I Don't Need To See Your Product In Ad Ad

Ah, the age-old myth in advertising: "Show the product and they will come." Sorry to burst your bubble, but just because you have a crystal clear image of your product, it doesn't mean you've hit the jackpot. Here's the real deal: an ad that really connects with your audience tells a story that resonates with them on an emotional level. We're talking goosebump-inducing, jaw-dropping, heartwarming kind of storytelling. Because when you hit the right chord with your audience, you can elicit feelings that will lead to that very important click on the purchase button.

Don't believe me, right?

Well, a well-crafted ad can actually make your customers want your product without even showing it.

Enter exhibit A: Corona… Or should I say Coronaless?

How's that for a twist? A beer ad with NO BEER!

Think about that for a second. You've got a beverage company — a company that literally sells liquid in a bottle — and their most memorable work skips the bottle entirely. No frosty pour. No condensation dripping down the label. No product shot at all. Just a hammock, an ocean, a sunset, and a feeling. And it worked, because the beer was never really the product. The feeling was the product. Corona wasn't selling you beer, they were selling you permission to slow down and do nothing for a while. The beer's just the ticket in.

So instead of showing off your product in all its glory, focus on the benefits it brings to your customers' everyday lives.

Here's why this actually works, and it's not magic, it's psychology: people don't buy products, they buy the version of themselves the product makes possible. Nobody wants a drill, they want the hole in the wall. Nobody wants a beer, they want the vacation in their head. Your product is the means. The transformation is the message. And the second you cut away from the product shot and show the transformation instead, you stop advertising at people and start talking to them.

Let's play this out with a couple of made-up examples, just to make the point land. Say you're marketing sunscreen. The obvious ad shows the bottle, maybe someone rubbing it on their shoulder, tagline about SPF. Boring, forgettable, everybody's done it. Now imagine instead an ad that never shows the bottle at all: a family's entire beach day, sandcastles, kids running into waves, dad falling asleep in a chair, mom laughing at something dumb, the sun going down, everybody a little sunburned-free and happy. That's not a sunscreen ad. That's a "protect the day you'll actually remember" ad. The product's in there somewhere, doing its job quietly in the background, the way it should be.

Or take a mattress company. Everybody in that category shows the mattress. Foam layers, cutaway diagrams, someone bouncing a wine glass on it to prove it doesn't spill. Yawn. Now picture an ad that opens on a guy who's clearly exhausted, snapping at his kids, zoning out in meetings, and by the end of the spot he's a different person, present, patient, sharp, because he's finally sleeping. Never show the mattress. Show the man before and the man after. That's the ad people share. That's the ad that makes them Google you.

Neither of those is a real campaign, they're hypotheticals, but they're built on the exact same bone structure as the Corona spot: cut the product, keep the payoff.

Now, I'm not telling you to hide your product forever, there's a time and a place to show what you're selling. But if the only thing your ad has going for it is a clean product shot, you don't have an ad, you have a catalog photo. Storytelling is what turns a transaction into a relationship. It's what makes someone feel like they already know your brand before they've ever bought a thing from you.

When you master the art of telling a story, not only will your ad get noticed, but your product will too. So, trust in the power of storytelling and let your product speak for itself in the way it's presented. Even when you don't actually present the product, K?

Your product doesn't need the spotlight. It just needs to be worth the story you built around it.