Using testimonials in advertising.

In this blog, we’ll be looking at using testimonials in advertising.

At Partisan Advertising, we believe there are five tenets upon which effective and memorable advertising campaigns can be built and how they can be used for the betterment of your advertising. They are:

Humour, testimonial, metaphor, analogy, and demonstration.

We need to start at the very beginning. Way back before social media and the Internet, when we had to actively look for advice from friends, family, and industry experts – word-of-mouth was the most powerful marketing tool around (and it still is).

In the previous century, being a film or food critic (or any critic for that matter) was being someone with a make-or-break influence to those being reviewed. These days, everyone’s a critic. Is that a problem? It doesn’t appear that way except (once again) for those being reviewed.

Using testimonials in advertising is so powerful because we trust people more than we trust brands. According to research by UK think tank WyzOwl, 42% of people say testimonial videos are compelling because they showcase an actual person and help the viewer understand their story.

WyzOwl also said that 95% of people they interviewed say that reviews, whether positive or negative, influence their purchasing decisions.

This points toward the importance of video testimonials as a marketing and advertising tool. Video takes word-of-mouth marketing to the next level. A video is harder to fake. This is a real customer willing to associate their face and name with your brand. It creates trust and helps create a strong, authentic relationship between the viewer, the person in the video, and the brand. This strengthens the relationship between the brand and the consumer.

Testimonial commercials are a highly specialised form of advertising, and they can be tremendously effective.

• Testimonials make the invisible visible.

• Testimonials can demonstrate conversation benefits.

• A testimonial can add legitimacy and increase engagement.

• Testimonials can provide direct targeting through strong resonation with the audience.

In the past eight years, Partisan Advertising has successfully used testimonial-based commercials for our client, TR Group. Our approach to generating testimonials is simple:

• The customer does not have a script to follow. This results in a short, to-the-point, natural, and believable delivery.

• We position TR Group’s clients in their environment, at work, and doing business.

• We ignore marketing “buzzwords”.

So how has testimonial-based advertising helped TR Group?

• It has built stronger trust from the customers doing the commercials.

• The customers’ brand is showcased free of charge on a large media spend.

A testimonial is so powerful. To put it simply: even a short, 30-second TV commercial can show that there are clear benefits to using your product or service.

In our next blog, we’ll take a look at using metaphors to create better advertising.

Using humour in advertising.

In this blog, we’ll be looking at using humour in advertising.

At Partisan Advertising, we believe there are five tenets upon which effective and memorable advertising campaigns are built. They are:

Humour, testimonial, metaphor, analogy, and demonstration.

I’ll start by saying what we all know: humour isn’t universal but it’s super powerful and very popular. However, one man’s sense of humour can often be another man seconds away from being offended, or worse, not laughing. Humour can bring people closer together or push them further apart.

Human beings like to recall how humour made them feel, and because humour releases endorphins, jokes get remembered, retold and heard more frequently. A sense of humour can make us feel liked and connected, and humour can help develop our relationships. Humour is a fantastic method to appeal to customers’ emotions and gain their trust.

In the world of advertising, humour works and can easily cut through the noise and help brands stand out when it comes to communicating key messages. However, it’s not easy to find the perfect line to make your advertising humorous.

Years back, the word “viral” was the talk of the town. Every advertising agency was on the road to creating viral work, most often trying to go viral by using humour. But things have changed dramatically and the concept of viral has been turned on its head by current social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, and just about anything can go viral with (or without) the use of humour.

When the Superbowl rolls into town on the first Sunday of February, advertisers pay extravagant fees to get their products and brands in front of millions of eyeballs on the biggest day in TV for advertising, and the vast majority use humour to break through and appeal to audiences. Superbowl advertising has become so popular that many people watch the Superbowl just for the ad breaks.

However, what is humorous can often quickly become imitated and boring, leading to a loss of memorability and, in worse cases, leading to a lack of likeability, as these three ads produced for Superbowl viewers show.

So here are ten easy tips to remember to crack the “humour effect” for your brand:

1. Show your personality.

2. Be authentic and believable.

3. Be relatable to your audience.

4. Don’t be offensive (unless it fits in with your brand positioning).

5. Don’t force your humour.

6. Don’t insult your audience.

7. Remember that humour is subjective.

8. Don’t use sarcasm, as it can’t always be communicated through text - as seen in the “Pepsi, Where’s my Jet?” advertising campaign.

9. Stay classy - don’t poke fun at your competitors.

10. Get a second opinion from a lawyer.

Here are five great places to use humour to build your brand besides on video:

1. Recruitment ads, like this one from SodaStream.

2. Internal communications. Just make sure that managers and leaders are fully onboard.

3. Email signatures. Here are some great ideas from RightInbox.

4. Create backgrounds for digital media meeting platform meeting rooms like Zoom and Google Meets using Xsplit Vcam.

One should never forget that using humour in advertising is the riskiest of our five tenets. Humour isn’t for everyone, but if you crack the code, prepare to enjoy the rewards.

In our next blog, we’ll take a look at using testimonials to create better advertising.

And while we’re waiting, here are 17 minutes of great examples of humour used in advertising. Enjoy!

Advertising for children.

In New Zealand, the transport industry is more than just businesses with trucks and trailers.

It is a tight-knit community of hardworking individuals that pass on their skills and knowledge to their families and friends – from generation to generation.

The New Zealand Trucking magazine features a kids’ magazine called “Little Truckers Down Under”. This year, we’ve had the pleasure of working with TR Group to put together advertising that resonates with both the adult and children readers of Little Truckers.

View fullsize

Click to view a bigger image.

TR Group is a proud supporter of I AM HOPE and its cause to raise mental health awareness and provide free counselling sessions to Kiwi kids. The first advert is focused on spreading hope and simply being kind to others – a timeless message that everybody needs a reminder of. With this comes a nod to mental health awareness in kids as they navigate the early stages of their lives.

View fullsize

Click to view a bigger image.

The second Little Truckers advert focused on the environment and how every single human in the world has a responsibility to keep our home habitable for generations to come. It has easy tips for sustainability that any kid or grown-up can follow – while simultaneously showcasing the hard work TR Group does in their commitment to a sustainable transport future. This is important because the children who read this will be the ones driving fuel-alternative vehicles.

View fullsize

Click to view a bigger image.

The next ad focuses on the connection between generations of truckies and how extraordinary a career in transport can be. TR Group is a company that prides itself on its people, and what better way than to ‘start them young’. This ad communicates how dreams can turn into reality and a career doing what you love, surrounded by the trucks you love, is a possibility.

View fullsize

Click to view a bigger image.

This takes us to the latest ad, paying homage to the truckies who deliver everything we have – from toys to food and everything in between. This showcases how trucks affect everyone’s life, bringing a sense of gratitude towards these big rigs and their drivers. It’s important to deliver this message for kids to be aware of how essential trucks really are. Often they’re seen as mere vehicles, but really, they are vessels that keep the world moving.

The Little Truckers Down Under adverts for TR Group has been a delight to work on, and we have another one on the horizon. We are grateful to TR Group for allowing us to do what we love as they communicate to kids and adults alike, empowering children to have the right mindset about the industry while waiting for their turn to take the wheel.

New Experiences in Advertising

The only purpose of advertising is to generate sales.

However, in this connected multi-channel world, getting the numbers is nowhere near as simple as it used to be.

No matter who you are or what you sell, your competitors are only a click away, and this ‘Rule of Google’ applies to all.

What worked in the past simply isn’t as effective now, so you need to take a new approach to your advertising to lock down the strongest market position possible.

Effective advertising comes from creative thinking, clever planning, careful budgeting and a long-term commitment. The problem is that there are so many options out there, which means it’s all too easy, and often extremely costly, to get things wrong.

If your messages don’t appeal to, or fail to reach your target market, then they’re worthless. The best advertising message in the world is irrelevant if it doesn’t convey the benefits your customers need or want.

It will always be your customers who decide the worth of your advertising and not you. That’s why it’s vital that you create an advertising plan with a foundation built on modern advertising principles that respect your customer’s inherent right to reject and ignore your messages.

Before you even start planning your advertising, you need to forget (and please say that you have) all about the Product, Price, Place and Promotion mentality that ruled last century’s advertising.

The Four P’s made sense in a world dominated by newspapers and televisions, where marketers could easily reach big, obedient audiences and where product differences lasted.

But today the consumer has control and unlimited choice, audiences have scattered to new platforms, and product differences have meaning for days, not years.

So you need to move towards the Four E’s.

Think of Experience rather than Product, Everyplace rather than Place, Exchange instead of Price, and lastly, Evangelism and not Promotion.

Disregard product advantages and focus on how your customers experience your retail business. Why would they purchase from you instead of your competitors?

Why do they shop online instead of in-store? What influences their buying decisions? How do they use your product and how do they stay linked to you after their purchase?

Thanks to the Internet, consumers can buy products, even the ones you sell, everywhere, so all you have to differentiate both your company and your stores is a unique retail experience.

Once you know what this experience is, you need to consider how you’ll communicate it through your advertising.

Then focus on how you can reach your potential clients when they’re most receptive to engaging with you, rather than interrupting them to grab a fleeting moment of their attention while watching TV or reading a newspaper.

Your advertising must be flexible enough to meet consumers on their terms; today, that’s everywhere and anytime.

Want to know what’s increasingly more important than price to your customers?

Their time. What are you prepared to exchange for this so that you can grab a share of their wallets? You need to offer more than low prices, especially when you consider the real value of your customers – what they bring to you in revenue over their lifetime.

Picture twenty years of interactions with one customer rather than twenty minutes on a single sale and you’ll start to see the bigger picture. In all likelihood, this long-term brand-based thinking is the most important aspect of your advertising and marketing plan.

Retail promotions used to revolve around price drops or constantly pushing product benefits. That’s old hat now that the lowest price is probably online, and the product benefits no longer last.

How can your brand become so inspiring that your customers actively seek it out, choose to engage with it, and then share their enthusiasm with others?

Evangelism is incredibly powerful today because it marries the oldest form of advertising – word of mouth, with the newest – social networking. However, a Facebook page, a Twitter feed or the occasional blog post isn’t enough to create a real sense of involvement.

Frankly, it’s 2022, and you have to stand out to succeed.

If you don't embrace the most up-to-date advertising methods in your strategic planning, then you may as well not bother planning at all.

On the other hand, if you can get the Four E’s approach entrenched into your company’s culture, you’ll soon see how it filters through to and positively influences every aspect of your marketing and advertising efforts.

More importantly, you’ll see the results in your sales figures, and that’s the whole point of the exercise, isn’t it?