4 Instances of Wildly Successful Visual Merchandising

Advertising has always been used to tug at the emotions, to make us feel or want to do something in response to the advertisement itself. Whether you are looking at a shop floor design, a national marketing campaign or just a simple poster, advertisement can be extremely persuasive if gone about the right way.

Whether love them or hate them, everyone has one or two advertisements they can remember that stick out in their minds for whatever reason. We’ll take a look at four perfect examples of great advertisements that made people think, and what effect it may have had on those people.

  1. Disney Side – Disney

Why not show your Disney Side? #disneyside was a widely popular campaign that saw shoppers coming ‘face to face’ with silhouettes of their favourite Disney characters. The set up; a simple shopping centre. A seemingly innocuous paper screen is placed along one wall of a shopping centre, making it look like an as of yet, unopened shop. Passers-by wouldn’t notice anything much out of the ordinary, but if you were to walk past at the right time you might see something a little strange about your shadow.

In the video shared by the Disney Parks, the first shopper doesn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, even though a silhouetted Mickey Mouse follows his move across the centre. In fact, the first few passers-by move along without a word. The first one to notice his silhouette replaced with Donald Duck is a young man on the phone, who hesitantly waves back. This quaint advertisement was all done in fun to ‘show your Disney side’ and is a great way of generating viral interest without seemingly trying to ‘sell’ anything.

  1. Monty The Penguin – John Lewis

This heart-warming Christmas advertisement showed the day-to-day life of a young boy and his ‘pet’ penguin. They get into all sorts of adventures, with the young boy even occasionally feeding his unwanted food to Monty. At the end of the advertisement, we see Monty united with his very own female penguin friend, as a much cherished Christmas present. Mother comes down with a cup of coffee to see her son playing with his new friends, who were in fact, plush toys all along.

It is a beautiful advertisement coupled with emotional scenes and music that takes us back to our childhood days, where stuffed toys had their own voices and personality. The caption ‘Give someone the Christmas they’ve been dreaming of’ nicely rounds off the campaign and makes the message of the advertisement very clear.

  1. 2 Euro T-Shirt

Designed as a social campaign for a cause, this advertisement is a little different. A bright gaudy turquoise vending machine is placed in the centre of a busy city. Inside the vending machine? T-shirts for a mere 2€. Once shoppers have inserted the money and chosen their needed size, instead of the shirt popping out, a small video is seen playing on a hidden monitor within the vending machine. The video shows women and children working hard, sewing t-shirts and other such clothing, without breaks, often in hard, life-threatening conditions.

At the end of the video a choice can be made; to donate the 2€ or to buy the T-shirt. Unsurprisingly, most chose to donate. It can be hard for charities and companies to ask us for our custom, particularly if it requires a monthly subscription and adverts on the television only get so far. To see how easily something as small as 2€ can change a life, without expecting to see it, can quickly tug on the heartstrings and that is exactly what this advertisement is doing.

  1. We Can Do It – Rosie the Riveter

One of the oldest and most well-known advertisements globally is still making the rounds as a magnet, keychain and poster even today. Throughout the Second World War, the Us government was having difficulty keeping construction lines working, what with many men being conscripted into the army at that time. It was therefore necessary; in the wake of women gaining their right to vote, to spur on women to ‘do their bit for the country’ and to take on more traditionally male roles.

While they were paid less than their male counterparts and were soon sent back to their traditional job of homemaker upon their husbands return ‘Rosie the Riveter’ has long been used as a symbol for female empowerment, as a sign that women can and will do a man’s job, and she will do it just as well.

Whether you are trying to sell a product or just trying to promote your new brand, advertisement is incredibly important. Hundreds of thousands of pounds have been put into promotion and advertisement design in order to get passers-by to stop, look and even buy certain products. By affecting our intended audiences emotions, or urging them to get out there and do something, we essentially encourage them towards a set goal on a subliminal level, using our product. Good advertisement is a solid power, so it is a great tool to use when promoting your brand or product.

Article provided by www.propstudios.co.uk, a multi-award winning design studio with a great experience and special focus on the design, project management and installation of bespoke luxury retail window display schemes.