Creative Ads Design - Examples and Inspirations

With the need to balance following established trails that convert and keep target audience with coming up with fresh, innovative ideas, ad creators are in constant need of new, creative concepts. That’s why looking for inspiration is one of the key elements in keeping one's mind fresh and operational in this business.

According to data collected by Semrush ("93 Online Advertising Statistics You Need to Know for 2024"), online ad spending is estimated to reach $247.3 billion by 2024. Additionally, 79% of CMOs state that bringing entertainment and audience engagement is increasingly important in a world where blocking or ignoring ads is increasingly easy.

These data points, paired with these statements, show the increasing importance and need for creative advertising and crafting more inspiring ads. But where to begin?

What Is Creative Advertising?

In the most basic approach, creative advertising is about making the ad creative. This leads to an interesting question about what real creativity is. According to Albert Einstein, “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” When it comes to advertising, fun and intelligence are necessary to create something for both the creator and spectator.

Creative advertising is about delivering new, fresh, and uncommon ideas necessary to tell a story, generate, or sell a concept—or, in the best-case scenario, do both at the same time. When it comes to advertising, creativity needs to be overseen by strategy and branding, to avoid going wild.

How To Make Creative Ads?

Making creative ads is the ultimate goal of ad agencies and specialists around the world. There is no reliable answer on how to make them only hints and trails to follow. Sometimes it may be about not showing a product at all, as was the case with Apple’s famous 1984 ad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtvjbmoDx-I

Alternatively, it can be about being straightforward in a way no one has ever been:

Or, if you want to be creative, just do it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yO7xLAGugQ

As there are no easy answers, the best approach is to go through interesting and inspiring examples that allow one to see how others have grasped the creative spark.

Advertising Campaign - Examples and Inspirations

In the modern era of omnipresent advertising, there is both a flood of inspiring and imaginative ads and a challenge in finding and highlighting something truly interesting. Considering that, the best approach is to collect the best and most inspiring pieces, be they outdoor, digital, or TV. That’s why the editor’s picks include:

Red Bull Stratos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHtvDA0W34I

Red Bull Stratos was a skydiving project branded and orchestrated by Red Bull, a popular brand of energy drinks. Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner jumped out of a stratospheric helium balloon and fell approximately 24 miles (39 kilometers), breaking the world record for free falling. The event was broadcast on television and online, with media covering it for weeks before and after.

Baumgartner was free falling for 4 minutes and 19 seconds, reaching 843.6 miles per hour (1357.64 km/h), and breaking the sound barrier. This made him not only a holder of the height record in free falling but also the first (and so far the only) man to break the sound barrier without using any engine or machine.

Engineering and running this form of an ad (because it WAS an ad) required immense creativity. Sending a man to the stratosphere and letting him fall is not an obvious way to promote a brand of soft drinks.

Gillette: Socially Involved Brand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYaY2Kb_PKI

A renowned brand of shaving razors, Gillette, used brand storytelling to comment on modern society by tackling the idea of toxic masculinity. The ad shows multiple examples of harmful or dangerous behaviors and opportunities to “behave well.” The brand delivers the message, “The best a man can get,” and among other messages, it informs viewers that when it comes to a clean-shaven face, Gillette is indeed the best pick.

Mercedes-Benz - Chicken Ads

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLwML2PagbY

Without an earthshaking budget or super-sophisticated CGI, Mercedes-Benz created an ad where natural chicken behavior was used to demonstrate the stability of the car during a drive. The ad was enriched with upbeat music and visuals, creating a pleasant, relaxed mood.

With its laid-back approach and tongue-in-cheek messaging, the ad was viewed by millions of YouTube users. Moreover, Jaguar, one of the competing brands, released a counter-ad to piggyback on its reach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAGOcyvBap0

FedEx - Simply Show

The FedEx ad is as simple as possible, delivering a super-clear message. Two people handle a package to each other through the windows. The trick is the world map on the wall, showing that the package is traveling from southern Asia to Australia as easily as being handed over.

Volkswagen - Imply the Consequences

The ad shows a hedgehog standing in line with fishes in bags full of water—one can easily imagine the spikes puncturing the bags and ultimately killing the fish. But when paired with the message about parking assistance, clients can easily imagine a car being scratched or crushed in a clumsy parking maneuver.

Band-Aid - Use the Power of Pop Culture

The Incredible Hulk is one of the most powerful Marvel superheroes, with his ability to deflect tremendous damage or deal it with equal ease. “I have an army” “We have a Hulk”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMpCCo8Evnc

Band-Aid has shown the Incredible Hulk as one who also needs a band-aid from time to time, showing that even the mightiest of heroes shouldn’t be ashamed of having his finger cut.

Colgate - Name the Problem, Show the Solution

Yellow teeth and bad breath are not the worst effects of smoking cigarettes. Yet, they are the only immediate ones that show nearly instantly after the first pack is smoked. Colgate does not attack the bad habit itself—there is information on the adverse effects of smoking even on cigarette packs themselves. It simply shows that one can counter yellow teeth with toothpaste.

Barilla - Show the Product Out of Context

Some of the greatest ads, with Apple’s “1984” being a prime example, do not show the product and force the consumer out of their communicational comfort zone. Barilla, a popular pasta brand, has shown its product as a firework, wishing consumers a happy new year, breaking the norm and delivering something new and fresh.

Hell Pizza - Break the Rules

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p1yBlV7Ges&list=PLDC9AACFCFC699F20

Bandersnatch is a famous episode of Netflix’s Black Mirror series, where the user could make choices about how the story develops, managing the protagonist’s decisions. Yet, long before that (in 2010, to be precise), New Zealand-based Hell Pizza launched a YouTube-only ad based on the same concept, where the user followed a pizza delivery man during a zombie apocalypse. They used a much smaller budget and existing video infrastructure (YouTube) to achieve a comparable effect to Netflix.

The technical elements have changed since then, so the system is not working as smoothly as 14 years ago, but the ad still works, and one can follow the story and enjoy the unique New Zealand accent.

KitKat - Leverage the Brand Power

“Have a break, have a Kit Kat” is one of the most iconic and recognizable slogans in the world, comparable with “I’m loving it” from McDonald’s or “Just do it” from Nike. Showing on a billboard that someone actually took a break is a humorous approach to brand identity and reinforces brand recall in the user.

Global Coalition for Peace - Creatively Approach the Surroundings

A powerful ad created for the Global Coalition for Peace is meant to be displayed on round advertising pillars. The horizontal photo shows a soldier holding a sniper rifle with a long barrel. Yet, with the poster wrapped around the pillar, one sees that the soldier is actually aiming at his own back.

Creative Product Ads as a Conversion Booster

One of the best elements of a truly creative concept is that it impacts all aspects of marketing, including conversion rates, branding, and customer loyalty. This is a direct result of the attention-grabbing nature of the genuine creative spark behind the concept.

There is a limited way to measure the impact of creativity itself—the concept is too elusive and hard to quantify. There is no way to determine the percentage of creativity in an ad or to optimize it. Yet, creative content is what makes a difference in a content-flooded reality.

Creative Ads Design with Tools

Creativity itself is a matter of the human brain. On the other hand, using new tools has always sparked new forms of creativity, leading to new types of art or expression—ranging from increasingly sophisticated paintings done with new materials to digital forms of art, including AI-supported art.

Commercial-oriented artists working in the advertising industry can leverage tools like Cropink to unleash their creativity en masse by applying the same rules to multiple images and ads. Since Andy Warhol’s serial portraits, making art massive is nothing surprising. Cropink is product feed management tool with dynamic ads templates available for free. You can also use this platform as a campaign management tool for Meta (Facebook and Instagram).