Advertising design is the craft of creating a piece of marketing that generates interest in a product or service. In the advertising world the concept is certainly king but the execution is undoubtedly queen. The magic happens when the two combine. An effective advertisement demands attention and delivers a clear message to the consumer almost instantly.
Advertising for print and digital present specific challenges and opportunities. Experience of what is most likely to work for these different forms of media is especially useful. All advertising should be based around achieving a return on investment. Select the most appropriate channels for your target market and budget in addition to monitoring interaction and conversion.
The recipe for advertising design has quite a few ingredients
Imagery
Imagery is arguably the most important part of an advertisement. Accordingly, it should be given the most space on the advert as it is more likely to recalled by the viewer. High quality imagery is absolutely critical. For food advert a tasty product shot is almost mandatory. Whether the advert using photography or illustrations the style should be consistent with brand’s message.
Written content or copy
Written copy should be kept to a minimum. The headline should demand attention and be short enough to be read without effort. Accordingly, other written content should be essential information and support the headline.
Call to action
The call to action is a clear direction to the reader. An ideal call to action is snappy and enticing. An alternative version of the ‘call to action’ is the ‘call to value’. Creating a call to value involves adding context to the direction. For example; ‘find your next job here’ rather than ‘learn more’. Above all, the objective is to make the reader feel more confident in what they will get from taking the next step.
Branding
Most adverts include the advertising company’s logo. Prominent and consistent placement of the logo is good practice. Consideration should be given to the overall brand aesthetic and the role of the advertisement in a campaign.
Placement
The placement of an advert should be based on the target market. Designing for print can be quite different to advertising design for digital channels. All adverts will have specifications that need to be considered. These specification may have an affect on the content and also the size and placement of certain elements within the advert.
Whatever your requirements are for advertising design Red Fred Creative can help. To learn more about our design services click here.
