The Real Beauty Of Ugly Marketing

Ugly marketing isn’t actually ugly.

As I look at brands and see their Meta ads library and socials, I notice that all of their marketing and imagery is very high quality.

They use professional photographers, videographers, actors, sets, and put their clothing in the best light possible.

This is very pretty and definitely makes their brand look super premium which is good because it is a premium product.

It’s a lot of well made images and videos of people living life with the product.

It looks like It was shot by a professional team and it’s often in a location that they imagine the customer would want to go into.

In the case of an outdoor apparel brand it’s rivers, mountains, trails, streams, etc.

In social media, this stuff performs really well.

But in ads, it usually underperforms compared to  the ugly ads.

So what are “ugly” ads?

They’re usually shot by a customer of the product, talking about how they use it in their lives, showing closeups of the product, describing its quality, etc.

And it’s all shot by a customer or influencer with their iphone.

This marketing doesn’t look pretty, but it sells.

It builds a ton of trust and social proof with the viewer.

When a customer sees an ad and it’s shot in beautiful lighting with a great set design, sure they will be interested because it looks great and appeals to them.

But they don’t have any proof it’s as good as the brand says it is.

Be authentic and get ugly!