Our Favorite Ads of 2012

The most effective advertising is written and designed to build an emotional connection with the target audience and then persuade people to want the product or service featured. Ads do this by combining strong visuals, powerful headlines, well-written copy and compelling calls to action. As 2012 rapidly comes to a close, we wanted to bring you some ads that stood out.

Here is a list of our favorite ads of 2012:

Print Ads

Print advertising is one of the toughest formats because it takes real talent to capture the hearts and the minds of consumers with just one image and a few words. The ads that get imprinted and are remembered for years are those that stretch our imagination.

Coffee Inn coffee houses: Sometimes extremely creative print ads make it difficult to tell what is being advertised, since they focus first on stopping the viewers by intriguing them. This technique pulls the audience in to read headlines and body copy so they understand the products. If you had to picture an image to convey black and white coffee, it’s unlikely you’d envision something like this but it works perfectly!

 

Monster.com: This print ad is all about juxtaposition and putting two things together that don’t belong to illustrate how it feels to find yourself in the wrong profession. A pink ballerina in a bag of toy soldiers gets the point across quickly and sets up Monster.com as the solution.

Norconsult: This design conveys that “complicated” becomes simple when you use these leading Scandinavian consultants. The image shows a myriad of building components within one neat frame.

Video Ads

This video by Honda Civic has been voted as one of the most popular retail ads for this year by YouTube. It uses humor to keep the audience glued to the screen and the unique concept of showing a live spark connects with the brand beautifully!

Honda Civic’s Spark

Another one of our favorite ads that garnered quite a number of views on social media is for TNT. It guarantees the cable network will deliver your daily dose of drama. Action scenes that look like they were borrowed from all our favorite shows overlap in a chaotic ad that leaves viewers laughing at the end.

A dramatic surprise on a quiet square.

On the other end of the spectrum, the most touching ad for this year has to be this one from P&G that thanks world’s hardest-working people: mothers!

Thank you mama – Best job 2012

Online Ads

This is a simple yet effective ad that takes the perception of IKEA as a chain of huge home furnishing stores and turns it upside down by presenting the smallest of their stores: the company’s e-commerce website. At the same time, it reinforces IKEA’s commitment to providing the best customer experience, online and offline.

Smallest IKEA store in the world

Coke reprises its use of soda-drinking polar bears again this year in the commercial called “Catch.” The giant brand can take the position of offering entertainment because it is so well-known.

Coke 2012 “Catch”

Which ads inspired you professionally this year and which tugged at your heart strings? Which of the ads that you worked on had the most impact on your business and why do you think so?