Twisti-monial ads by big brands!

Hello, fellow creative souls!

Have you heard these before?

“9/10 dentists recommend [xyz] toothpaste brand”,
“[xyz] nutritional drink is the secret of my energy! ”,
“My grandmother likes [xyz] dentures, your grandmother will too!”

Sounds cliche? Fair enough. All of these are one-line examples of testimonials. But guess what— they work. When done well, like a charm.

BUT DO YOU THINK TESTIMONIAL ADS WORK?

Testimonials have been around in advertising for as long as advertising as a concept has existed—We’re not joking, the earliest recorded testimonials date back to the 17th century. Which is why, sometimes, it can be boring. Or come across as inauthentic.

What if you twisted it, though? That’s exactly what Volvo did in the ad below. They actually got people who drove Volvos to come sell their cars and made an ad out of it. “But, Volvo has a huge market. Why these specific people?” - it’s because the people in question survived horrific crashes in Volvos and lived to tell their stories. And what has Volvo always been famous for? Ans: Safety

Testimonials work for a very simple reason. They help build trust and credibility. They usually are of three kinds:

1. Customer Testimonials: The reviews that come directly from the customers of a brand. B2B Marketing still thrives on this. It continues to be the easiest way to build trust. Even if not advertised, User Generated Content and Word of Mouth marketing are forms of customer testimonials.

2. Subject Matter Testimonials: The brands/products/services that are acknowledged and validated by experts in the field - aka the reason 9/10 dentists recommend you a toothbrush.

3. Celebrity Testimonials: The cornerstone of Brand Ambassadorship and perhaps why testimonials lose a little bit of credibility - the reason this works is because of the perceived intimacy, but there’s no way I’m believing that an actor whose net worth has as many zeroes as my phone number is using the same soap as I do.

To craft a great testimonial, you first need to make sure the problem is relevant and widespread. Next, ensure that the information being divulged is authentic— anything else defeats the purpose. Lastly, the persona that is divulging this information has to be relevant as well.

The last point is what makes the Volvo ad stick within their category. Car advertising has always been feature and differentiator focused - every manufacturer always seeks to highlight what makes them different from other cars in a similar space. A lot of attention is poured into the style, the ‘sleekness’, the speed, and the mileage.

Enter Volvo, with their position on being the safest car to drive— “We may not have heated seats, but we sure can save your life” is a brilliant insight to own. Who better to advertise this than people who are living (no pun intended) proof?

However, this ad comes with a catch too. For the insight that they based this on, the storytelling could have used a little more edge.

The straightforwardness of it all does the job, but it also does play out like a public service announcement. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but a testimonial combined with powerful storytelling can simply make an idea stick like no other.

P.S: For all the puns that we didn’t intend, one of the people featured in the ad is named Caitlin Dent. Dent. In an ad about car accidents. You can’t make this up. Or did they?

Please share this with a couple of your friends and become a testimonial.

Figment is written by two advertising nerds. Abbhinav Kastura and Guru Nicketan. No AI is used in any of our content.

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