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Industry Insights

Do you understand your customer's pain?

A regular pastime here at the office is the sharing and critiquing of noteworthy ad campaigns. Ads currently on the market, shared for our collective amusement, admiration or, occasionally, ridicule. Joel, top ad hound, recently posted this great series of ads for hand lotion.

We thought they warranted posting here too because our own trades clients will definitely connect with them and because they’re a stellar example of advertising done right. They effectively address three of the cardinal rules for great ads:

  1. Know your audience and speak directly to them. These ads don’t attempt to connect with everyone, although most would appreciate them. They convey that the maker understands its customer’s unique pain (in this case both figuratively and literally). It says, “Yup, we know what it’s like.”
  2. They are visually engaging, even rewarding to look at – A highly creative interpretation of the customers’ problem using the very mediums they work with. Smart.
  3. Language – a great example of less is more. With powerful imagery like this, there’s no need to muddy things with excessive talk. A simple understatement caps it off. And it’s one that is true to the personality of workers on the job: Direct, tough and not about to complain about a little finger split the size of a mortar joint.

These ads hit the nail on the head because they immediately convey that they understand their customer, and they do it in a visually intriguing way. Nice work…what was the name of that company again? OK, so maybe it wasn’t a perfect ad…

Written by Jason Bouwman, RGD

September 13, 2012