information-design

Humanity loves new and interesting things. We love to explore and discover and invent. It’s this search for novelty that drives many people into the fields they work in. It drives the passion of artists and scientists and businesspeople. For most people, one of the worst things to deal with is boredom and stagnancy. The drive for novelty is one of the biggest reasons behind technological development (though it can be argued that military needs drive development even more) and as such, novelty is a very sought after product.

Novelty is used to great effect in many different fields, including advertising. Plenty of people in the United States watch the Super Bowl not for the actual game, but for the wonderfully novel and entertaining commercials. It is this sort of thought process and effort that helps distinguish businesses from their competition. If you can learn to utilize novelty in your company’s advertisements, you will increase the number of people who become interested in your business. Regardless of whether or not people seeing your ad are actually interested in your service or products, if they see a novel, entertaining advertisement, they will be more likely to look further into your business to satisfy their curiosity and they will be more likely to remember your business and tell others about it.

Surprise and Engagement

When planning and designing an advertising campaign for your business, it’s very important to remember that human nature is inquisitive. A person whose interest has been piqued will be far more likely to dig deeper to learn more about it. Advertising is a continuous process that changes and evolves over time as new and creative ideas eventually become old and stale, according to Vendor Seek. Don’t stop trying to be novel; you just have to remember that what worked before might not work over and over again.

If you want to stay ahead and keep people interested and engaged in your business, you’ll have to mix things up every once in a while in order to not get stale. For most people, “strange” is similar to “new” and if they see something that is surprising they will have a better chance of remembering it. If they remember an ad they saw on the commute home or while surfing through the internet because it had an unusual slogan, or different artwork, or maybe a unique presentation or strategy, they will want to look further into it and try to discover more about the product or service. A good example of a great advertising strategy has been of that of the company called true rivalry and even you can benefit from those strategies by going through this blog post by Shopify to give wings to your marketing strategy as well.

Disadvantages

The main problem when it comes to using novelty in advertising is that the novelty will eventually wear off and the ad becomes old and boring. All this really means is that you or your marketing department has to keep working on changing and developing your ad campaigns to stay relevant and interesting. Targeting a specific demographic with novelty advertising can be difficult, according to The Newspaper Expert, especially if you use free handouts like fridge magnets with your businesses information on them. In many cases, using pens or fridge magnets or other small handouts are most often given to current customers. This sort of repeat advertising might not bring in a whole lot of new clients, but it can help retain the loyalty of current customers. Another difficulty with using novelty in advertising is the kind of thinking required to come up with clever, new ideas. Novelty advertising requires a little more thinking outside the box than regular advertising, according to Ad Savvy; you have to imagine how potential customers will see your ad and interact with it. Will they just ignore it as one of dozens of ads or have you done something unique that will draw attention to it?

When planning an ad campaign, it’s paramount that you always keep in mind what draws people’s attention, regardless of whether you’re actually using something novel or not. We live in a society dominated by the desire for pleasure and entertainment; people want to be engaged and interested, and they want to laugh at something funny or appreciate something clever or witty. There’s a reason the majority of advertisements have beautiful male and female models posing with whatever the product is; people like looking at beautiful people. While you don’t have to hire a professional model, keeping that fact in mind when designing your advertisements is incredibly important. No matter what you decide to do for your marketing, it’s important to remember that people enjoy being entertained. Humor, wit and beauty are the basic fundamentals to think of when marketing. The real challenge comes in thinking of unique and unusual ways to utilize and combine these fundamentals to create surprising, engaging ads that breed curiosity and interest in your business instead of boredom and apathy.

About the Author

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Mirko Humbert

Mirko Humbert is the editor-in-chief and main author of Designer Daily and Typography Daily. He is also a graphic designer and the founder of WP Expert.