The wonderful advertising blog Slate have recently put together a video f the 12 types of ads which you can most commonly expect to find. Whilst I am in agreement with much of what they have said on the video I did fancy doing my own little list with some tweaks. I must confess that I haven’t yet found a space in my 12 for viral, although I do have a feeling that in the coming years we won’t have a choice as to whether we include them or not, they may very well be the most common ad for that matter.

There could be more than 12 of course but following that thread here are the top 12 which I came up with, take a look and let me know what you think about it.

1. the demo – “stain remover”
2. show the problem – “i’ve fallen and I can’t get up, this can help”
3. symbolize the problem – cold symptoms turn person into ogre
4. symbolize the benefit – laxative and old faithful
5. comparison – Works well if done right
6. exemplary story – the VW crashing ad, perfection
7. benefit causes story – Axe effect
8. testimonial – Actual people who’ve lost weight wow factor
9. ongoing charecters or celebs – Taco bell dog for example
10. associated user imagery – People you’d gladly chill with, nike
11. unique personality property – Apple genius commercials, or dyson for the vaccuum
12. parody or borrowed format – Geico small house ad a great example here

What kind of ad from the 12 would you say that you are most receptive too, this wI think is the perfect question to ask when relating to a list like this. Now on the one hand you could certainly say that it depends on the product, after all if we take ad number 10, it is unlikely that you’ll buy a new washing powder during a chat with the boys over a game of Madden, it should always of course be relevant and there will be some types of products or indeed companies which will have to avoid certain types of ads though.

What marketing agencies are champing at the bit to find out is whether or not you are receptive to community based videos, to solution ads having shown you the problem or perhaps testimonial ads. The more insight which they have as to what ads tick the boxes for you, the more they are going to double down and try to bring ads that people are going to jump for.

With all of this in mind I suggest that when you are answering which ad you are most receptive to, that you keep it to yourself rather than commenting on my blog, otherwise they’ll be all over you! This is a joke of course, please don’t stop commenting on my blog, thanks.