As an advertising professional, I’m always looking for ads that stop me in my tracks. Coffee breaks, commutes, chores, and conference calls are all punctuated with regular trips through social media to find innovative and exciting new advertising concepts lurking in my newsfeed.
Imagine my surprise when, during a brief glance away from my iPhone, I happened to see my new favorite ad hanging in the window of a local shop. It’s an ad for volunteer firefighters, and everything about this ad tells me that the organization knew EXACTLY who they wanted to reach.
The entirety of this ad, the typography, creative, layout, and even size and shape are direct callouts to the popular Call of Duty video game series.
What’s the demographic of the average gamer in the US? A male in their late 20s-early 30s.
What’s the demographic of the average person INTERESTED in becoming a volunteer firefighter? You guessed it…a guy in their late 20s-early 30s.
Why’s this so cool? The very design of the ad encourages self-selection by the audience. This ad caught my eye because, as a guy in the demo, the design and imagery was innately familiar to me. Even though I haven’t played video games in close to a decade, the game was such a part of my childhood that it naturally grabbed my attention.
Great ads are relevant and timely to the audience that views it. In digital, we pay a premium to make sure that we serve our ads to an audience primed to act. In storefront windows? Maybe we just need to be a little more creative.
