Ben Walker.
As I stood in the airport today, killing time between flights, I found myself mesmerised by a rotating reel of several billboard ads and it got me thinking about how brands are communicating with people.
Whether that's billboards, TV ads, social media or experiential, brands are showing up with big, bold visuals, catchy slogans and all the production values you’d expect from these household names.
But how many of these marketing marvels are missing something. A Call to Action (CTA)?
The answer is most of them, certainly all the billboards I saw at the airport today, telco, travel or online shopping, none of them had a ‘Call to Action’.
Now, I know what you’re thinking, “But isn’t the point of advertising to create a reaction and get people to do something?” You’d think so. After all, we’ve all sat through those meetings, reviewing the sacred conversion funnel from awareness to consideration to conversion. It’s marketing basics: move people through the funnel, right? So why are we so often skipping the crucial step where we actually ask the audience to do something?
New media has opened up incredible possibilities for creativity—whether it’s the awe-inspiring, larger-than-life 3D illusions in FOOH (fake out-of-home) or the mind-bending interactions that are now possible. But here’s the kicker: even these jaw-dropping visuals rarely ask anything of the viewer.
We’re wowed, we’re entertained, but we’re not prompted to do anything. Shouldn't that be a bit of a red flag when we think about media effectiveness and ROI?
At the heart of every great ad is a simple truth: we’re dealing with human motivation. If we really want to engage people and move them through that funnel, we need to grab their attention and give them something in exchange for their attention that’s of value to them, be it persuasion, intrigue or desire.
Make them curious. Why should they care? What’s in it for them? Maybe it’s learning something new, solving a problem they didn’t even know they had, or simply sparking a bit of intrigue that makes them want to know more.
In the end, it’s not just about making people aware of your brand—it’s about motivating them to do something. And if there’s no exchange—no clear reason for them to take that step—why should they bother?
So let’s make it a habit. Make them smile, make them think, and above all, make them do something. Because doing nothing is, well, not doing much at all.
Ben Walker, Chief Doer, The Do Collective