Marketing is all about building relationships and promoting a lifestyle that potential customers want and aspire to. It’s more than a hard sell. Clever advertising goes a long way toward encouraging that desire and heightening affiliation to a brand. It goes beyond telling someone to buy a product and instead makes them want to by appealing to their emotions, and that doesn’t happen by chance.

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Colour

Ask anyone and they will likely be able to tell you their favourite colour. It influences our mood, gives clues to our personality, and has strong associations. For example, people see blue as trustworthy and professional, purple is sophisticated and regal, and yellow is fun. Choosing the right colour for your message can increase the chances of your advertisement being successful.

Rule of Thirds

This is an often-used technique used in photography and the compositional theory works in design, too. Dividing the image into three vertically and horizontally creates a grid. Putting key elements onto the intersection points add impact and make the design more interesting than keeping everything right in the centre.

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Repetition

Digital advertising makes repetition much easier and builds brand familiarity. Digital signage is an effective way to continue your message in a range of Out Of Home opportunities. Increased opportunities to see your advertisement, or simply the logo, is an effective way of building brand awareness.

Association

Association is one of the most powerful ways to encourage aspiration, which is why celebrity endorsements can be so powerful. Seeing people enjoying themselves with a product prompts an automatic reaction and boosts desire; we all want a bit of that happiness.

For more information on visual techniques used in design and advertising, see this article from Smashing Magazine.

These simple steps will improve your advertising. If you would like additional help or to build on customers’ other senses, get in touch with an agency like Mood Media, who can support your campaigns with other advertising techniques.

There are many other visual advertising techniques available to help improve the impact of your imagery, and many are used by photographers as well as designers. Composition and a strong focal point are just two more examples. When there are people in the image, call on simple rules of body language to reinforce the message.