Video Ad Reverse Engineer Post

The advertisement that I am looking at is from the mattress company called Purple. Purple is a business founded and operated out of Utah.  They are known for the color of their mattresses and accessories which are purple as well as the engineering and construction of their products.

The video that I am specifically looking at is a 4-minute infomercial style video.  It features a bubbly blonde girl dressed as Goldilocks and showcases her performing experiments on various mattresses with eggs and weights.

The reason I am looking specifically at this video is that it is one of very few that actually caught my attention.  (A feat not easily accomplished.)  Snap shots of the commercial are below.

Contrast

The first thing that Purple does really well is contrast.  Throughout the video, the background stays pretty well subdued.  What shows through the most is the dress the host is wearing (which is also purple) and the bright purple mattress itself.

Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is a very important photography technique that Purple uses throughout this video.  The host is almost always in the left or right third of the shot.

Repetition

Throughout the commercial, A large glass plate is dropped onto various mattresses.  The eggs break on every drop except for the drops onto a Purple mattress.  Purple shows this over and over taking care to explain that the eggs only break on the regular mattresses.
They even go so far as to show 1,400 pounds of weights on top of the glass and still no breaking eggs.

Other Techniques

I think the video does a great job holding the viewers attention for a variety of reasons. 

First, the rapid shots of the host close up and panned out doesn't let the viewer settle one type of shot for too long.

 Second, the contrasting colors of the host's costume keeps you focused on her rather than anything else.  It doesn't hurt that she is also dressed in purple, paying homage to the company.

The video does a great job in another way.  They are able to tell the story of what is happening without using subtitles for what the host is saying.  They do post print on the screen that explains what is happening but you are able to figure out the rest without knowing what she is saying.

Of course, if you do click on the video, you hear a cleverly written script that has plenty of little one-liner jokes to keep you amused.

In addition, the company tells you exactly what they are doing by posting the price of the mattress on the screen with a link asking you to click more if you want further information.

The video does a great job giving people the information they need regarding the mattress but I feel that it may have run a little long.  People start to lose interest after a couple minutes. 

I do think that putting the price in the video is a good thing though.  If for nothing else, it limits the curiosity checks to the website.  There is no sense bogging down the bandwidth by people only interested in the price.  By doing this, the company is assured that only the people going to the website from the link weren't bothered by the price at all and may truly be interested in the product.

Overall, I feel that Purple did a great job on this ad.  It has the same look and feel as the famous Squatty Potty and Poo-Pori ads which makes sense since they were produced by the same people.  A link to the full commercial is below.
https://www.facebook.com/LifeOnPurple/videos/525076717682909/

ad campaign

For me to attract more people to our website and to generate more business, I realize that I have to appeal to the side of people that hates getting bored.

Escape rooms are a difficult thing to sell people on.  It's not because they aren't fun.  On the contrary, they are some of the most fun you can have.  They are simply unknown.  P A lot of people have heard of them but few have actually tried them.  The trick in all of this is to try and get people to spend money on something they have never done or perhaps have done and feel that they don't need to do it again.

To help in getting people to try something new, I want to appeal to that fear of boredom.  I need to remind people that summer, while a blast, can be tiresome for children that have nothing to do.  To that end, I have created a campaign that attempts to get people to avoid getting bored and to try something new.

The tagline of the campaign is simply, "Don't waste away this summer.  Learn to connect with you family in a whole new way at A Great Escape at Gardner Village."  A photo of bored children or teens will be included such as the pictures below.

I would like to come up with the photos myself or at least find some copyright free images to use.  The message coming from the photo should be the same though.  I want the picture to scream "boredom". 

I want to post the ad on both Facebook and Instagram and promote both for 1 week.  The success of this campaign will be measured in clicks to our website as well as an analysis of the bookings.

Advertising reverse engineer post

Square is a credit card and payment processing company.  Square promotes itself on having a user friendly and easy product to use.  Their ads tout the simplicity of their product and they use simple but vibrant images to get you attention. 

The first ad that I noticed was a 10 second video from Facebook. The video contained 5 frames.  In the first, the only thing you see is the opening of a small device.  In the second, that device is being set up by a simple “click”. (According to the video.)

The 3^rd frame is someone tapping their phone to make a payment and the word, “tap” appears.  The 4^th frame shows a stack of money with the caption, “paid” and the last frame shows Square’s simple logo, a easily identifiable square inside of another square.

The first thing about this ad is that it is a video instead of a simple photograph.  People love looking at photos and they love videos.  Short videos are becoming increasingly popular in social media.  It tells a quick story and doesn't waste a lot of the user's time.

The next thing about this ad that is effective is the ad's layout and design.  Everything in the images is simple.  Simple colors and no clutter.

Centered in the middle of the frame is the device in all white.  It sits on top of a blue background.  It reminds users that there is nothing complicated about it.

All of the frames use good contrast.  The backgrounds are clean and don't take away from the message of the frame.  In this frame, you can clearly see what appears to be a stack of cash. The green contrasts nicely with the purple making people focus on the cash.  Above it is the simple word, "PAID".  It reminds people of what drives us all, getting money.

Another effective design element is repetition.  Each of the frames repeats the simple statement at the beginning of the post, "Slide, Click, Paid."

All of the posts made by Square seem to follow the same logic.  They promote how easy it is to use them and how simple it is to operate.  In addition, they tout the successfulness of the companies that use them and imply that by not having to worry about payments, you can focus on growing your company.

As a consumer and business owner, I have and do use Square.  I decided to do so simply because of how easy it is.  I wanted something that was “idiot-proof” and I think I have it.  Could there be simpler products out there?  Probably, and most likely there are cheaper.  But Square did a great job with their marketing and I was sold.

Square has done a great job with this campaign and I imagine they will continue to use this strategy.

I would recommend that they improve their Instagram posts a little more though.  They should focus on the ease of use more.  Business owners want what will be easy for their employees to use.  It’s great to focus on how the product will help you grow but everyone does that.   Square was developed out of the need for simplicity and they should focus more on that.

I would recommend posts that showcase how difficult it was for a company’s employees to get things done until they switched to Square.  I believe that would appeal to more business owners.