What's the most important thing in ad design?

[Koiyuki]

As the title states, what do you think is important in ad design?  

[thejessjess]

to know what you are selling...not matter how good the design is if the customer does not know what you are trying to sell then you have failed in your concept.  

[rogue_designer]

1. Your Message

2. Your Audience

3. Your Client's real goals (not necessarily as obvious as you'd think).

Nothing else can happen until you know those three things.


Once those are nailed down:

A. The competative market (so you can better differentiate, or in some cases, make similiar to your competition).

B. Visual impact

C. Clear communication of #1 to #2  

[Szandrah]

An eye-catcher. Since there are so many ads around people will often ignore them unless you find a way to jolt people to attention. If noone sees the ad, what is the point of having it?  

[.reCreate.]

An eye-catching design. Designs need a pull to make it stand out.  

[rogue_designer]

Szandrah

An eye-catcher. Since there are so many ads around people will often ignore them unless you find a way to jolt people to attention. If noone sees the ad, what is the point of having it?

Just curious... what is the point of having it stand out if nobody knows who it is for, or what it is saying?

Certainly eye-catching is important. But eye-catching is a variable thing... the most eye-catching ad in a design magazine gets totally lost - it's surrounded by equallly eye-catching pieces. (The old, if everything is in boldface, nothing really is, dillemma).

Just food for thought. smile  

[Cativa Carni]

Remember the basics;

• Who?
  
• What?
  
• Why?
  
• When?
  
• Where?
  
• How?

Not in any order of course. If you wanna know about adverts, watch some tv and soak up the many ad's there. See if you know what the advert is tryin to sell, how it does it, how it grabs your attention and does it make you want to find out more/buy this product/service? If so, why?

That's the best I could say I think, the rest can tend to be personal/commisioners prefferance.

______________________
d r a g o n r e v e n g e

 

[Koiyuki]

Hmm..all good points...would anyone happen to have any ads on them that illustrate these points?  

[Szandrah]

rogue_designer

Szandrah

An eye-catcher. Since there are so many ads around people will often ignore them unless you find a way to jolt people to attention. If noone sees the ad, what is the point of having it?

Just curious... what is the point of having it stand out if nobody knows who it is for, or what it is saying?

Certainly eye-catching is important. But eye-catching is a variable thing... the most eye-catching ad in a design magazine gets totally lost - it's surrounded by equallly eye-catching pieces. (The old, if everything is in boldface, nothing really is, dillemma).

Just food for thought. smile

An eye-catcher can make people curious. You don't even need to tell what you're selling -- if it is eye-catching enough, people will try to find out. You can also make it into a series and begin with cool eye-catchers that do not reveal what they're ads for and then tell people later using a similar ad.

And yes, eye-catching is a tricky thing. That's why it is very important to have good knowledge about the media where you're advertising. A good ad always stands out in the crowd without leaving the crowd altogether.

An example can be an ad for kids breakfast cereals. If the ad is made using naked women in black and white with a castle background, the ad will certainly stand out but I doubt it would sell much cereals. Similarly, selling bodylotion using Bobo the Bumblebee and primary colors will probably not be very efficient.

Then again, I would probably buy those cerals if I saw that ad...