How to make creative that stands out

Welcome back to Nice Ads! It’s Monday again and this is your last issue before we break for 2023! Unreal. I’d just like to take this moment to thank you for all your support over the past 12 months.

Nice Ads has grown into one of the leading ad creative newsletters and is read by some of the world’s biggest brands and marketers. So thank you.

Anyway, let’s get on with it, shall we?

Oatly

This advert is amazing. I’m often speaking about how important it is to make ads that people have never seen before. Not only does it help capture the right attention but it also helps you stand out from the others in the space. But how do you do that?

Like this.

Think of a crazy idea and do what you have to to make it work. Because often it’s 100% worth it. Because I find it hard to believe that anyone would scroll past this video without watching it.

HOWEVER! I think they missed an opportunity. If you watch the full video you’ll see that the video starts without the mini fridge in the frame, WHY?! This is the main reason people will stop and watch and yet we don’t start on it. One thing I’ve learnt after making thousands of ads is that you should always start with the interesting thing in the frame - Otherwise, you lose the viewer before you’ve even started.

Other than that I think this is such a smart advert. No captions or voice-overs are needed. It does what it came to do - Capture attention and remind the customer who the brand is and what they make.

👉 Watch in full here

Dr. Squatch

I want to let you in a secret, showing someone in the shower in your hook leads to some of the best hook rates. We did it once and got a rate of 57%. It’s crazy! But I think we all know why it works and that’s why it shouldn’t be ignored.

It’s the reason Dr. Squatch has used it. A guy in the shower and then text calling out what we were all thinking, “That must have been awkward to film”. It helps us relate to the hook, stop and watch. But there’s more to this advert than just the hook. The video as a whole is pretty solid. It’s led by an AI voice-over and seems to be a mashup of old footage. So probably cost them £0 to create and as we all know these are the small wins that take a brand to the next level.

Building a vast archive of footage allows you to pull together endless creatives and quickly test new ideas - This is normally the reason why smaller brands struggle so much, they don’t have the capital for new assets but don’t have an archive of old ones to pull from. It’s a nightmare.

Dr. Squatch is the king of this mashup UGC style, most of their ads are that style so it works for them. We can all learn a lesson from brands like this - Invest in creative!!!!

👉 Watch in full here

Along with running this newsletter, I launched my first software in 2023 and that’s called Creative OS. Endless templates you can use to create winning static ads. You can open them in Canva or Figma and start designing in seconds.

We add 10 new templates every week! I wanted to share 3 of my favourites with you:

What do you think? Pretty cool right - You can grab a 7-day free trial right now and start designing some killer ads. I’m excited to see you there.

Puppy Place

A lot of the time people don’t buy a product because they think it’ll be hard to use or set up. That’s why videos like this example are perfect for MOF/BOF. A simple video of a user setting up or using the product. Showing you how easy it is to do. Removing that objection entirely and giving the customer 0 reason to not press purchase.

Often brands shy away from addressing these objections and just hope that the customer one day wakes up and chooses to ignore it and buy anyway. But chances are, that will never happen. Instead, use your ad creative as a way to battle them head-on. Got an expensive product? Call it out “Hey this is why our product costs X and why we’re worth it”. Your creative isn’t just to sell, it’s to educate and inform.

👉 Watch in full here

Annnndd that’s it! Nice Ads 2023 is complete. Once again I want to say a massive thank you for the time you’ve given to me over the past year and I look forward to seeing you more next year.

Speak soon ✌️

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