The best marketing communications and ads stop you in your tracks. They get shared, talked about, repeated. The very best have a timeless interest.

This got us to thinking- is there a thread? We think so. We’ve started calling it the art of engagement. The act and skill of being engaging. And we’ve come up with a framework we think helps to increase it.

Here are BURN’s six top tips for creating ads with impact and some examples we love:

Innovate

Be unconventional, original. Ensure you’re exciting, refreshing and new. Dare to be different. Embrace change. Disrupt, be abrupt. Be better than your predecessors. Be Wow! Not gosh. Live on the edge.

Metro Dumb Ways to die

Compel

Be the object of desire that they didn’t know they needed yet. Be the blindingly amazingly simple answer to the problem. Tick all the boxes. Give them what they need to get hooked. Supply the way to act upon their compulsion. Now.

Dollar Shave Club video

Tailor

Be relevant and personalised. Recognise your relationships and act upon them individually. Listen and understand needs, behaviour and objections and handle them. Offer personal recommendations and personalised service.

Ikea AR Brochure

Create

Be arresting and powerful. Use creativity and concepts to amplify propositions and messages. Stand-out and be outstanding. Be delightful, interesting, playful and thought-provoking. Be memorable. Last longer than the moment.

Guinness white horses

Reward

Be solution-oriented. Be emotionally and rationally beneficial. Change peoples’ moments, days and lives. Add value. Make life more rewarding. Give a better experience. Or just make things easier. It doesn’t have to be holidays, cars and cash. It definitely isn’t collecting points.

Westjet Xmas

Share

Be self-enhancing, and self-defining. Be cool. Be THE thing. Be talked about. Have fans. Give them cool, valuable stuff. Have them market on your behalf. Give them the tools and reasons to do it. Cultivate your community.

Innocent travel chaos