When it comes to advertising, commercial videos can be one of the more impactful methods to get your message across. With a growing need for immediacy reflecting into people developing a shorter attention span, one needs to ensure that their video commercial is not lost among the many others that precede or follow it. The challenge here is to come up with an idea that is so inspiring, so relatable and so binge worthy that TV consumers actively decide to not use the commercial break from their favourite show as the moment they go and make themselves a cup of tea or take a trip to the loo.
It is important to understand that an intriguing and attention-grabbing video commercial can leave a lasting impression of your brand. It is no longer enough to just have a show reel of your products with the sole intention of selling. Now it is important to stand out and make an impact, whether it creates tears or generates laughter, adverts that tell a story tend to be the memorable ones.
Several big and renowned brands use this style of advertising and have for many years. In fact, one of the most iconic adverts was created in the 1980s by Apple titled, “1984”, creating a minute long cinematic video that purposely omits the element of showcasing products and switches the focus on the “why” behind their brand and what they want their products to stand for: revolution and empowerment.
When you are working on a TV Commercial that uses storytelling as its main feature, you need to consider several factors. These include:
- Humour – with life being so busy, humour and laughter can truly be the best medicine, and what better way to grab the attention of your target audience than to put a smile on their face. A brand that does this very well is M&Ms. Their commercials create several storylines and scenarios in which they put talking M&Ms in the forefront, creating humour and entertaining their target market through relatable, almost life-like scenarios.
- Storytelling – Sometimes, making your customers understand why they should invest in your product as opposed to your competitors is more important that highlighting the individual qualities of the product itself. Nowadays people are keener to invest in products that align with their personal values, therefore talking about they “why” behind your brand can help people identify with your brand and therefore increase the probability of them wanting to invest in your products. A clear example of this is the Dove brand – the focus is not its soap products but the mission to revolutionise beauty standards.
- Triggering emotions – producing a storyline that speaks to the heart, and potentially makes viewers shed a tear or two, can leave a lasting impression. Everyone has seen the iconic storytelling CocaCola Christmas adverts, which often trigger several emotions for many people. As well as the Ikea commercial titled, “Lamp”, which follows the life of an abandoned lamp. The interesting part about the latter is how it uses emotions, making you relate to something that is essentially life-less and therefore not usually relatable to, and at the end of the video, it calls you out on it, adding in a hint of humour that makes the advert so memorable.
If the above examples have inspired you enough to want to create an inspiring video commercial for your brand, here are a few things you need to keep in mind:
- Be precise and straight to the point – the most excellent of such adverts are the ones that can tell the fullest of stories in the shortest period.
- Ensure that you are authentic – the adverts that stand out the most are the ones that are different and that are unafraid to speak the brand’s truth.
- Visuals are everything – drab colours and slow-moving edits will not catch the viewer’s eye. What makes your brand visually pop? Use that and work towards inspiring people also visually.
- Know your audience – knowing your target market is essential in any form of marketing. Advertisements are no exception. Therefore, to make it relatable and authentic your message needs to speak in the language of your target audience.
If you are ready to inspire your target audience and give them space to relate to your product, The Concept Stadium can help you. Get in touch today and push your brand to start making a real difference.
(This blog was written with the support of Kayleigh Grech, Intern at The Concept Stadium)
