Here are some ways to make an ad that will stick-out from the crowd.

Let it "breath."

If you cram 30 seconds of words into 30 seconds of video you will leave people with nothing.  Allow the music to punch through in a place or two and let the voice pause after an important statement.  The TV never shuts up, so a moment of silence is special. Every ad for an American car is the same. But look what Volkswagen did with their Jetta ads. They let music and pretty images carry the spot.  They knew their audience -- young people, especially young women.  And look who's buying their car.

Speak to the heart, not the head.

Don't try and present a reasoned argument. Save that for your "earned media," when you are talking to the press or sending out a release. This is an emotive medium, so make your audience laugh or cry. The new "Just for Men" ads aren't great. The actors are a bit cheesy and the directing is too simple. But instead of pointing out the quality of their hair dye, they tell a 30-second story.  The kids want dad to date again. They give him the product, and a woman goes out with him. Everyone is happy. The daughter wants dad to get the big job. She gives him the product, and he comes home with a big smile and the job. The folks who made those spots know what it takes to motivate a man to dye his hair. They also know that women are the ones who buy the product for their men. But instead of having a voice-over speak it, they showed it all come together in a happy ending.

The words come second.

Once you know what you need to say -- most likely because of good research -- forget about the right side of the script. Focus on the images. A good spot can carry the message with the volume turned off. The concept is the most critical component, and yet most producers start writing before they think about the video. Every ad for a restaurant touts some deal they are offering "for a limited time," but they know it's not really the price that gets people in their cars. It's the food. So they slow down on a close-up of the stretching cheese or the steaming steak. An even better example of the importance of the concept is the GEICO ad campaign. The message is in the tag line about saving $500. It's critical to their campaign, and certainly well established, because they have maintained exceptional message discipline.  But the gecko and the cavemen are selling the company. You can say "good hands" and "good neighbors" all you want, and people will still hate the insurance corporation. But they laugh when they think of GEICO.  Great concep.

Music is critical.

Think of it as the window treatments in a room. Change the curtains and the blinds, and the whole room feels different. Spend a little more money and have a score composed specifically for the ad.

Graphics need to sizzle.

(And they need to be big enough for older people to read.) Software advancements allow for some high-quality effects that would have been prohibitively expensive for most ad budgets only a few years ago. Today, people are getting computer-generated images thrown at them everywhere. If you go cheap on graphics, it's more obvious than ever.  If you do the right, your message will "pop."

Work with people who have “the eye.”

Know the director and editor. Most people can hold a camera and maybe work a bit with i-Movie, but they are not directors or editors. There is more to these skills than pushing buttons. These people must have what I call "the eye." Let's say you have a political candidate running for Attorney General. You can film him speaking to a police officer. Okay, you have established that he speaks to police officers. But a good director says, " I want a mean looking guy being pushed into the car.  I want to see handcuffs. A shot of the flashing lights. A close-up of hands coming together as the officer shakes the candidate's hand." Now, you have established that your guy is a crime fighter... if, of course, you have a good editor. That's the person who sits in a dark room and combines the images in just the right way. The guy behind the camera and the person directing behind the monitor capture what is called the "source material." You have nothing to put on TV except what they get. The editor is the last one who controls what goes on TV. Most likely, however, you hired the producer and not the actual crew and certainly not the editor. So, before you produce the ad, ask to meet them or to see their work. Ideally, these two people know each other and speak in detail before the shoot.  Unfortunately, this is often the exception. I get handed allot of lemons from folks who want lemonade. Fortunately, I have found a director of photography and an editor who can make margaritas.

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