In the clutter of today’s ad environment, advertisers must yell louder than ever to be noticed, and simply grabbing attention is often the sole goal of many campaigns. But after an ad gets the customer’s attention, it must then overcome one of the biggest problems in advertising – believability. That attention grabber must be followed up with a message steeped in authenticity and this is where many marketers stumble.
One of the most effective methods for overcoming this lack of trust is to give the appearance of removing the advertiser from the ad. This is the testimonial ad. We believe other people more than we believe advertising. It is this hardwired trust of other human beings that makes this vehicle so powerful. This allows advertisers to pull back and allow real people to do the selling for them.
The illusion created is that of a conversation from one customer to another. Everyday people talking about the products they love and admire can be amazingly persuasive. When the ads are targeted at you, and feature you, it is an entirely different sell.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to show you some of the most effective tactics for creating testimonial ads. This powerful creative vehicle has many flavors: the heartfelt customer story, the honest comment on hidden camera, the man-on-the-street testimonial, the expert in the field, the blind test, or staffers from inside the company.
The Expert Testimonial
These ads recruit experts in the field who customers already trust. This adds power to the message by borrowing the credibility of smart and experienced people. In this ad from the 50s, Camel borrows some of the trust and authority of the medical profession by showing that “more doctors smoke Camels.”
The trick here is to walk the fine line between effective delivery of your product message, and the impartiality of the expert. The expert must not be shown losing objectivity. This effect can be accentuated with simple production values within the commercial.
In this toothpaste ad, the dentist is not too slick and the production values are kept very basic. For the most part, he is believable. He is not pretty and his very nasal New York accent adds to his credibility. Pitchmen just don’t look and sound like this.
Also, he looks like he’s in a real dentist’s office. The bad wallpaper, cramped space, and strategically placed family photo all tell the audience that this guy is for real. The director even used a shaky hand-held camera and a tilted camera angle to give it an almost home-video look.
It is the same thing with this TV weather ad. This is the real superintendent of schools, and she is a woman who really needs great weather advice. I believe her.
Selling Out
In this Oil of Olay ad, the expert loses his objectivity when he begins talking in ad speak, performing an obvious sales pitch. Real people don’t talk like this.
His delivery pace smacks of a memorized sales pitch. Most ad copy has this same highly efficient cadence that removes all pauses and doesn’t waste a second of time. It is an assembly-line style of communication that gets maximum information into every moment. Testimonial commercials should break this rhythm and catch a feeling of spontaneity. It could be a glance away from the camera, a moment of insecurity, or an instance of genuine delight. These imperfections help build a feeling of authenticity.
The pristine, perfectly lit salon also erodes the expert’s credibility. Everyone and everything around him is pretty and perfect with not a single hair out of place. This works fine if you want to build a commercial based on fantasy, but this ad has a different agenda.
Oil of Olay is using a metaphorical fantasy in this swimmer ad, and the meter of traditional ad copy is more acceptable here because they aren’t pretending it’s real life. However, the company is trying to borrow some of this makeup expert’s real-world credibility in the previous testimonial ad. They want him to be very believable. All the perfect, leggy models smiling pretty for the camera add to the feeling of fakery. It sullies this expert’s credibility.
The Documentary Style
You will find that a lot of testimonial commercials are shot in a more documentary style and there is a very good reason for this. A polished pristine venue and smooth perfect camera moves just emphasize the feeling of pretender theatrics. When the goal is credibility, a little rawness goes a long way.
So watch out for testimonial ads with production values that are too good. The essence of the testimonial technique is to remove the fake Madison Avenue slickness and ad copy banter, so the message gains authenticity. But often times, we just can’t help ourselves, we interject the practiced traditional ad slickness into testimonial spots. By making them too good, we render them unbelievable.
This makeup artist crossed the line from expert to pitchman when he broke into ad speak. Give the appearance of objectivity OR go fantasy and make an impassioned sales pitch, but don’t try to do both.
The Informational Testimonial
Just like the examples above, these ads often use experts to extoll the virtues of the product, but in this case, the premise of reality has been abandoned. This drug ad is clearly scripted and uses actors. The goal here is to clearly explain the superior features of the product. They use an actor to borrow the assurance of an expert testimonial, yet don’t pretend he’s a real expert. This drug ad taps the authority of a doctor to list all the superior features. They even do the rather surreal thing of getting a doctor to spout off all the side effects of the drug.
This ad for an osteoporosis drug uses the same technique. Using experts in testimonials requires a delicate touch. The strategy is to avoid the premise in the middle – go very Hollywood and slick, OR go very approachable and real, but avoid trying to do both.
This is part two on best tactics for using testimonial advertising. Read part one.
Next time: best practices for using unbiased observers to tell your story with testimonial ads.
–Graeme Newell works for 602 Communications as a brand consultant and brand trainer. He specializes in brand building using emotional marketing. He guarantees that his marketing seminar will immediately increase audience or his workshop is free. Find out more here.
