The best way to stand out from the crowd is to do something different, something that makes people sit up and take notice.

To that end, today we’re going to look at some examples of advertising techniques that are a bit more creative than most. Perhaps one of them will appeal to you, or perhaps it will get your creative juices flowing and you’ll think up something even better and end up a big stride out beyond the rest of the pack. And in advertising, unlike in nature, that’s exactly where you want to be!

Note that we’re just looking at billboards here, but the ideas can easily be applied beyond these devices, from online to television, to magazines.

Let people know that other people love your brand.

30

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/pride-month-gay-youth-advocacy-group-takes-times-square-165120

One of the best ways to make people like your brand is by making them aware how much other people like your brand. Another good way to sell your brand is to create a community. With an ad in which you showcase common people connecting with your brand and sharing their message with the community, you can achieve both.

What’s more, you retain complete control. After all, you get to decide what faces go up there. So hold a competition or a photo gathering event about something that your audience cares about, select those images and notions that best support what you’re trying to say and then broadcast those to the world. You’ll engage your people and you’ll come across as caring and involved in important matters.

Of course, this can backfire if it all makes belief and you don’t actually care, so perhaps think about actually committing before attempting this strategy.

Be innovative with your use of graphics.

Screen Shot 2016-07-13 at 12.45.33 PM

With this fantastic billboard ad, the Oldtimer very cleverly reimagined the static billboard to include the viewer into the ad. This makes it impossible for anybody to pass the idea (quite literally). What’s more, the tagline matches the idea of swallowing cars well and thereby makes the ad memorable and funny.

Of course, we’ve seen this before in terms of ads that you walk into, but driving into one is an entirely new idea. How could it be reimagined? You could imagine people entering and exciting other objects. Perhaps one of a bum on the reverse side of the tunnel for a laxative?

Break the rules by using the structures around you.

32

In effect, here the idea is the reverse of the one outlined above, with the ad seeming to reach in and change the real world. Not only is this arresting, but it also manages to create the unconscious idea in the viewer’s mind that the brand is so strong that they’re capable of breaking through the fourth wall and entering from fantasy into reality.

This could easily be reimagined for other products as well. Perhaps for power tools, bleaches, or staying power (perhaps with the ‘old’ ad ripping its way through a ‘new’ ad that has been placed on top, for example). In this way, the billboard space has been reimagined and the audience re-engaged.

Bring the background into the foreground.

33

Using the natural beauty of the sunset and the night behind it to show the possibilities of hair coloration is another very clever way of bringing the environment back into the product. It also allows– in this case that’s actually more important – change to come to something that is normally static and unchanging.

Of course, you could try using this for many different color changing ideas, be it paints or wallpapers. It could also be a great way, however, to sell real estate. Instead of simply showing off the houses that are being built when there’s a great view available, why not show the people enjoying the houses and the view that’s on offer? That will make it far less likely that people will simply drive by yet another billboard showing yet another dreamt up the house.

Go back in time. 

34

https://msb1959.wordpress.com/2016/03/23/how-it-all-probably-started/old-school-days/

Sometimes the best way to get attention is to bring back ideas from a former time. This works very well as we have a tendency to see the past through rose-tinted glasses imagining them as much nicer than they used to be. The retro look can, in fact, be used for almost anything, particularly anything that has been around for a while serving people well.

But it could even be used in a self-depreciating manner. For example, by showcasing the newest product in a range by making it seem as if it is being advertised in the 60s or 70s style. Particularly if the product is pointed at a slightly more sophisticated audience, they would appreciate the humor and the self-depreciation implicitly assumed in the poster.

Leverage events for the benefit of your brand.

35

http://www.adweek.com/prnewser/oreo-times-stunt-to-coincide-with-solar-eclipse/111225

In this case, Oreo very cleverly used the fact that a solar eclipse was coming to showcase their product, creating a clock of how far along the eclipse had come (thereby providing useful information) as well as advertising. And you can do this with your product as well.

In fact, this would possibly be even more effective online. Considering giving users information that they otherwise might not have (like when and where they can vote in the election, what the polls are, or some other kind of useful information) and present it in some way where your brand is constantly in the picture.

Do it right by doing it wrong.

36

http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/ikea-uses-poorly-assembled-billboards-admit-its-furniture-hard-put-together-162903

Ikea purposefully mixed up billboard sign, making it appear as if they made a content creation mistake, so as to show that it could be hard to put their furniture together and to offer you help if you need it.

This is quite brilliant as those people who don’t get the ad probably shouldn’t get it as they wouldn’t appreciate the self-deprecation or the humor, while those who do get to think of themselves as clever (and thereby appreciate how clever ikea is).

Is your product hard to use? Then this might be a good way for you to present your ads to differentiate them from the rest. Then you can decide yourself if you want the jump from ‘the ad was put together wrong’ to ‘the product is hard to use’ to be implicit or explicit. It’s up to you!

A few final thoughts. 

These are only a few examples of some very clever ways use something as static as a billboard (and really you can’t get any more static or limiting than that) and turning it on its head. In a way, it’s almost easier to do with billboards because they are static, but that certainly does not make it impossible to do online, in print or on television.

If you take a moment to think about it, you’ll see that the unifying element in all of these ads is, in fact, that they refuse to see the dimensions of the advertising space as other people see it. In each and every one of the ads presented here the frame has in some way been broken, either by literally breaking it or by introducing elements from the around the billboard back into the billboard.

If you can do that with your advertisement then you’ll make it far more engaging for users, at least until everybody else has copied what you’re doing. For example, you could have an ad provide information, interact with the user, or interact with what the user is viewing.

Have a text editing program? Then make it seem that the text is being edited and typed by the program as a person reads an article. Has image sharpened software? Then have images in the articles people are reading sharpen as they come to the center of their page.

Whatever you do, break the frame. It might take a bit of effort to imagine how to do so cleverly and creatively, but by doing so your campaign can reap the benefits for months to come.

About the Author: Janet Anthony is a blogger from Kansas city who has been writing professionally for five years now. She mostly writes about digital marketing, design, blogging, inspiration, and self-development. Her motto is “What you do today can improve all your tomorrows”. Find Janet here: twitter, facebook, LinkedIn.