Boom Factor in Advertising

The boom factor in advertising refers to a creative strategy used to get the attention of a target audience with a message that resonates. While new businesses or companies launching new products especially benefit from the boom effect, an impactful advertisement is ideal for any business.

The creative team in an ad agency consists of copywriters and graphic artists. This team works to develop a single creative strategy to achieve intended ad results. Whether you hire an outside agency or do your advertising in-house, it is important that copy and visual elements are coordinated closely to create the boom effect.

You can create the boom effect in many ways. Many advertisers take a problem-solution approach, presenting a common customer problem and showing how their brand helps customers overcome the problem. Other ads use dramatic or eye-catching introductions to lure people into the message. One of the most memorable examples of a dramatic boom effect was in the 1964 Lyndon Johnson campaign "Daisy" commercial. The ad featured a girl pulling petals from a daisy and quickly shifted to a countdown of a nuclear bomb launch. The fear appeal of the ad resonated with presidential voters holding onto memories of World War II and the Korean conflict.

Typically, the term "boom factor" is used to point out the element of surprise in a resonating ad. In the Johnson commercial, the surprise was the shift from a girl and a flower to a bomb countdown. In a February 2013 GoDaddy.com Super Bowl commercial, the element of surprise was super model Bar Refaeli kissing a tech nerd in the company's back office for several seconds. While the ad received negative reviews and disgusted many viewers, it resonated in water cooler discussions for several days after the game.

Creating the boom effect is easier said than done. A common challenge for small businesses is having enough money to invest in the research to know what resonates and the production to develop a powerful advertisement. Even companies with ad budgets miss the mark. Sandwich franchise Quiznos ran an ad in 2004 with singing rodent characters that disturbed many audience members. While the ad attracted attention, the combination of rodents and food didn't go over very well. The boom factor relies on solid research to understand customer needs and preferences, excellent creative development with a clear strategy and reaching the right audience with your media selection.