3 years ago, an astronaut on the International Space Station bounced his way outside of the calm and protected interior so he could set up a little experiment in open space.
He left some bacteria on the outside of the station, in the cold, in the dark, only occasionally to be pummeled by murderous space radiation.
It turns out these resilient bacteria survived. I bring this up for two reason:
1) Scientists say this means life COULD have come from somewhere else than Earth, which would certainly explain how the platypus got its beak, and
2) Because I learned about this super bacteria from a stock footage, subtitled video on the BBC site today.
That was interesting to me. I realized this is where the format came from for the Facebook ads I’ve been writing a lot of.
These Facebook ads look and feel the same as the BBC videos. They are made of stock footage, with overlaid subtitles that tell a story. Except the story is not about space-riding bacteria, but about bamboo kitchen towels or silicone freezer bags.
And here’s why this might be relevant to you:
These stock footage video ads are doing very well on Facebook right now. They are outperforming other ad formats my clients are trying (and these guys do a lot of trying and testing).
So if you do any Facebook advertising, it might be worthwhile going on the BBC site and checking out some of these science videos to see what makes them tick, and how you can mimic the same.
And there’s a deeper message I want to leave you with:
If an editorial format is working for a massive site like the BBC, it’s a good idea to try to adapt it into an ad.
Regular articles and these stock footage videos are not the only formats that work for news sites. I can think of other ways that places like CNBC and CNN deliver content, which might be relevant for Facebook advertisers.
The point being, it makes sense to pay attention to your own news consumption. You might find the germ of an idea. That idea can start to spread and multiply… until it forms a colony of money-making ads for your business.
For more biologically inspired marketing ideas, you might like my daily email newsletter. In case you’re interested, put on your space suit, unlock the hatch door, and sign up here.