🧐 Why is it hard to unlock creative winners based on articles, webinars, podcasts, and resources?
Using articles or podcasts to improve your creative performance is like reading a book on an exercise regimen to build muscle.
These resources are good starting points – but they aren’t always applicable to your specific situation, and they don’t always offer the inspiration you can directly use.
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💪 So how do you ‘build the muscle’ of creative ideation?
Connect the dots, day in and day out. Look at inspiring, instructive ads – every single day. Every time you see something interesting, take notes. Understand what works and why. Borrow these learnings in your own ads. Do this regularly.
As Pablo Picasso said, “Great artists steal.” With all the world’s ads being available to you on the Facebook Ads Library and TikTok Creative Center, borrowing and building on winning ads is easier than ever.
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6 examples of transformation
The most powerful ads emphasize the transformation of some sort – physical(bulk up, look hot), or emotional(de-stress, get smart) – and here are some examples from The Daily Ad that show how very different games showcase transformation, that can hopefully inspire ideas for your own ads.
Become a Tycoon:
‘Get rich’ is one of the oldest tropes in history, mythology and storytelling across cultures. Idle Miner Tycoon, much like related idle games like Adventure Capitalist, builds on the trope of ‘get rich quick.’
For games that include some element of monetary gain, this is an easy kind of transformation to show.
House to castle: Evermerge
A fairy-tale like ad. A tree falls upon a house, and the protagonist discovers a secret message that instantly transforms her crushed house into a castle.
Could you show a seemingly miraculous transformation for your game or app?
Progressive Transformation
A progressive transformation of the protagonist, showing them go from plain clothes to a fully dressed-up drag queen. And showing a similar ‘leveling up’ of a peasant into a soldier – over at Adventure Communist.
Is there a gradual step-by-step progressive transformation that you could show for your app?
Transformation in style
As you can imagine, transformation is a fairly common theme in dress-up games – and in this ad, you see the hand making choices to style the character, and you see visual reinforcement with the 5 stars.
What elements or choices could you show the transformation of for your product? And could you use a 5 star gradation to offer visual reinforcement?
From empty-to-fail
In this ad from Design Home, you are prompted to ‘fill up’ a room – and when you don’t do a great job, you get a ‘fail’ state.
Something to think about: can you depict a transformation by showing how nothing becomes something? Could you show a clearly over-the-top fail state like the above?
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With insights like the above(and more), you don’t have to reinvent the wheel for creative inspiration(unless you’re a wheel reinventor ;)).
We hope this offers some creative inspiration for you and your team! Happy creating in 2023!
