Getting creative with your advertising strategy can help you differentiate your product or service from competitors and get the attention of potential customers. As more products and services enter the market, businesses are getting more creative with the advertising techniques they use. Learning how to reach your audience through several tangible and virtual channels can increase your chances of making a lasting impression. In this article, we discuss what creative ways to advertise a business are, why exciting ideas are important, different types of advertising, and 32 innovative ideas that you can use to help your business get noticed.
Creative ways to advertise a business
There are several ways to advertise a business that you can make creative. Advertisement ideas are marketing tactics designed to grab the attention of potential customers and inform them about a certain product or service. They encourage these potential customers to interact with a business or brand and engage with their marketing activities. Businesses can use advertising ideas in a variety of locations, mediums, and interfaces, making them easy to customize. Marketers can use advertising ideas on:
- billboards
- print
- social media
- buildings
- radio
- vehicles
Why are advertisement ideas important?
Having a unique advertising idea can help you differentiate your business from its competitors. Creating a memorable experience can help customers remember a business when they go to make a purchase and may influence them to choose one business over another. Consumers saturate themselves with advertising content as business expose them to hundreds of advertisements every day, making getting noticed by these consumers difficult to do. Creating unique content and advertising can help a business get attention and break through the clutter of other advertising tactics.
Creative advertising ideas
Consider using one of these advertising ideas when launching your next marketing campaign:
In-app advertising
With most of the world owning mobile devices, now is a great time to leverage this trend and market for these consumers. By selectively choosing which app to partner with, businesses can target specific demographics, interests, and consumer styles in their advertising. In-app advertising allows sponsored businesses to share their advertising campaign with app users for a brief period before the user can choose to close the advertisement. These advertisements have high levels of engagement and large amounts of people see them.
Influencer advertising
With the popularity of social media in recent years, influencer advertising has become one of the most popular forms of advertising online. Influence advertising allows businesses to partner with popular social media influencers that align with their brand, vision, and goals to share products with their audience. This form of advertising is highly effective as businesses can tailor these advertisements to specific parts of the market. Consumers also respond more positively to influencers they follow promoting a brand, than they do hearing the information from the brand itself.
Social media trends
Taking part in social media trends can help businesses to appear relatable while drawing attention to their advertisements. Paying attention to viral trends and altering them to work with your business can help you create advertisements that are seen by many consumers. These trends allow businesses to capitalize on pop culture while making use of unpaid marketing tactics. You can start by looking at current trends and finding out which ones are relatable to your branding. One of the most popular ways to advertise a business in recent years is through social media advertising.
Social media grids
Social media grids comprise individual images that, when viewed as a whole on the company's account page, make up a larger, more comprehensive picture. This can create an aesthetic on your profile that people may discuss and visit your account to view, potentially encouraging your follower count. By requiring viewers to go to your main page to view the entire grid, businesses can increase traffic to their page and boost their rankings on explore pages, drawing even more people to their pages.
Popular musicians
Using trending music is another way that can help get your advertisement seen by consumers. Many social media sites may boost posts that use popular music in their advertisements, exposing the advertisement to more people. Alternatively, similar to influencer advertising, partnering with musicians to promote your brand or product can be a creative way to penetrate new markets, depending on their listening audience.
Humour
Creating humorous advertisements can be tricky to do but, if successful, can land your advertisement in front of millions of people. Creating advertisements that consumers find humorous allows brands to break through to the attention of consumers. Consumers are also more likely to share advertisements they find funny with family and friends, increasing the exposure. Humour often creates excitement around ads which can help get your advertisement shared by new audiences.
Interactive events
Creating events centred around a product or service is a great way to get consumers interacting with a business. These events commonly focus on creating a memorable experience that consumers can think about when they go to make a purchase. Participants often share these experiences on social media, which can increase the exposures of a brand or business. For example, a sporting goods company may consider installing a basketball hoop at a shopping centre near their store and offering prizes to those who interact and try to score.
Video advertisements
Videos can gain the attention from consumers as they are typically different from other mediums of advertising. Consumers can often ignore static advertisements or scroll past them as they see them frequently, which can help videos to be noticed. Video advertisements are suitable for television, social media and online ad campaigns that allow customers to passively intake the information you're presenting.
Promotional merchandise
Printing a brand or logo on merchandise and giving it away can help get a business seen by new people. As people walk around wearing a brand, those around them may show more interest. While it's difficult to target specific audiences with this type of advertising, businesses can link it to giveaways and contests that can help create excitement around a new product, service, or business. This tactic can generate free advertising over time as the recipients wear and use your merchandise in their daily lives.
Retro inspiration
Choosing a nostalgic approach for your advertisements may create good feelings and emotions for your target audience that they'll associate with your brand. Using pop culture references or artistic styles from eras like the 1950s, 1970s or 1990s can attract customers who find old things to be trendy. Bringing out feelings of nostalgia can encourage people to purchase your product or service to maintain the feeling, or to reminisce with friends and family about the feeling.
Bus and transportation
This form of advertising has been around for many years but remains a popular choice amongst marketers. Advertising on transportation ensures hundreds of people see an advertisement every day and people frequently read these types of advertisements as they are waiting for public transportation. Unlike a billboard or other city and highway advertising, busses are longer and taller, and you can use the entire vehicle as a marketing statement rather than just a small portion of a framed area.
Wi-Fi stations
Consider sponsoring free wireless internet in a high traffic area. These connections typically require consumers to log into use them, which gives businesses ample space to advertise. This log in also allows businesses to collect valuable information, including names, email addresses, and locations of users. While sponsoring a wireless internet connection can be expensive, the information collected, and the exposure gained can be valuable.
Alternative transportation sponsorships
Many large cities offer bikes, scooters or other alternative transportation sources that people can rent for easier and more athletic navigation. Consider sponsoring a rental station or the devices themselves for city-wide advertising. This can allow your advertisement to move locations for free, while exposing it to a larger audience. These transportation forms are popular and widely used in major cities, making them easily accessible for brand deals.
Creative business cards
Be creative with the design of your business cards. Instead of using traditional rectangular cards with minimal information, consider the products you sell and services you offer and choose a shape or design that represents what makes your company unique. Consider using QR codes or other unique identifiers to link card holders to your website or social media channels.
Create stickers
Stickers are an easy way to direct people to your website. Businesses can place stickers in several locations, including store fronts, product tags, promotional events, or in public. These can encourage people to view your website out of curiosity or can encourage customers to fill out forms, enter contests, or complete surveys. Users simply scan the code with their camera, and the link opens in their browser.
32 additional advertisement ideas
Browse these advertisement ideas and marketing strategies for more ways to engage with your target audience creatively:
caption contest
voting contest
video contest
sweepstakes
deal websites
blogging
infographics
webinars
e-books
podcasts
mascots
celebrity endorsements
memes
games
seasonal marketing
catchphrases
forums
comments
partnerships
limited time offers
e-newsletters
speaking engagements
volunteer opportunities
in-store events
product demonstrations
regular updates
tutorials
customer follows
tagging
business awards
brand ambassador programs
customer referral programs