ScreenStories

"The most revolutionary thing you can be is yourself." - Moonlight

Take your Ego out of your Ads

We come to social media to be entertained, to see familiar faces, fun content, hacks, viral content. Nobody cares about you, your brand, your product. We don’t come to see ads. We have subconscious ad blockers which kick in the instant we see content that looks like an ad, and tells us to ignore it, skip it, scroll past it.

Marketers have cut their teeth in an industry filled with old-school mindsets, and were educated for the TV & Print generation. We were taught how to make things look ‘nice’, and this traditional approach isn’t relevant for social ads in 2024.

Marketers will recommend fancy content because they can charge an arm and a leg to make it. Your biases may tell you that losing that polish will negatively influence what your viewers think of your product. The truth is, if you put an obvious ad in front of them, they’ll scroll past and think nothing.

Instead, focus on performance over aesthetics. Ugly ads can be made for cheaper, so make more concepts, test more and iterate more.

Don’t think about yourself. Don’t think like a marketer. Put yourself in the shoes of your audience and create what they came to watch.

Check out this lovely piece of design and animation work from the fantastic Rishi Rai