40+ Smart Advertising Ideas To Grow Your Brand [2024 Update]

Advertising is a fundamental part of boosting any business. It’s around us every day. You can see advertisement samples everywhere; on billboards, on TV, in magazines, on the Internet, etc. By having original and fresh advertisement ideas, you can make your ad significant among the others.

However, creating a fun product ad comes with prices too. Therefore, you should manage your advertising budget before you start creating that ad.

Let’s check out the power of advertising.

Why is advertising important?

Without advertisement, no one can know you exist! For this purpose, you should run different ads to introduce yourself to your customers, to tell them you are here to offer something they need. Therefore, advertising is a critical way of shouting out your brand’s name. In general, a good advertisement idea can help achieve the following objectives for your brand:

• Boosting Brand Awareness: The main idea behind an ad should be brand recognition. If you are new to the market, you should make your brand recognizable to more people and attract the ones that are your potential customers. 
• Informing Customers: When more people hear your name, they will become more curious about what you offer and what benefits you have for them. 
• Building Customer Trust: The most crucial aspect of advertising is to attract customers’ trust. If they don’t perceive you as reliable, they won’t make any purchases. This is the most important aspect of advertising. You should do it in a way that attracts the customers’ trust because, in the end, if they don’t feel you are reliable, they will not buy anything. So, all the expenses you had on your ads were for nothing. That’s why having great ad ideas is crucial. 
• Increasing Sales: It will be the result of your advertisement topic and how well you have run that ad. The key purpose of any advertisement, whether online or offline, is to increase sales. Therefore, take your time and think about good advertisement ideas.

What Is Brand Advertising?

Brand advertising is a type of advertising that focuses on promoting a particular brand or product. As channels of communication available to marketers are proliferating, today’s advertising campaigns need to become more and more innovative. They need to come up with creative advertising ideas to communicate with their clients and, in turn, reach the company’s goals.

According to Marketing Charts, online advertising takes the biggest share of media advertisement in the United States, followed by TV commercials.

The data provided by PwC, said that marketers spent about $121 billion on online advertising in 2020 and forecasted that this type of advertising would reach $153.0 billion by 2024.

So, to be successful in this huge market, your ad should be powerful enough to arouse people’s emotions and stay in their minds for a long time. It may directly or indirectly influence their buying decisions. This means that advertisement ideas for business can be a game-changer.

How to create a creative advertisement?

While thinking of producing new advertisement ideas, keep in mind that a good ad must be simultaneously informative and innovative to attract consumers’ attention.

Advertisement samples are everywhere, in all shapes and sizes. But the hard part is to decide where to advertise to reach your intended viewers and catch their attention.

Furthermore, advertisement design tips can also help you make your ad as creative as possible. 

However, before creating an ad, you should know which advertising platform you want it to be shown. Since most ads are running online, here are some platforms to put your ads and promote your products. 

Instagram Influencer Marketing

Promoting brands through Instagram influencers is one of the advertisement ideas for business that has become a trend these days.

There are so many influencers actively working in their specific field of interest. When influencers most relevant to your field promote your brand, their followers pay attention and do not scroll away.

There are several ways you can collaborate with influencers; either they can create an ad for you, or you can ask them to share your advertisement on their accounts. Any method you want to use; you should first find a suitable influencer to participate with. For this purpose, influencer marketing platforms are created to help you easily find influencers to grow your business.

Ainfluencer– The Best Influencer Platform

Using a quality influencer marketplace like Ainfluencer, the process of making free advertising ideas and finding the top influencers linked to your brand will be easy, and secure. 

Ainfluencer is a free 100% DIY platform to find influencers and promote your brand on social media. It all starts with creating a free campaign. You can then find influencers in your field by searching based on category, gender, location, hashtags, and how many followers they have. 

Then you can invite them to your campaign, negotiate your terms and make deals with them to promote your brand. Or just create your campaign for free on Ainfluencer and let the influencers reach out to you.

It’s easy-to-use, free, and 100% DIY. So, sign up on Ainfluencer now to discover how it can help you grow your business.

Give Ainfluencer a Try

2. Google Ads

Google is everywhere! When people decide what to do, where to go, and what to buy, they always google it. By using Google Ads, your ad will appear when someone is looking for businesses like yours on Google Search and Maps. And if your advertisement idea is catchy enough, they will click on it at once.

However, you should note that your advertisement topic talks to your audience in the first place on Google ads. So, apart from the design, your ad copy will be essential to your advertisement idea. 

One of the good things about Google Ads is its pay-per-click advertisement tool. It means you only pay for what consumers click on.

3. Email marketing

One of the useful forms of digital marketing is email marketing which can be a good choice depending on your field.

Although the chances of opening all your emails have dropped in the past ten years, using email campaigns as one of your advertising strategies can still be a viable option. However, you should also have some strategies for email marketing to make it more effective. 

Sending emails to customers can keep your products and services top of their minds.

Innovative advertisement ideas

Creativity is the key to having successful ideas for advertisement. But it’s not easy to always come up with original ideas, so don’t worry if you run out of new ones.

Here are some suggestions to win the attention of viewers:

1.  Local advertisements

As the name suggests, local advertising targets a local audience. By using location and cultural characteristics in your ad, you can build customer loyalty. Local advertisements are an excellent option for those who want to find small business advertising ideas.

2.  Bus stations

Outdoor advertisement is one of the best methods of showing your brand to people outside their homes and mobile phones. Accordingly, whenever they go out of their house for any reason, they can see your name. However, this type of advertisement should be so creative and fun to call the audience and make them move their head to see it! 

The Bus stop is one of the best places for this type of ads. The advertisements in this area are visible to both pedestrians and those using vehicles and let them know about your product or services. Furthermore, when people are waiting for a bus for a long time, they will be attracted to your ad.

Nespresso, the world’s favorite coffee brand, always comes up with fun and creative advertising ideas. The advertisement team of this brand decided to redesign several bus stations worldwide and turn these waiting rooms into a giant Nespresso machine! 

3.  Bus advertising

Transit advertisement is another type of outdoor ad that can leave your hands free for creativity. Since it’s a moving ad, it makes your ad available to millions of people in different areas. One of the most useful types of transit ads is using buses to transfer your messages.  

By advertising on buses, you can show your moving billboards to local commuters, drivers, and pedestrians to promote your business. Bus advertisements can come in a variety of sizes.

One of the unique advertisement ideas for buses is to create a memorable visual that wraps around the bus and makes your product seem more real and 3d. Furthermore, you shouldn’t have too many messages on a bus advertising because people don’t have much time to read. Therefore, the less is better.

4.  Street advertisements

Advertising on the streets is divided into different types, such as graffiti or stickers. Street ads can make people pause, think about the message, or even take photos with them.

To track the effectiveness of a street ad, use tools such as social media hashtags, web addresses, or phone numbers. 

5.  Pop-Culture advertisement

By referring to a popular movie or a famous person, draw audiences’ attention to your product or service.

6.  Emotional advertisements

By engaging your viewers emotionally, make them think about your advertisement idea and its message.

7.  Funny advertisements

Another way to create an innovative advertisement is to try to be funny and make an inside joke.

8.  Use cute animals

Another catchy advertisement idea is to use cute animals in your ad. Adorable creatures delight people and make them feel good about your ad.

9.  Using jingles

Although jingles can be annoying when they get stuck in your head, they are one fantastic way to come up with creative commercial ideas.

10. Outside-the-Box advertisements

It will be a clever idea if, say, your billboards are not just boring rectangles off the highway. Billboards are the best place where you can implement your creative product advertisement ideas. Create a visual that makes people feel the product. 

11. Artistic advertisements

By using your artistic side, make people pause, think, and wish to take a picture with your ad. Since these days, people share their photos on social media, taking a selfie with your artistic ad can make it more popular on social media. Consequently, your ad has a chance to go viral.  

12. Use the environment in your ads

Be creative and use environmental elements in your advertisements. Try to make something funny or exciting from the things around you.

13. Using recognizable signs

Using recognizable signs in your ad can be an imaginative advertisement idea. Grab the viewers’ eyes and promote your brand to them.

14.  Use the product in an unexpected way

Be creative by using your product in a new way to attract more viewers. The following advertisement sample will show you how a highlighter was used to create the portrait of Che Guevara.

15. Creating an Instagram grid

Use an Instagram grid to show your ad in a bigger picture. With the increasing usage of social media platforms, this trick will be so useful and practical.

16.  Creative business cards

Business cards, especially creative ones, are a brilliant way of presenting your business. Depending on what your business is, you can have so many fresh ideas for making your own business card.

17.  Video advertisements

Another creative advertisement idea is to use inspirational videos to convey your message. By making videos, engage people’s emotions, and for their part, they will share your videos.

Video ads can be used in different ways. You can use it as a TV ad, show it on YouTube ads, or make Instagram reels to share on social media. Before creating the video, make it clear for which platform you want this video ad to be displayed. Based on the platform, you can add different commercial ideas and stories for your video. 

18. Juxtapose imagery

You can easily grab your viewers’ attention by putting your product alongside other images or imagery to make a contextual connection between them.

In the following advertisement sample, you can see the merging of the reader’s face with the book cover.

19. Show, don’t tell

By using the “show, don’t tell” approach, you convey things that words can’t. You must create something to help your audience decide the value of your product or service themselves, without you mentioning it.

In this FedEx advertisement sample, the viewer can see how small the world can be if they transport things with FedEx.

20. Show your benefits

To build brand awareness, show the audience how your product or service makes their lives easier. It also helps people know what to expect from your brand. This advertisement sample shows Volkswagen’s park assist option.

21. Highlight the problem

By highlighting the problem, remind the audience of their need for your product or service. The following IKEA advertisement is created to highlight the lack of closet space.

22. Attack the enemy

Rather than showing the benefits of your product, show your audience the problem itself. In this ad sample, you can see the replacement of teeth with one of its arch enemies.

23. Show the individual parts of your product

Make an innovative picture by showing all the individual pieces that make up your product.

24. Exaggeration

To have a memorable ad and make your product or service look far better than what it really is, you can use exaggeration.

In this advertisement sample, the person’s shirt has become so white that it blocks the shadow.

25. Do challenges

Use the power of the internet to promote your brand. Engaging with your audience is essential for having a good advertisement on social media. Do a fun challenge with your co-workers, like the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS awareness.

26. Try Misdirection

By using incredible and totally unexpected graphics, make your ad attractive and eye-catching.

The advertisement below grabs your attention with a girl in a bikini, but it is actually about illiteracy.

27. Let others advertise for you

If you want to enjoy free advertising, be creative in making ads and make them interesting so that people would like to take a picture of them. People sharing their photos on social media would be an excellent advertisement-free experience for you.

Furthermore, it’s one way to do viral marketing, which is an effective and affordable type of advertising.

28. Create a mural

Try to obtain permission to paint a large mural on the side of a prominent building. Marketing campaigns can benefit greatly from murals.

29. Hold a contest or giveaway

People love free things but remember that a giveaway only works and generates brand engagement if you ask for something in return. Ask people to follow your brand if they haven’t already, mention your handle, or tag a friend in order to enter. Then wait and enjoy the expansion of your audience.

30. Partner with another brand or account

Start a project together, work together for a good cause, or just feature each other in a sponsored post on your social media accounts. They will scratch your back if you scratch theirs.

Check out these brand collaboration examples to get advertising ideas for this type of marketing.

31. Feature customer testimonials

One of the free advertising ideas is featuring your customers’ testimonials. The opinion of people who already buy your product or use your service matters when it comes to easy advertising and taking your word of mouth marketing to the next level.

Find devoted advocates for your product by distilling customer feedback into a video or graphic featuring customer testimonials.

32. Write a comprehensive ebook

One of the other creative advertising ideas is writing a thorough digital book on a realized trouble spot or famous industry point, then, at that point, make a quality greeting page around the proposition.

33. Jump on trends and holidays

When the internet hands you lemons, make lemonade. One of the creative advertising ideas is to make the most of the memes and trends that are currently popular by keeping an eye out for them. Do the same for events and holidays.

34. Start blogging

One of the free ways of advertising and unique advertisement ideas is sharing relevant content consistently. It significantly affects the order in which your website appears in search results. The higher you are on the page, the more likely customers are to find you.

35. Offer to guest blog

One of the advertisement ideas for businesses is to look for opportunities to write guest posts on blogs or websites related to your field. This strategy can help you establish yourself as a thought leader in your field and increase website traffic.

36. Invest in display ads

A display ad is a kind of online advertisement that combines text, images, and a URL that takes a customer to a website where they can learn more about a product or buy it.

For example, Stitch Fix placed a display ad before The New York Times article below.

37. Experiment with 3D designs

One of the most creative commercial ideas is creating 3D advertisements, you can attract users who might not otherwise have noticed. These advertisements can be digital, sculptures, or even extensions of billboards.

38. Sell mystery boxes

Do you have a lot of slow-moving products? Sell them as part of a mystery box. Since our brains love surprises, it will be fun for most people to open a box they don’t know what is in it. 

On the other hand, you can show your slow-moving products to more people and make them interested in them. As a result, you can increase the chance of selling more products, at the same time, making your inventory free for new products. 

Mystery boxes increase the fear of missing out which translates into making purchases, and help you shift slow-moving products and create space for more popular and profitable inventory.

An online retailer that sells mystery boxes is Zac’s Sweet Shop. In each mystery box, the brand has a way to move slow-moving or soon-to-expire food products, giving customers the opportunity to try a variety of products at a low price.

39. Sell gift cards

Selling themed gift cards improves cash flow. You receive the money upfront rather than having to pay costs right away to make or deliver the product to a consumer.

For instance, Starbucks offers gift cards all year long. However, the shop keeps an eye on the news and develops unique gift card designs based on trending themes. Lyrics from Taylor Swift’s new song appeared on a Starbucks gift card just four days after it was released.

40. Post helpful videos

One of the best advertisment ideas is to post helpful videos. Almost every industry may benefit from video marketing. You can produce the following to make that vital connection with your audience:

• YouTube tutorials and how-to guides
• Demos of products
• Interviewing your employees or industry experts
• Slideshows with captions and pictures
• Behind-the-scenes coverage of what it’s like to work at your business

Add a personal or brand-related message, if relevant. Be transparent. Share the video on your website, YouTube and other video hosting sites, social media platforms, and even emails after concluding with a compelling call to action.

41. Distribute Print Ads

This is one of the creative advertising ideas that helps build relationships, bring in a high engagement rate, have flexibility in the placement, and is cost-effective. So create eye-catching flyers, posters, brochures, or newspaper ads to show your design skills.

42. Utilize Guerrilla Tactics

Guerrilla Advertising concentrates on low-cost marketing efforts that give the maximum results. To entice customers, the campaigns revolve around the element of surprise.

These commercials may be experiential, indoor or outdoor, or even involve an ambush at an event. Below, Yellow Pages used a sculpture to show pedestrians how they can help you find anything.

Conclusion

Remember that advertisements are fundamental to building and presenting your brand to people and gaining a reputation. With fresh advertisement ideas, you can reach your goals and boost sales.

If you want to promote your products and services on social media, you can benefit from influencer marketing. Even when collaborating with influencers, you can still use advertising ideas to create a powerful, creative and compelling presence online. Join Ainfluencer for free to find influencers in your niche to collaborate with. Then, incorporate these ideas into your ad that you want influencers to share.

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