5 Things Compelling Media Ads Have in Common

By Diba Bijari

The whole point of great radio or commercial ads is capturing the attention of potential customers. Here are five ways that advertisements make you stop what you’re doing and listen.

1. Be Relatable

People are attracted to content that matches their own interests or needs. They want to feel understood. This can be as simple as having a friendly spokesperson who seems like someone they’d want to work with, like Flo from Progressive Insurance. Always use clear, understandable language that speaks to your audience and aims for specific moments that make them recognize themselves in the commercial and how your product can help them.

2. Get to the Point

If a commercial or radio ad overdoes a joke, gimmick, or builds up for too long before the actual service is named, most audiences have already tuned out or changed the channel. Some television ads also go over the top with visuals. Cool visuals are fun and appreciated, but they can easily muddle an audience’s attention, leading them to forget what the commercial was even for once the next one starts. Just like your food, no one prefers content to be overdone. Most ads are fifteen to thirty seconds on radio and a little longer on television. If you want to be remembered by the audience, start with what you want to be remembered for.

3. Lead with Emotion

Good old pathos, or appealing to emotions. People are more likely to fully listen and interact with ads that touch on emotion. When someone whose roof is leaking hears an ad for a roofer, they’re more likely to stay interested if the ad expresses that they want to make a difficult situation easier for their customers. There’s a reason Google and Nike commercials always stand out. They appeal to emotion through relatable, inspiring imagery and meaningful language.

4. Use Resources Correctly

Even if a commercial or radio ad has limited resources for their production, it doesn’t mean they can’t still succeed at being compelling. They just have to use the tools at their disposal correctly. If you’re using photos in your commercial, make sure they’re attractive shots without any extraneous objects in them. If your commercial is for a contractor and you only have a camera for your commercial’s content, a clean before and after shot of a remodeled kitchen is more than enough. If you’re doing a radio ad with one voiceover, make sure the person doing the voiceover enunciates and doesn’t read monotonously.

5. Make Sure Your Writing is Strong

Writing makes or breaks the entire ad. Make sure your writing is clear, describing adjectives aren’t repeated too often, and your grammar and sentence structures are precise. Only write what’s important. People are most moved and interested by certain television shows and films due to their quality scripts and the same goes for ads.

If you need help with your copy, consider hiring writing experts to help you with your project. At Write Label, we write hundreds of compelling commercials every month. With several options to choose from, you’ll find a script that captures your attention, and you can rest assured it will capture the attention of your next customer.