Essentials for TV ads that stay on top of mind

You may have heard about Wendy’s “where’s the beef?” commercial or Little Baby’s Ice Cream’s “This is a Special Time” commercial. While one shows that the beef is practically visible in the burgers more than the brand’s competitors and is memorable in that way, the latter weirds you but you still do remember it. Both TV ads were effective in their own way. They stayed on top of peoples’ minds. These tactics would not work with today’s TV ads, however.

So what makes an ad stay at the top of your mind?

Memorability and Effectiveness

TV is not as dead as we thought it was. People still watch it with all the alternatives that are available for their time. The elements that make a TV commercial successful are:

• How memorable it is
• How effective is it

These two main qualities are the best way to make TV ads stay on top of a viewer’s mind. All other qualities fall in these 2 main qualities.

TV ads can be memorable but it is not a guarantee that the product will be, too. If people remember both the product and the TV ad, that was a job well done by the people who made the ad. The essentials that make TV ads stay on top of mind are as follows:

Entertainment value

If there is a skit of something that really kicks with the audience in your TV commercialsuch as an animated character who is going about its daily life using the product, it will help create a strong correlation between the product and the character. An example is of the TV ads that have the Budweiser frog, the Energizer Bunny, Pillsbury Doughboy or the Michelin Man (tires). The same goes for TV ads for sports brands like Nike and Adidas where they can create situations where people use their products or even prominent football players endorsing their products.

Jingles and Taglines

These can make you retain the products and TV ads themselves as they condition the person to remember the product when the commercial comes on. Like Old Spice’s “Smell like a man, man!” and Gillette’s “The best a man can get!”

Makes you Laugh

If TV ads provide you with 30 seconds of entertainment (because people have a short attention span: less than a goldfish), they will instantly become memorable for you. Effectiveness will depend on whether the humor is balanced with the message and the main product. An example is the Super Bowl Doritos ad where the kid tells his mom’s boyfriend “Don’t touch my mama and don’t touch my Doritos!” It tickles your funny bone and the product is registered in your brain.

Makes you think

If your TV ads have a message behind them and make the viewer think afterwards and they say “wow!” at the end, then your TV ads have made the viewer associate and relate to it. Congrats, your TV ads are memorable. Even if the viewers don’t remember the product directly, the ad will make its place in their mind.

Makes you connect

If you tell a story through your TV ads, and the audience makes an emotional connect with it more than other ads, it makes your ad more memorable. Again people may not know the product but they will know the story behind it and if you subtly place your product brand name in the ad, they will retain it. Think of it like a series of dramas like “GoT” where people can’t wait for the next instalment.

If you would like to have TV ads created that use these essentials, visit XYZ Creative Group.