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Ad Secrets Revealed: Vinovest
Selling The Dream, Appealing to Authority, Interrupting Patterns
Sean Bacastow
February 28, 2024
Your Brain on Ads is sponsored by PureFunnel. We help you grow your startup by writing, designing, and managing your Meta ads.
Welcome to another installment of Your Brain on Ads! We dissect winning ads to help you become a smarter social advertiser.
This week, we’re focusing on an ad from Vinovest.
What Is Vinovest?
Vinovest allows anyone to invest in wine and whiskey. You take a quiz, they recommend bottles for your portfolio, and then purchase and store them on your behalf.
Here’s what I noticed when giving their ad a closer look.
What Makes This Ad Effective?
🤑 It Sells You The Dream
The ad suggests that by investing in wine, you’re investing alongside royalty and “the 1%.” Aspirational advertising works. It’s why fashion brands sell you your dream lifestyle instead of the actual product. Think about cologne commercials. Do they say “a scent made with 13 different floral varieties?” No! They show Johnny Depp playing guitar in the desert with wolves (as one does).
Associating a product with an authority figure or expert makes it more likely you’ll buy. This is why so many ads include celebrities and doctors. It doesn’t get more authoritative than The Queen.
A celebrity endorsement increases a company's sales by 4% on average, relative to its competitors, while increasing a company's stock value by 0.25%, according to research by Harvard Business School professor Anita Elberse and Barclays Capital analyst Jeroen Verleun.
🫅 It Interrupts Your Scrolling Pattern
The two images of The Queen are eye-catching. They’re different than what you’ll typically see on your feed. The effectiveness of pattern interruption lies in its ability to disrupt automatic, unconscious processes, allowing new ideas and behaviors to be introduced. This is achieved by breaking a habitual sequence before it completes, leaving the mind open to new possibilities.
📱 It Displays The Product
The app screen includes wine bottles and an account balance. This captures the attention of people who like wine (many people) and money (everyone). It also shows someone exactly what to expect if they sign up for the product, increasing the likelihood they’ll take action.
🤫 It Handles Objections
The features listed – low minimums, expert advice, and no storage required are more than just informative. They answer key questions that Vinovest customers ask. They preempt any fear that someone might have when thinking about signing up.
How The Ad Could Be Improved
Highlighting Expected Returns
The ad mentions that investing in wine offers diversification, but that’s about it. Other Vinovest ads mention that investing in wine has produced 10.6% annual returns over the past 30 years, with less volatility than the stock market. I would include this in every ad! It’s a huge selling point.
The best advertisers do that. They learn their appealing claims by tests—by comparing results from various headlines. Gradually they accumulate a list of claims important enough to use. All those claims appear in every ad thereafter.
The advertisements seem monotonous to the men who read them all. A complete story is always the same. But one must consider that the average reader is only once a reader, probably. And what you fail to tell him in that ad is something he may never know.
Applying These Learnings To Your Ads 💰
1. Use authority figures to enhance customers’ trust and respect for your product. Consider working with an influencer, or associating your product with an authority figure like Vinovest did.
2. Make your ads aspirational. Let someone imagine who they might become after purchasing your product.
3. Use features to handle objections. Think about common questions customers ask. Reduce their hesitation and fear.
4. Use images that pattern interrupt and stop the scroll.
5. Display your product, when possible, to immediately help people understand what you’re selling.
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading!
Sean
If you’d like help with your advertising, email me at [email protected] or message me on LinkedIn. I run a marketing agency called PureFunnel that helps tech companies grow with Facebook and Instagram ads.