Why many ads don't work

Bob Woodard from our partner Deep Marketing Alliance, LLC sent us this great video about storytelling.  (The video itself is an example of an engaging story).

In short, a compelling story contains five key elements: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement.

In the context of an ad that runs 30 or 15 seconds (or less), this is quite difficult to achieve.  It is arguably more difficult in a static print ad.  This explains why a lot of messages (including straight, factual product pitches) fall flat.

This framework is one that can help creatives and researchers predict the effectiveness of communications – it’s not just what is said, but how it is said.