Cool Ads

While we think of metaphors as mainly word-based, visual metaphors can be a potent selling tool. They can both engage the brain like text metaphors and stimulate the viewer's senses in a way that words alone may not.

Beans have a well-deserved reputation for being a multi-sensory product. Remember the "musical fruit" ditty? But it's no joking matter for Heinz, who teamed up with food artists Bompas & Parr to create a unique promotion for its Beanz…

Sands Research has released their 2013 Super Bowl winners and losers, along with the "brain movies" to show how each ad lit up viewers' brains. For the first time that I can remember, the top spot was a tie - Coca-Cola "Security Camera"…

As is increasingly common, Audi has posted its 2013 Super Bowl "Prom" commercial for public viewing before it airs during the big game. The plot is simple enough, as you'll see:

Every year, we look forward to how the Super Bowl ads stacked up from a neuromarketing standpoint, courtesy of Sands Research. It's taken a little longer this year, but the results are in!

Lately, I've highlighted the various ways companies (and even colleges) are putting their customers in their ads by using social personalization or other means. In Australia, Coke took the idea one step farther, and put customer names…

Colleges and universities face some unique marketing challenges in the U.S. With more than 3,000 competitors, attracting the right students takes effort and creativity. Even schools that have no trouble "filling the seats" have important…

The Super Bowl is the biggest day of the year for football fans, and just about as important for neuromarketing companies. The first results of neuromarketing studies from the big game are trickling out, and Innerscope Research observed…

Are you overlooking a way to personalize your ads that goes far beyond the usual "Dear Roger" salutation? In my recent article, Put Your Customer in the Ad, I mentioned that LinkedIn was using profile pictures for targeted ads. Since…

Last week my post at Copyblogger, How to Write Weapons Grade Copy, focused on the power of stories to hold the attention of a customer. Here's a heartwarming ad from the UK department store John Lewis that shows how even a rather long…