“This dog seat belt was created by a grieving dog owner…
He was heartbroken after his best friend didn’t recover…
‘Rosco was in the back seat when we had a serious car crash’
So he decided to join a star product designer…
To create a revolutionary car safety device for dogs…
This is the story of Bruce Wayne and Lucius Fox”
A short while ago, I wrote about a Facebook ad format that’s working right now for selling ecommerce products.
The ad consists of stock footage video clips, overlaid with subtitles that tell a story.
But what story?
Well, for the stuff my client sells… it’s an, ahem, invented founder story. You can see the start of one above.
But here’s the thing. These are not just any founders. These are superhero founders. I mean that seriously.
For example, the ad above is channeling Batman — somebody with a crushing personal tragedy… delivering vigilante justice. (The real ad didn’t use Bruce Wayne as the name.)
I’ve also seen other advertisers channel:
1) Iron Man (“This Japanese billionaire marshaled his immense engineering skill and industrial resources to create a really comfortable pillow”)
2) Spider-Man (“This precocious-yet-typical teenager set out to save the world by inventing a silicone kitchen sponge”)
3) The Hulk (“This mild-mannered but brilliant scientist was transformed by an explosion and now MUST SMASH FREEZER BURN”)
My point is twofold:
First, if you’re selling stuff on Facebook, these superhero video ads are worth a try.
Second, whatever copy you’re writing (or having others write), it is always worth going back to story archetypes. ​​If a story template has proven itself decade after decade, century after century, odds are good you can use it to sell more dog seat belt – or whatever your vigilante justice leads you to sell.
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