
10. Build your website: No matter how active you are on social media, when it comes to creating a name for your business, building it is vital. A website can give customers an idea about your values. Also, a website offers an overview of your products. Furthermore, if your customers can relate to your brand, they are more likely to take action. Moreover, with pre-hosted web templates, building a website is much easier. 

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The power of emotional advertising

Digital marketing has changed our approach to advertising for products. A good advertisement boosts sales as a user can associate a positive memory with the product. According to a Nielsen Report in 2016, ads are said to lift sales volumes by 23% if they affect a person’s emotions. 

Emotional ads generate a more active response in the memory centers of the brain. Hence, marketers are choosing to measure cerebral responses to understand consumer reactions. They use neurometric tools such as facial coding, implicit response testing, eye tracking, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI.)

According to research by BrainJuicer, a behavioral science-based research and strategy company, traditional advertising models assume that persuasion is the route to generating the desired reaction. However, consumers do not always think linearly. In fact, a driven emotive response almost always trumps a rational one when it comes to consumer decisions.

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So, are creative ads more effective?

Creative advertising is more effective in influencing purchasing behavior. And when a company chooses the correct dimensions and emotions to target, it can become an effective tool. However, when companies make the assumption that emotional advertising always works, it can backfire.

What’s more, many companies focus on the wrong dimensions, displaying an inability to understand cultural preferences and emotions in general. 

Take, for instance, Mcdonald’s controversial Fish-o-Filet ad. It unabashedly showed a boy and a mother talking about how his deceased father liked the same burger he was having that day. The mother adds on by saying that the Fish-o-Filet was his favorite too.

Many companies often take negative emotions and turn them into creative ads. This does not generate a positive response in sales nor emotions. What Mcdonald’s did was deemed “shameful” and in poor taste. As they managed to disrespect children bereavement. 

A crucial part of getting creative advertising right is understanding your audience and connecting with them on an emotional level. Burger King also failed to do so when they posted a tweet on International Women’s Day that caused massive public outrage. “Women belong in the kitchen.”, the post said. And they backed up their tweet by saying that women are underrepresented in fast-food chains as employees.

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But, netizens did not buy the excuse, and Burger King deleted their tweet shortly. Here is a classic case of companies gauging their audience incorrectly. After all, there is a fine line between being creative with advertising and emotional manipulation. Thought-provoking ads often contrast another popular form of ads that capitalize on humor. 

That’s why feel-good ads work really well, and Thai advertising is really good at this. Many of their ads are viral on Youtube because they go to the roots of human struggle and adversity to create poignant adverts. More importantly, a good ad moves a consumer to take action. And blindly trying to elicit an emotional reaction never works. But, there is a genre of advertising known as “Sadvertising.” 

It capitalizes on the empathy of consumers to bring awareness.

However, the purpose of such an advertisement is to address an issue. For example, the “Smoking Kid” is a famous ad showing kids approaching elders with cigarettes asking them to light them up. The message was simple, but the execution generated a massive response. There was an increase of 40% in hotlines addressing the issue of quitting smoking. 

But, a simple message generated a tremendous reaction. Let’s look at what happens on the other side of the spectrum.

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Does emotional advertising always work?

A Gillette ad that addressed toxic masculinity was met with mixed emotions. This was due to two reasons:

1. One, it touched on a sensitive topic of toxic masculinity. And Gillette is a brand that offers products for men. Their slogan is “The best a man can get.” The ad asked men to be better, thus outraging their whole consumer base.
2. Two, it was an advertisement that took the #MeToo movement as a topic of discussion. This ad was meant to sell products, but instead, it brought awareness to the issue at hand.

It is a good ad, and one should watch it. But, it does not solve the consumer’s problem, and second, it does not sell. So, it will always be prone to negative critiquing. But, one can create a brilliant ad that sells.

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Conclusion

Anyone in the advertising industry knows David Ogilvy, the famous copywriter. His famed Rolls Royce campaign says that the only sound you will hear in a Rolls Royce is the sound of the electric clock. The copy is a homage to the soundless drive of a Rolls Royce. And if you are looking for creative advertising ideas, remember it all started with David Ogilvy’s ad copy.

With ad copy, the primary purpose is to persuade consumers to purchase a product. And some ad agencies get too creative with their ads. An emotional response is a double-edged sword, after all. And for the gamble to pay off, working towards gaining positive acknowledgment is much safer.

That’s why one of the trends in advertising is currently optimism. Creative messages generate more attention and positive attitudes if the dimensions chosen are correct. Companies need to be aware of the impact their advertisements have on the perception of their consumers.

Mcdonald’s got this wrong in a classic case of creating a negative emotional response instead of an empathetic one. 

And a good ad can create empathy if it solves the consumer’s problem and sells the product in the process. The aim of advertising is not to simply generate emotional responses but engaging users with the product. That being said, negative emotions can be a powerful tool to communicate with your audience. One has to be careful when doing that. And caution would be to strategically approach it and provide a positive takeaway.

After all, an ad is supposed to linger only till the sale is done. After that, being creative with your ad means you are taking liberties with your audience. And humor almost always works if it is in good taste. Furthermore, being condescending towards your audience does not bring on even keel with them. You need to communicate the brand values and product functionalities in a friendly manner. 

Lastly, consistently engage with your customers and show that you care about their opinions, interests while gauging their attitudes. Through creative advertising, you need to become approachable to your consumer, almost like a spouse. After all, the consumer knows best and will not take any emotional advertising at pure face value.

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