I’m a designer by trade, but when I think about an ad, website or direct mail piece, I think about the total communication. If I’m working with one of my Envision Works writers, he or she is doing the same thing. Visuals have to work just as hard as headlines, and they have to work together.
Sometimes a visual is expensive; sometimes it’s not. Sometimes I do a photo shoot; sometimes I use stock. Sometimes it’s an illustration or a painting or a computer graphic. And sometimes, the best visual is no visual at all – an entire page of white space (which doesn’t have to be white, of course).
But here’s the point of the visual, and of everything we do at Envision Works: It has to yield results. I can’t use a pretty picture just because I like it, any more than I can use my favorite poem instead of a strategic, well-written piece of body copy. And this applies whether we’re producing billboards or a small banner ad.
Some of my favorite ad concepts – the ideas that form when you put the right visuals and headlines together – are demonstrations. This ad for a kitchen knife, for example, has an eye-catching visual that invites you to investigate further. It’s accompanied by a small headline that pays it off nicely, “Sharper than you think.”
Here’s another ad with a strong visual, a piece for Land Rover that doesn’t need a headline at all. In fact, it’s one of the few new car ads that doesn’t even show a photo of the car.
Finally, here’s an ad that where the headline and visual carry absolutely equal weight. On it’s own, the visual doesn’t communicate anything; it’s a somber image, but there’s no real message there. On its own, the headline, “non smoking area,” is a commonplace message found almost anywhere. But put this visual and this headline together, especially with the very strategic physical placement of the headline, and you have a unique, powerful ad about the hazards of smoking.
Put your visuals to work, in association with the right headline, and you will get the attention of your target audience – and your client.