From Bland to Brilliant: Turn Heads with Memorable Campaigns and Protect Your ROI

Have you seen the latest Super Bowl ads? Can you remember them? Maybe not all, but some are probably still stuck in your head.

Let’s face it: Too many ads are just…blah. And that level of dull represents also a significant financial drain that is costing businesses BIG money. But what if your ads could be unforgettable? What if they sparked conversations, built loyalty, and boosted sales? Think of memorable advertising that goes beyond the ordinary – just like those iconic Super Bowl ads.

Daring to be different is not just an option; it’s a necessity for sustained success. If you don’t want your advertising budget to be a wasted expense and are ready to ditch the dull, here are some actionable tips from top industry experts:

• Apply the Super Bowl ad strategy. In his latest video on LinkedIn, Paolo Provinciali, VP Marketing Growth, Performance and Operations, makes a confession – he watched Super Bowl for the ads. Provinciali shares some powerful insights on why spending 8 million dollars on a 30-sec ad during Super Bowl could possibly make sense and offers a different perspective – one that is grounded in neuroscience. He explains the following: The obvious reason brands advertise on the Super Bowl is to reach more than a 100 million people who watch it live, including millions of people who are watching it only for the commercials. Here is the catch: Your brain is like the ultimate bouncer. In Provinciali’s words, we’re actually badass pattern recognizing goldfish. Our brains are incredibly good at filtering through the noise. When a new message appears, the brain decides in a split second whether it’s worth paying attention to it, or not – mostly on autopilot, hence getting through this bouncer is the real challenge. A Super Bowl ad is like a Trojan horse for your brain. Being in a high-energy receptive and engaging environment makes a huge difference. A Super Bowl ad plants a flag in your brain, whether you realize it or not, sneaking past the brain’s bouncer into the memory. Will you instantly buy that car? Maybe not. But that’s not the whole point. In marketing, breakthrough is the ability to grab attention, and memory structures are the foundations for future recognition. Your brain basically learns by repetition and that’s the reason why neuroscientists like to say that “neurons that fire together wire together”, meaning that the more you associate the brand with a big exciting moment, the stronger the connection it gets. So, the next time you see that brand, the brain’s bouncer recognizes it and lets it through. And that’s the reason why Super Bowl ads lift all future marketing – they make the brand feel familiar, which makes future ads way more effective.
• Adopt a finance-style approach to marketing. In a recent Uncensored CMO podcast episode featuring Dr. Karen Nelson-Field, the world’s leading expert on attention econometrics breaks down why marketing needs a finance-style approach to measurement that is grounded in real human impact, not just vanity metrics. The logic is the following: If finance measures actual dollars, shouldn’t marketing measure actual attention? Dr. Nelson-Field talks about outcomes being two-directional: one is called “Meaty proof” andthe other one– “Marketing proof”. In her view, marketing proof is reasonably spurious because recall, brand uplift, all those are “fluffy things” that, if your baseline is not strong, are spurious. In her words, the meaty proof is what you want, which is profit and cost of goods sold, and acquisition – the things that CEOs or CFOs want to see vs. the things marketers want to see.
• Served vs. Seen – beware of unseen ads. In the above podcast episode, CPM was referred to as Cost per Meaningless Thousand. According to top industry experts like Dr. Nelson-Field, it’s time to shift the focus from impressions delivered to impressions that actually matter. Just because your ad was served doesn’t mean it was seen. According to Amplified Intelligence, more than 70% of media spend is wasted on impressions that never capture real attention – in other words, up to 70% of media spend receives zero human attention. Their latest blog uncovers the impact of unseen ads and how attention measurement helps turn lost spend into real results. They identify several problems:
  • Ads that are served but not seen: Just because an ad was delivered doesn’t mean it caught someone’s attention.
  • Investment with little ROI: If your brand message doesn’t capture attention, it’s like shouting into the void.
  • Misattribution to competitors: Capturing interest isn’t enough. If attention isn’t optimised, you risk increasing visibility for competitors instead of your own brand.
  • Not being considered at purchase: If your brand isn’t top of mind when customers are ready to buy, you’ve lost the game before it even started
  • Wasted spend, negative brand impact: Ineffective campaigns don’t just waste money, they can damage your brand’s credibility over time.

How does the opposite situation look like, i.e. when attention is prioritised? Ads that reach real humans, real views (actual eyes on your ads), brand and product awareness, consideration at purchase and better outcomes with the same budget.

• The cost of dull ads: How making interesting, emotional ads saves you money. Is it common for people to feel nothing about ads, and how much is this neutral response costing brands and businesses? As per a recent report, brands would need to spend an extra $109 BILLION for dull TV ads to match the results of engaging ones – considerably more than the entire annual TV ad spend in the US. This finding comes from “The Extraordinary Cost of Dull”, a creative study by Peter Field, Adam Morgan (eatbigfish), and Jon Evans (System1). It explores the spread of dull, the reasons it happens, and gives some practical examples of how your ads can escape the tedium trap.

The experts analyzed emotional responses to over 100,000 ads in the UK and US. Nearly half of all TV ads generate complete neutrality – the absence of an emotion – from viewers. No happiness, surprise, or even anger. Nothing! To make a “dull” as effective as an engaging one, brands need to spend exponentially more on media. What to do then? According to the above report, some Neutrality is inevitable. Even the happiest, funniest, or most gut-wrenching ad will leave a few people unmoved. But when most of your audience isn’t responding at all to an ad, that’s a problem. Product messages and branding don’t have to send audiences to sleep – there’s not a trade-off between excitement and effectiveness. Dull advertising is a problem that can be solved. The most effective ads make people feel something. System 1 have found that emotional ads grab attention now and brand equity for later.

The problem of dull isn’t damage. It’s waste. It costs more – sometimes a lot more – to get the same business impact with a dull ad as with an interesting one. How much exactly? To be precise, according to the report, to make dull ads as interesting as the non-dull ones, marketers would need to spend $189 billion – as much as the GDP of Greece!

• Ads should invite participation, not just talk at people. Maris Krasnikovs, Managing Partner at Creative Upfront, recently mentioned what Howard Gossage recognized over 60 years ago – ads should invite participation, not just talk at people. 75-85% of all digital ad impressions don’t even reach the threshold of being noticed enough to leave a memory. Krasnikovs asks a relevant question: In a world built for interaction, why are we still serving static, passive ads? In his view, novelty is not just about capturing attention; it is also linked to better memory retention.

Ads that are novel and unique are more likely to be remembered than those that blend in with the common backdrop of familiar stimuli. This is known as the Von Restorff effect, or the “isolation effect,” which suggests that an item that “stands out like a sore thumb” is more likely to be remembered than other items.

However, capturing attention alone is not sufficient; engagement is also necessary. Engagement can be facilitated by using technologies that can create interactive and personalised experiences. Simply put, creative technology for interactive advertising can create more engaging and memorable advertising experiences.

According to media expert Dan Gee, creative and attention are the two most critical factors that separate advertising campaigns that succeed from those that merely exist. However, in his words: Clickers aren’t buyers, traffic isn’t sales. The real magic happens when media and creative align – when you plan for attention AND design for attention.

Novelty Media, via SmartAdd, offers a truly innovative mobile media channel powered by video – the most interesting and engaging format. Forget screaming for attention! We are all about the subtle superpower of micro-moments that make your ads shine. Think laser-focused approach, designed to capture attention without the eye-roll. We serve mobile content and ads that make your brand the perfect match for what people actually want, showing up not only where they already are but where they actually care. The result? Memorable campaigns leading to real action. Plus, we are all about privacy – respecting your audience and building trust while keeping your ads effective and ethical.

Interested? Join our global advertisers who consistently choose our platform for their content needs. SmartAdd is fully endorsed by Mobile Operators, ensuring that brands connect solely with verified human subscribers. Reach out to us today to discover more about our solution and elevate your ad game!