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Advertising ideas and examples

Advertising Ideas and Examples

Advertising Ideas and Examples

See the best advertising to get ideas and examples as you create your small business or non-profit advertising.  You'll find a consolidated list of the best websites to see award-winning advertising and examples of great advertising.

From our experience
Tip:  check out the ads where you want to advertise.  That is your "competition"  in advertising because all advertisers are vying for people's attention on a TV show, radio program, on a website, in a magazine or newspaper, on search page results or on outdoor billboards.  You want to make sure that your ad will be of the same (or better) quality than that of these other advertisers. 

 

Industry award winners

 

Large companies, non-profit organizations and their agencies nominate their marketing and ad campaigns for these awards. It may be helpful to look at these campaigns to gather ideas you can use for yours.

  • Clio Award Winners.  The Clios are a prestigious marketing and advertising international industry award program.  Winners are chosen by a panel of industry experts.  The website for the Clios allows you to click on and see a photo of the award winner and gives details on the campaign.  It's free to look at these examples. 

 

  • Effie Awards are based on "ideas that work".  Companies and agencies nominating their marketing must demonstrate results and that the idea worked.  The site is free.  You can search for campaigns by industry and year.  They list the company and agency that created the campaign and then show a summary page about the campaign including visuals. 

 

  • The Addy Awards are orchestrated by the American Advertising Federation.  There are more than 60,000 entries annually.  Awards are given for different types of advertising as well as for logos, annual reports, marketing collateral, direct marketing and several other categories.

 

  • The Cannes Awards are international awards for advertising and marketing.  Lots of examples of winning campaigns and advertising to see on their website.  Awards are chosen by a panel of industry professionals.

 

  • The Echo Awards are run by the Direct Marketing Association.  What's unique about these awards is that the direct marketing campaigns are evaluated on strategy, creativity and results.  Most marketing and advertising awards are won based on a panel of industry experts using their judgment to determine what they think is best.  These awards are won (in part) because of the nominees sharing their quantified results.  Awards are given for different categories and industries.  The agencies who created the campaigns, along with the client and product or service, are listed. 

 

Know this
Know this: the DMA shows small photos of the award-winning campaigns (too small really to be useful).  They charge several hundred dollars a year for access to see the campaigns and case study information for all the entries.  This is a worthwhile expense for an agency but not for a small business owner.  You can use this site to research who the award winners are for your industry and then go to the agency site who created the campaign to see if they've posted it on their site (agencies usually do this to brag about the Echo win).

  • The Webby Awards honors two winners for websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video and Mobile Web.   Members of The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences select the nominees as well as the winners.  The online community votes determine the winner of the People’s Voice Award.  
 
 

More examples of advertising to get ideas for your small business campaign


  • Most agencies and freelancers post examples of their ad campaigns on their websites
    • Ogilvy & Mather, Leo Burnett, and JWT are some of the largest ad agencies in the world.  Their sites all showcases campaigns they've developed.  These agencies work for huge companies so won't take on a small business as a client, but you can visit their websites to get ideas. 

 

  • Agencies and freelancers can add examples of their work to their profile pages on MarketingZone
    • Look for expertise in advertising

 

  • Online companies that sell templates post a lot of examples you can look through
    • Stocklayouts has a lot of professionally designed print ads
    • Top Suppliers for marketing templates

 

  • For examples of outdoor billboard ads and all the new things you can do,
    • Clear Channel's website has lots of examples

 

  • Award winning movie theater advertising
    • The Cinema Advertising Council runs annual awards and posts the winners on their website. 
    • www.cinemaadcouncil.org

 

  • Do a Google search for images of advertising ideas
    • include your type of business or industry to see more relevant examples

 

  • See the advice given by the MarketingZone community on the tabs on this page.  Members can include website links to examples of ads. 

 

  • YouTube has lots of ads posted.  If you've created a TV ad, your ad should be posted on YouTube for additional free exposure.

 

What do you have to say? Share your comments below,

 

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