Stories beat montages
Montages are all the rage: images & video clips sliced up on a flat background with bouncy music and sans-serif supers. It's exciting! It hits all your "priorities of communication"! It's good for social! It's all so, very.... relevant!
But it's not as effective an ad with a good old STORY.
You know: with a real character or two. In a clear place & time. Who interact in a plot. Who maybe even have a distinct accent. Who have both text and subtext. Where a little suspense builds until the story is resolved.
Ever watch a commercial just to see how the story ends? Not often, but yeah. Totally.
Orlando Wood and the folks at System1 Research have analyzed oodles of ads and have seen a huge link between these types of ad techniques and their effectiveness.
Long story short: stories work better. Sadly, montages are more popular.
Maybe we think the "distracted viewer" needs ads yelled at them before they scroll on by.
Maybe the ease & cost of splicing together stock video, stock music, and a few supers is too enticing.
Either way, wanna make a more effective ad?
Tell an actual story.