Ugly ads are better than polished ones

Ugly creative is more effective than highly produced creative— or at least, that was our hypothesis going into episode seven of our video series, The Hypothesis. In this episode, you’ll learn how we define ugly creative, what pattern interrupt is, how to harness more unconventional creative in your ad program, and why ugly creative is so useful. Watch the full video below or listen to the episode here to get this conversation in its entirety. More of a skimmer? Keep reading for our top takeaways.

Top takeaways from this episode 

What is the difference between performance creative and brand creative?

• Brand creative is an awareness tactic or execution — it’s all about positioning your brand in the hearts and minds of your audience. Brand is what people say about you when you aren’t in the room. 
• Brand creative typically appears on traditional platforms like TV spots, radio, and print collateral. In more modern contexts, it’s also on YouTube, Meta, CTV, and more. 
• Performance creative is a digital tactic or execution encouraging your audience to buy your product or service. It’s usually optimized towards conversion based on performance metrics that inform future creative iterations. 
• Performance creative is more reliant on data, rooted in historical performance, and exists on primarily digital channels and platforms. 
• Performance creative allows you to test, optimize, and iterate based on that data. It’s more responsive to what users are engaging with than traditional, big brand campaigns.
• Performance creative is cheaper and easier to experiment with than brand creative. 

What do we mean by ugly creative?

• Ugly creative is any creative asset or ad that is a departure from what you’d normally expect from a brand. It doesn’t feel scripted, produced, polished, or like your typical ad or piece of creative. 
• User-generated content (UGC) is a common type of “ugly creative”.
• Ugly creative feels more authentic to the viewer and it shows the human side of a brand.

How are performance marketers currently handling creative assets?

• Many brands only want to produce polished, highly produced ads currently. They know UGC is effective but losing control of their brand scares them.   

How can we make better creative for digital ads?

• Adjust all of your ads for each platform. You might be able to use one creative concept but make sure the content is relevant to the platform it’s on and that the sizing is correct. 
• Map out your unique selling points (USPs) and your weak points or the negative things being said about your brand or product. These are all great things to create ads around and can help to identify things you can make good, “ugly” creative about.
• We’ve never been exposed to more noise and more ads as consumers, consider pattern interrupt in your ads wherein you try to produce an ad that stands out among the usual ad on that platform. Consider copy changes, unconventional and more authentic-looking creative (ie less produced), and user-generated content.
• Be experimental! Keep your brand guidelines in mind but branch out from your usual ad types and start testing more.