Reverse Engineer Sponsored Ad

Ministry of Supply: I had never heard of these guys. Had you? I didn't think so. But this ad caught my attention as I was scrolling through facebook. I will talk about a few things that really helped this ad to stand out and take control of the scroll.

The first thing that I read was the word "Warning". That immediately catches your attention and causes you to stop scrolling. That is important because we want our viewers to stop scrolling and to look at our pages or posts that we make. Great job on the creative copy.

The next thing that really helps sell this ad (pun intended) is the wording itself. If you are reading this, then you realize that these words are explaining why the picture below is important. It is giving you context to what the ad will be about. This is key, because you want your picture to relate to the text that you've written.

Lastly, I wanted to point out the obvious. The contrasting colors in this picture (even though for me it was still buffering for some reason...) stand out right away. You realize that the men in this picture are  the focus because of how much they stand out. You also are very curious as to why there are two shirtless men on your feed.

Overall, I'd say that this ad is pretty great and that it really catches your attention well. This is an ad to model other ads off of, because you want your ad to cause people to stop scrolling as well and to look at your ad.

Reverse Engineer Native Video

Original Video Here

Nike's new "Just Do It" ad was very controversial. It showed Colin Kaepernick to be their new poster child. In it though, it has an undeniably great message. It says that we need to dream big, and never settle for less than what we deserve. In this breakdown, I will show a segment of the clip and analyze why it is great. I'm just gonna say this now, the one frame does not do it justice. Go watch the ad if you haven't seen it already. Even if you don't like Kaepernick.

So here it is, the frame that I chose to analyze. It's towards the beginning of the video, but I think they really hit something good here. Even unintentional possibly.

First off, I chose this image because of the alignment and the key focus. The key focus point in this frame is obviously supposed to be the kid wiping out on his skateboard, but they emphasize that because of the fact that he's centered in the photo. Usually it's bad to do this, and we are taught to do the rule of thirds, but I think it works well here.

Second, I think that this frame is awesome because of how much movement it has in it. It literally leads your eyes to the center, to the main point of the video or frame in this case. The railings all are aligned to point towards him, and even the lines on the bricks in the wall lead your eyes to him as directed by the arrows. You could even argue that the vertical bars on the railings point down to him as well.

The last principle, and one that I almost missed, was the agitation. Diagonal lines in art are usually used to create motion, or agitation and disruptment. The way he is flailing about on the ground definitely shows movement and you can pretty much tell just by this shot that it is not just a photo but that it is part of a video. His arms and legs sticking out in unnatural, non-human ways depicts that. (You may have to scroll up to the original to see this because of the red lines I drew over it, sorry.)

Hope you enjoyed! Go watch that video above.