Create Campaign Success With the 12 Types of Ads
Follow this time-tested roadmap to ad effectiveness by understanding what makes an effective ad
Hello and welcome to our December post, “The 12 Types of Ads”. If you read that headline and bemoaned the fact that you were about to be subjected to another dreary rehashing of a certain loved/hated holiday song—but with ads–congratulations you were right.
Just kidding, we wouldn’t do that to you. I know that for some people the mere mention of that song title will trigger an earworm that won’t stop until February. For others it might create an unending string of questions like “What are lords a-leaping, and how do you wrap them?”, “What kind of psychopath/dairy farmer would want to be gifted 8 maids a-milking?”, and “What’s with all the birds?”. Either way, we’re going to do you a solid and stay away from repetitive song lyrics and fever dream gift ideas.
Instead, because December is the 12th month and a time of the year that’s filled with nostalgia, we’re going to take a fun look back at the thinking of a true genius in advertising history, Donald Gunn, the man who identified The 12 Types of Ads.
Donald Gunn was, (among many other things) a MadMen era creative leader for Leo Burnett. Gunn was an expert in developing advertising messaging but sometimes felt his success was via the luck of the draw rather than a proven formula for greatness. As a result he decided to sprinkle in some strategy and structure to help ensure the most effective ad outcomes. So he took a yearlong sabbatical, studied tv spots with his critical eye, and looked for patterns and commonalities among the most successful campaigns.
After a lot of research, (and probably a lot of reruns of "I Dream of Genie", "The Love Boat" and "Falcon Crest") Gunn found that nearly all effective ads fall into one of 12 categories. What he called the master formats. Even more than 40 years after his revelation, his categorization method remains as fresh and effective as ever.
Following are explanations of each of the master formats followed by links to example ads that embody Gunn's 12 basic categories. Check them out and you can be the toast of your holiday football party by rattling off the master formats during commercial breaks - because everyone loves that.
Without Further Ado, Here Are The 12 Types of Ads
1. The Demo
This is a visual demonstration of a product's capabilities. In your life you've probably seen thousands, if not millions of demo ads. Think laundry stain removal ads for detergent, or feature-based ads for new cars. These can be pretty run-of-the-mill, but when done well they can also be compelling and powerful like the following ad for Adobe Photoshop's GenerativeAI tool. Not only does it clearly demonstrate the product's benefit, but it levels that benefit up to an emotional level by showing how Photoshop’s GenerativeAI unlocks the creative potential of anyone who uses it.
2. Show the Problem
These ads create a situation that illustrates that current available solutions leave something to be desired and are creating a problem in people’s lives. They then resolve to reveal that a better solution exists. In the following ad, we see a man repeatedly suffer the disastrous consequences of an eyecare appointment that ran too long.
3. Symbolize the Problem
These ads feature the problem in a different way - using an exaggerated symbol to represent the problem. This Mucinex DM ad uses animated characters in a late night talk show environment to represent the annoying mucus buildup that keeps cold sufferers from getting a good night’s sleep.
4. Symbolize the Benefit
In the fourth format the tactic is to again use symbols to drive home the point. But in this case by symbolizing the product benefit. In the following example, Booking.com symbolizes their ability to help people create the perfect vacation for any personality type by using Tina Fey body doubles to act out the fantastical dream vacations that the app helps deliver.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UiFkOJoP-8&list=PLjncHZSg0GNG9lHNRRqaUIK5KGz06_fPN&index=1
5. Comparison
In this format we put the spotlight on the ways that the benefit of your product is superior to those of your competitors. In this outstanding example SnapChat points out the negative impact that competitive social media channels have had on our culture, while leaning into the goofy, playful, fun for fun’s sake content that people create using the SnapChat platform.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Bqqhr_2avc&list=PLjncHZSg0GNG9lHNRRqaUIK5KGz06_fPN&index=2
6. Exemplary Story
Exemplary story ads weave a narrative that helps illustrate the product's benefits by creating a situation where you'd use the product and be really happy about it. Watch below to see how TurboTax implements this format with an inspiring, emotional story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r2dFnuduzQ&list=PLjncHZSg0GNG9lHNRRqaUIK5KGz06_fPN&index=3
7. Benefit Causes Story
Here we create the ad by telling a story back-to-front with an imagined series of events that might be caused by the product's benefit. For this example, I go way back into time to pull forward one of my all-time favorite ads for a certain Dodge engine.
8. Testimonial
The eighth format —testimonial—is another standard of daytime TV that you’ve probably seen more times than you care to remember. It often takes shape when someone famous, or sometimes a “real person” tells us the story of how well the product worked for them. The following example for Taco Bell is a refreshing take on the Genre featuring famous rock band Portugal The Man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pELKI8-BmnU&list=PLjncHZSg0GNG9lHNRRqaUIK5KGz06_fPN&index=4
9. Ongoing Characters & Celebrities
There’s always a risk associated with creating an ad, which is making sure your ad is memorable enough to stick in the minds of your audience. Sometimes they remember the content of the ad but forget which company it advertised. One time-honored way to help ensure an ad cuts through the clutter is by using a recurring character or celebrity spokesperson to help cement your brand into the brains of your audience members. If you haven’t seen an ad in the following long-running example, I am jealous of you, as they’ve been ubiquitous for the last 2+ decades. Remember when he was originally voiced by Kelsey Grammer from Fraser? No? I guess I’m just old.
10. Associated User Imagery
In associated user imagery ads we showcase the type of people we hope the viewer will associate with the product. The following example features a couple of cool celebrities hanging out watching a football game and discussing a hilarious conspiracy theory.
11. Unique Personality Property
These spots highlight something inherent to the DNA of the product that makes it unique. The country of origin is used in the following ad campaign for an imported beer that still pops into my head whenever I order one–even all these many years after the campaign stopped running.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw8J0rkAVs4&list=PLuekIUqj5fe4QRi-cgG2Ir3sAdIRN7R-w
12. Parody or Borrowed Equity
And on the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me…. the 12th ad format. This is a popular approach because audiences have become desensitized to many of the more straightforward methods of delivering ad messages. In the parody or borrowed equity format, you can generate interest in your ad by drafting off of the expected format of a reality TV program, or an action movie, or a music video, or even another ad. This can break the viewer out of their standard mindset by delivering entertaining content that they want to watch. One of my all-time favorite borrowed equity ad campaigns delivers a thrilling piece of content while showing the product performing under the most challenging circumstances. This was so entertaining they made an entire series of videos that had people excited to watch the next installment - of ads. Yeah, you read that right, it made people want to watch their ads.
Thanks for joining Freshwater for a review of the 12 types of ads. I hope you enjoyed the variety of ad examples, learned a bit about ad formats, and were somehow able to walk away without repetitive song lyrics about gifting someone birds bouncing around in your head.
Happy Holidays from Freshwater Creative, and have fun amazing your friends and relatives with your newfound knack for identifying the 12 ad formats. If you should ever need a hand in creating your own effective ad campaign, give us a holler.