I’ve been listening to The No Sleep Podcast on marathon this past two weeks after my friend Vin introduced me to it. (For those interested, I was pulled in by episodes S7E16 and S7E17) At the start of each episode, is an advertisement for underwear from Third Love and despite usually hating advertisements in podcasts, I actually find these fairly engaging even though I’ve been hearing the same two ads over and over again. For my day job, I’ve been delving into the world of marketing, and so I looked at why these ads are so engaging. They made me curious about the product, even though I have no real interest in a new set of underwear but I wanted to at least take a look.
Know Your Audience
I think what’s most on-point about these ads are that they’re supernatural horror based. The No Sleep podcast is a collection of short horror stories read by amazing narrators and so the ads are themselves short stories. One involves the struggle between a female vampire and a female vampire hunter who compare bras during their fight. Another involves a married couple arguing about missing underwear that has been stolen by ghosts. They both have an element of queer that is engaging. You could picture the fighting females as lovers if they weren’t enemies. In the story with ghosts, there are two men (one corporeal, one non) who like wearing the main female character’s panties. These stories fit right in with the stories in the actual podcast.
Be Entertaining
Despite only lasting a few seconds, the stories in these ads actually manage to convey a clear picture of the fantasy world they’re set in. You can almost picture the two women battling in the dark and damp alleys of some Victorian city. Then there’s the adventurous and sexually open couple who live with a pair of ghosts. It helps that the voice-acting for these is excellent, really drawing you in. They’re amusing, but unlike some ads that try to mimic the hilarity of the Old Spice ad series about The Man Your Man Could Smell Like, it actually tells you what the product is, which leads to…
Tell Me What You’re Selling
The Third Love ads tell me exactly what they’re selling (bras and panties) and why I might like them (because they’re comfortable and aren’t obvious under clothing). They even have a pitch about trying before you buy. If I’m a guy (that doesn’t enjoy women’s underwear) then I know this is something not for me, but maybe my girlfriend might like it, assuming I have one, because who doesn’t like comfortable clothing. You don’t have to know how uncomfortable some bras are or the problems of finding one that fits, though the ads do convey a bit of that. The ads operate on a principle that is universal. Comfortable = good. No further thought needed. If I’m a girl, then it tells me more. The ghost version mentions half-cup sizes. The vampire version extols the benefits of not being visible beneath clothing. This is like a sign from God for some women, so they know exactly what kind of struggles women face.
I have problems getting bras that fit. I might like this. I checked it out and sadly they didn’t have what I needed because I’m in the strange area where my chest is broader than what my cup-size would suggest (Yay big bones!) but they had a message that they’re working on improvements, so if I check back later, they might have something that fits.
So, if you’re working on advertising whatever it is that you sell and you’re having problems engaging your audience, maybe you can learn something from these ads like I did.