Speaker 1: Here are a few scroll stopping ad formats that we here at Motion came across recently that you might want to add to your swipe file.
A montage of three short video clips. Left: A person chopping green fruit at an outdoor stand. Middle: A man with a wig and beard says "WHAT DO YOU WANT?". Right: A woman unboxes a black bag with the on-screen text "Let's unbox the Ricco bag together".]
> [VISUAL: The montage changes to three different clips. Left: A man gets splashed with water in front of a taco truck. Middle: A woman with red lipstick looks concerned. Right: A woman in a pink sweater holds up a black skirt.]
> [VISUAL: Text on screen: "SCROLL STOPPING AD FORMATS".]
> [VISUAL: The speaker reappears, smiling and talking. A graphic with three purple cards and the word "Motion" appears on screen.
Speaker 1: Well, 'cause they're super crazy and kind of totally effective.
A clip of a woman with red hair and a white streak, wearing a black blazer, writing in a notepad with a skeptical expression.]
> [VISUAL: The speaker reappears. The words "super crazy" appear on the left, and "totally effective" appear on the right.
Speaker 1: Let's take a look at these ads and then break them down a bit to better understand why they work so well.
A montage of three short video clips. Left: A man gets splashed with water in front of a taco truck. Middle: A woman with red lipstick says "I want you to stop ordering". Right: A woman unboxes a black bag.]
> [VISUAL: Text on a white grid background: "break them down a".]
> [VISUAL: The speaker reappears, pointing to his laptop.
Speaker 1: Ad format number one, shocking video stitches and transitions.
Text on a dark blue background: "Ad format #1 shocking video stitches & transitions".]
> [VISUAL: A split-screen appears. On the right, the speaker is watching the video on the left and reacting. On the left is a TikTok video. The video starts with a man at an outdoor stand chopping a green coconut with a large knife. The on-screen text at the top says "coconut water trend shay". The video abruptly cuts to a woman in a white t-shirt standing in front of a taco truck. A large splash of water hits her from above, drenching her and the plate of tacos she's holding. She starts laughing uncontrollably.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay. So if you're not familiar with this trend, you've got to go check out some of the pin posts on Central Houston Nissan's Tik Tok.
Screenshot of the Central Houston Nissan TikTok profile (@centralhoustonnissan). It shows 118.7K followers and 7.5M likes. Several videos are pinned, with view counts in the millions.
Speaker 1: This is what they look like. And they've just been all over this trend. And while they're technically organic posts, they kind of serve as this brand awareness ad with many of them actually going super duper viral.
Three vertical TikTok videos from the Central Houston Nissan account are shown side-by-side. They all feature employees falling or being pushed in various scenarios, transitioning to them dancing or presenting cars.]
> [VISUAL: An animation of a phone shows a TikTok video of a donkey kicking a man, who then falls. The view count is 10.6M and the like count is 110.1K. The video on the phone changes to a man falling on the floor of a car dealership. The view count is 17.1M and the like count is 2.1M.
Speaker 1: And here's why. So, first up, you have some serious attention grabbing pattern interrupts where an unexpected piece of content creates shock and then curiosity.
An animated eye appears on a white grid background. Text appears next to it: "serious attention grabbing pattern interrupts".
Speaker 1: Emotional arousal theory is a term basically that suggests that when a stimulated emotion like humor or surprise occurs, we actually enhance memory retention and make ads a whole lot more memorable.
Screenshot of a webpage for an article titled "Emotional Arousal Theory" by Dolf Zillmann. The abstract begins: "Arousal is commonly construed as the experience of restlessness, excitation, and agitation..."]
> [VISUAL: An animated brain appears on a white grid background. Text appears below it: "we actually enhance memory retention".
Speaker 1: And while I don't think this trend is here to stay for very long, when you lower cognitive resistance and you evoke astonishment, you're definitely going to have a more scroll stopping ad. We are humans after all.
The speaker is talking. The words "lower cognitive resistance" appear on the left, and "evoke astonishment" appear on the right.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's take a look at this next scroll stopping ad format.
Text on a dark blue background: "Ad format #2".]
> [VISUAL: A split-screen appears. On the right, the speaker is watching the video on the left and reacting. On the left is an ad that is a parody of a scene from the movie "The Notebook". A man and a woman are arguing in a park.
Speaker 1: What do you want? I want you to stop ordering so many True Classic tees. These are the only t-shirts that fit me tight in the arms and chest and are loose in the front. No matter how many you get, it's never enough. I want all of them, forever, every day. Can you do something for me? Can you picture me not wearing this t-shirt? You'd look terrible. Then I'm going to have to wear them every day, but I want to do that because I want you.
Speaker 1: Okay, if you're not familiar with this reference, it's a nod to the popular romance movie, The Notebook. This is a parody of a scene from that movie, which has become pretty like a popular meme in the last few years.
A clip from the movie "The Notebook" plays. Ryan Gosling's character, Noah, yells, "What do you want?"
Speaker 1: What do you want?
The clip continues with Noah yelling, "What do you want?"
Speaker 1: And psychologically speaking, this is definitely a scroll stopping ad format because referencing memes and movies like this, it taps into persuasion through distinctiveness, memorability, humor, and cultural reliability.
An animation of a phone shows the parody ad. As the speaker mentions each term, it appears on screen: "distinctiveness", "memorability", "humour", "cultural reliability".
Speaker 1: If we take that a step further, there's actually a term called peripheral route to persuasion, which is just a fancy way of saying when an audience isn't motivated to think deeply about an ad, they're more influenced by superficial cues like humor and familiarity.
A screenshot of a definition from Study.com: "The peripheral route to persuasion occurs when a person is persuaded by something other than the argument that's central to the merits of the product or idea being put forth..."
Speaker 1: And for most people who are just passively scrolling their social feeds, it's perfect.
A close-up shot of a person's hand scrolling through a social media feed on a smartphone.
Speaker 1: And while not every single person who comes across this ad in the wild will get this reference, True Classic is banking on positive emotional responses from those who do.
A screenshot of the True Classic ad on Instagram. The caption is "What do you want?". The comments section shows positive reactions like "This is gold. Will buy shirts for husband now" and "The wig 😂".
Speaker 1: I love it. Let's go on to our last ad format.
Text on a dark blue background: "Ad format #3".]
> [VISUAL: A split-screen appears. On the right, the speaker is watching the video on the left and reacting with laughter. On the left is a fast-paced ad for a black handbag. It features several different women who look like celebrities (Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, etc.) unboxing and modeling the bag. On-screen text captions appear throughout.
Speaker 1: Let's unbox the Ricco bag together. Comes in small and medium size. Guys, look at the studded bottom. The logo embossed strap. Are you kidding? This pebble textured leather is so fire. It even comes with two different lengths of adjustable straps. Back in stock on Wednesday, May 22.
Speaker 1: Okay, shout out to our friend Dara Denney flagged this Alexander Wang ad for us.
A circular profile picture of a woman with red hair, Dara Denney, appears on screen with her name.
Speaker 1: And the first question that pops up for most people after looking at this crazy scroll stopping ad format is, is this even legal?
On-screen text appears: "is this even legal?".
Speaker 1: Well, according to a lawyer who was interviewed by NBC News in this article, there's certainly a case to be made against Alexander Wang for illegally using a celebrity's likeness.
Screenshot of an NBC News article. The headline is "Alexander Wang sparks controversy with ad using Taylor Swift and Beyoncé look-alikes". The sub-headline reads: "An ad for a luxury bag using celebrity look-alikes raised questions about using celebrity likenesses to sell products."
Speaker 1: But there's a lot of gray area here, but especially because this account was liking comments that acknowledged the lookalikes, I don't know. Regardless, the post is still up for now.
An animation of a phone shows the Alexander Wang ad playing on a loop.
Speaker 1: But what's more interesting to me is understanding why is it that celebrity endorsements work so damn well in advertising.
A clip from a Squarespace commercial featuring Zendaya sitting at a seashell stand on a beach. The text "so damn well in advertising" appears on screen.
Speaker 1: Most of us are aware of concepts like social proof and the halo effect that build connection and trust between a well-liked public figure and their fans.
The speaker is talking. The words "Social proof" and "The halo effect" appear on screen.]
> [VISUAL: A screenshot of a news article with the headline "Kylie Jenner is world's youngest billionaire: Forbes". The image transitions to show her Kylie Cosmetics products.
Speaker 1: But I found that it's even more effective when a brand is able to ink a long-term deal for repeated celebrity endorsements over a long period of time. That's because it gives more time for a strong conditioned association to occur. Off the top of my head, I'm thinking, especially where a celebrity arouses a call to identity where the audience is really aspiring to be that. A good example is HexClad and Chef Gordon Ramsey, where you have amateur cooks who want to cook like Chef Gordon Ramsey, so they got to buy HexClad.
The HexClad logo appears, followed by a black and white photo of Gordon Ramsay.]
> [VISUAL: A clip from a cooking show where Gordon Ramsay yells and throws a pan.
Speaker 1: All right, that's all I've got for you. Three crazy scroll stopping ad formats that we here at Motion think make for some excellent source material inspiration. And if you're new to Motion, you can start implementing crazy ideas, maybe like these ones, into your ad campaigns to capture more attention, drive higher engagement, and boost your overall conversions.
A screenshot of the Motion website homepage. The headline is "Ship more winning ads". A purple text overlay appears at the bottom: "try motion for free! link in description".
