Seven to eight million dollars. That's roughly how much a 30-second ad slot at halftime of the US Super Bowl cost in 2025. And that's not counting the cost of producing the spot itself.
Of course, not every marketer has the budget of Apple or Budweiser on hand to wipe the eyes of tens of millions of people who look forward to the extra ad block each year with their product. On the contrary, most marketers are working with limited budgets and time to engage audiences.
Fortunately, there are a few ways to trap the elusive viewer's attention with your creative without having to invest millions in celebrity fees or unavailable time slots.
(1) Follow and respond to trends
If you have your finger on the pulse of the times, you're halfway there. Good reaction marketing is based on current events, which it comments on aptly with its creative. How about a brat-wurst summer? Plus, if you ride a trend that is itself minimalist in its execution, you're off the hook for production.
But don't forget that in the end, you're representing your brand. Don't let it stand in the background and incorporate your brand symbols into the creative. That's the only way readers, users or viewers will connect the creative directly with you.
And don't worry about it - otherwise you may face a similar predicament as Heinz did when he responded to the infamous banana piece The Comedian in his creative.
Source: Behavio (heatmap)The heatmap, which shows where people are looking, shows that viewers don't miss the bottle of ketchup Heinz in the bottom right corner, whose presence is important for promoting brand awareness.
But when Behavio tested whether people could recall which brand they saw in the visual, it turned out that ketchup was not prominent enough. Only 12% of respondents correctly hit Heinz - presumably because the bottle was too small and out of the "main event" in the context of the overall visual. It could have been made more prominent and ideally closer to the fries.
(2) There is beauty in simplicity
Some of the advertising visuals deserve a good going over. While your product is certainly cheap, great, and three different things in one, you mustn't clutter your messaging with it.
Visuals that aren't cluttered and give people a chance to focus at all work best. McDonald's works well with this, for example, which relies on both a very simple layout for its poster.
Source: Behavio (heatmap)It's also dominated by two brand symbols right away - in case the yellow fries on a red background might confuse anyone, the logo on the bottom right makes sure of that. And as you can see - people are taking notice.
Bata took a similar route with the blossoming shoe campaign. The simple background is complemented by the product itself, the tulips and the logo.
Source: Behavio (heatmap), Symbio (creative)But be warned - the heatmap this time shows that the human eye is rather just interested in the logo, the attention is drawn to the flowers. This is also confirmed by the finding that only less than half (46%) of respondents get the brand right. In this case, it would be worth placing the logo rather close to them or - creatives will forgive - making it bigger.
(3) Bizarre and word games
clever wordplay, quirky imagery or just literal visualisations - things that simply make the viewer and passer-by pause will always work.
We don't have to go far for an example of good practice, just look at what they cooked for customers in Czech Budějovice.
Source: Behavio (heatmap), CzechPromotion (creative)The faces of the "lost heads" on the table attract the most attention, so the idea of placing a branded pint among them has its merit.
A clever play on words was taken by Kofola, which dropped its winged "if you love it, there's nothing to worry about" in favour of the love that the horns convey.
Source: Behavio (heatmap), WMC Grey (creative)The change of mountains behind the corners draws the most attention, as does the dominant bottle of Kofola in the corner. In contrast, the main tagline of the drink remains more or less opominut, so the question is whether the creative could have done without it. 62% of respondents can recall the correct brand, which is a good result.
If you're not sure, test it
Whether you're running a digital or print campaign, it's rarely a cheap affair. So it's always a good idea to test the creative to see if it will work at all and resonate with customers.
Not only does it need to grab attention, but ultimately convey what you need it to in order to strengthen your brand and ultimately your sales. Because even a slot at the Super Bowl won't guarantee that it will make sense.
Written by Vojtěch Prokeš, Director of Research and co-founder of Behavio
Source: mediaguru.cz
