Visual advertising can be seen all around us from billboards on the roadside to pop-up ads of mobile. Visual advertising techniques have become undeniably the best approach for a brand to reach its customers.
Designers and advertising creatives rely on several methods to reach, optimize, and get successful in their visual advertising tasks.
The advertising skills do not have exact rules for how to create it, preferably a pool of information is at the disposal of marketing professionals and designers. These skills exist to help creatives come up with better ideas for advertisements and visual graphics. The approaches involved seem mostly technical, but there’s still a lot of psychology involved.
Some are seen depending on the ad content. For example, a three-quarter view is only used when there is a person in the image. Others will be part of the design every single time, as the technique of using color.
Color Psychology
- The first example is the conscious use of color. The technique is used in every kind of visual marketing every single time.
- The color psychology advertising method is easy to get wrong or misunderstand. A slightly different tone of any color could end up portraying the false picture of emotion defying the design aimed for.
- The colors are present in the background, photography, fonts, visual accents, and branding elements. That’s why it’s very much needed to think about the palette of colors, which is being used every time.
- The importance of each color and job did by it is vast. Creative advertising relies on exciting color patterns to convey a message without uttering a single word. Choices, for example, using a bold color for a call-to-action button, can significantly enhance the click-through rate of the advertisement.
- At times one color in a brand is so vital that it becomes its entity, like Coca-Cola Red or Tiffany Blue.
Composition
- A balanced composition is fundamental in every type of visual. The structure is how all the elements are placed in visible canvas space.
- A composition may have many different purposes, from creating a visual flow from top to bottom or pulling the viewer’s eye to one specific point.
- There are various ways to set up a balanced composition. The basic rules for a great arrangement are called Gestalt principles. These include visual practices like simplicity, synchrony, and association.
Focal Point
- Pinpointing a focal point is as vital as typography and the choice of colors. The onlooker requires to have a crystal clear place to see and understand as they look and absorb the message of the advertisement.
- A focal point can be achieved in several different ways. The rule of thirds and golden mean is two useful tools to help create a strong focal point.
- The techniques to get a focal point are Selective Focus,
- Exposure and Light Source. The simple advertisement below has strong focal points, where the letters are rubbed out.
Visual Path
- As the focal point, an obvious path is a technique that takes the viewer’s gaze to a specific element. When a person looks at any kind of visual graphic, be it a page in a magazine, an ad, a website, or a landing page, they will follow a visible path.
- We talk about visual paths. There are two unusual shapes. The first is Z shape, in which the gaze initialize at the top left, moves towards the right, then return left and then down diagonally before moving across towards the right again.
- The second visual shape is F. The F is like Z, but it follows a line similar to how you would read the block of text.
Typographic Composition
- Another critical visual technique is the use of typography. Almost every visible advertisement will have some typographic elements to it.
- The vital balance between the visuals and the type is essential. Typography or fonts has a dual purpose having a visual appeal while portraying the message in words.
- The unique combination of the different fonts used is called font pairing. It can make as well as break a design. The color also needs to be in rhythm and balance with the background. Everything should complement each other.
- Typographic skills include placing a texture inside the letters or manipulating the messages to resemble shapes.
- In many cases, like Facebook ads, the amount of type and words used is significant. The Facebook algorithm may accept a certain text-to-image ratio in the advertisements that get submitted.
Repetition
- The repetition technique is an advertising technique that has to do with marketing strategy. Redundancy applies to a few different aspects of visual advertising.
- Here are how you can use it:
- a TV commercial is aired many times a day on various channels.
- Sending the same ad to print for several magazines.
- Putting the same ad on many billboards in cities or countries.
- Creating digital ads and submitting them to Google ads.
- Creating and distributing a large quantity of merchandising with your brand printed on it.
- Making different versions of the same ad with various body positions, characters, etc.
- Increasing the times you allow it to appear the same on Facebook.
- The repetition skill works best on new products or new campaigns to raise the desired brand awareness.
Direct Gaze
- Continuation of body language, another advertising technique we see a lot has to do with the eyes. The direct gaze is done when someone looks straight in the eye without a blink.
- This technique is taken from hypnosis practices. The official name of the method is the “gaze induction technique.” It makes people feel things just by looking intense. This is one of the highly effective advertising skills.
Body Language
- A large number of visual advertising assets include people in them. Both static and video graphics, the body language of the person or people is very crucial.
- Confidence, success, knowledgeability, and various sentiments can be visualized by body language.
- Body language is a non-verbal language. It transmits a message by how persons sit, stand, move, and smile. The person in the graphic may be a model, an actor, a famous professional, a regular person, or even an animated character, but what is essential is the way they move or stand.
- The correct body language in an advertisement starts before even the ad is designed. Clients and creative directors work to determine the accurate messaging of the advertisement.
- The upcoming step after the discussion is to cast and find a suitable person to transmit the body language. The model is given directions for the desired effect during the shoot.
Three-Quarter Gaze
- A character-related technique is a three-quarter gaze. It can be used in any direction, inwards, or outwards. The course depends on what the message needs to be conveyed.
- The example can give a sense of “looking into” a situation the viewer isn’t a part of. This technique is widespread in the video. The forward-facing three-quarter gaze is better suited for a static image that wants to transmit a sense of wonder.
Point of View
- The advertising technique is a way of showing the action as the viewer will be doing or experiencing it. This is a technique that is used widely in video advertising.
- There are different levels for the point of view technique. A SteadyCam apparatus can be harnessed at eye level or very close to it, making the recorded video to feel natural and like the viewer is in the scene.
Behind-the-Scenes
- To show the customers how the inside of a company works is an excellent way to reach customers. A brand can show their followers creative behind-the-scenes images and videos through social media.
- This may be a video tour where everyone is creating the products that customers love or photos of the team working in the office. A visual advertising technique is beneficial to make followers feel connected to the brand with behind-the-scenes.
- The next great idea is to let an influential employee do a “takeover” of a social media channel. This is an excellent in-house influencer marketing technique.
Association
- This advertising techniques mostly rely on psychology. This is also known as “association marketing.”
- The visuals of the graphic will create associations for the viewer as the premise. The associations can be either feelings, places, ideas, or nostalgia.
- Association marketing becomes successful when a good bit of research must have been done beforehand so that there is an in-depth knowledge of who the consumer is before deciding on what the association will be.
Symbolism
- A technique was similar to association deals with symbolism. Visual marketing techniques that use an analogy in their message and call on the use of metaphors and similes. The literary tools are used to make comparisons and allusions.
- A marketing strategy for a hand cream may use a visual metaphor to compare the fragrance of cream to spring flowers.
- The symbolism can be vague and subtle and even overly far-fetchedthe latter works with brands even already have a fan following of consumers with high brand loyalty. Nobody wants to confuse.
Emotional Appeal
- One of the most prominent marketing techniques is an emotional appeal. The audience targeted is pretty much anyone with feelings.
- Television advertisements use this tactic quite often. For advertising technique to work, the brand needs to know the consumer.
- The team of marketing needs an understanding of the hopes and dreams, as well as the fears and needs of their target audience.
Bandwagon Pressuring
- The human-centered advertising method is a bandwagon to pressurize.
- With the right wording and persuasive writing, the brand tries to convince the clients.
- Everyone has the product and that they are missing out.
Storytelling
- Storytelling is used in campaigns of traditional media for many generations. This is likely seen time and time again by all of us. That is why it is a tried and tested option.
- A brand tells a story in many different ways. It can use their original history and take inspiration from customer feedback. The brand also tells a story without any words, only with music and the right images.
Social Proof
- Using the technique of social proof is mostly for advertising online and can be used in printing to some extent.
- Endorsement and influencer marketing is the perfect way to have social proof. They can do the marketing for the brand and in their own words. While recommending the product to their followers.
Fantasy
- Mostly similar to the association technique, the use of imagination is one of the powerful and psychological resources to create visual advertising.
- The favorite fantasy with consumers in the world is that unicorns poop rainbows.
Motion Graphics and Animation
- Animation about visuals is animated instead of filmed with human characters. The animation and motion graphics is taking the advertising from digital to outdoor advertising.
- It is the happening version of a still illustration. The motion graphic is different as it’s not a storytelling technique, but more of an explanation or visual accent.
Artificial Reality
- Interactive advertising is quite popular, leading to the rise of artificial reality (AR). Television shows have even developed AR apps to allow their viewers to get a first-hand experience of the show’s setting.
- The above type of advertising is also known as “covert advertising.” It does not sell anything directly, whereas it sells the idea behind the brand and generates awareness about it.
- The thing to remember about artificial reality advertising techniques is that they always need an app to work.
The Final Words
The visual advertising world is growing far and wide exponentially with digital expansion. Advertising techniques like color psychology or direct gaze will always be essential skills to remember. The visual advertising techniques chosen will depend significantly on the message you want to convey. When creating your graphics, keep it simple and always think of your consumer.