What Makes an Ad or Design Good?

The X-Factor

The undeterminable. The unknown. The mysterious element at the root of disappearing socks. The X-Factor.

It is also the single-most confounding element in choosing an art director, graphic designer, website developer, or creative professional to work on your projects. The internal struggle, born of your own darkest doubts: How do you really know if they're "good"? Good question, tough answer.

The first hurdle to overcome is the term itself. The definition of "good" is relative to the person using it, based on their personal perspective. But that's another discussion entirely.

You see, advertising and design are slippery subjects when it comes to figuring out what "good" is. There have been national, million dollar campaigns that were incredibly creative but did absolutely nothing for the client. Then there have been small, weasely ads in the local newspaper that may have not been the most creative or inspirational, but moved product like gangbusters.

The point I'm trying to make is that "good" isn't based on the amount you spend on media placement. Media placement only determines who sees your message, when, and how often.

So what is "good" and how do you know if it is good?

To answer this question, you’ll first need to look at samples of work from the art director, copywriter, graphic designer, or other creative professional in question. Once you have their work in front of you, you’ll need to ask yourself, "Did the advertising meet the communication goals and objectives?" To know for sure you would need to know the "communication strategy" or "creative work plan" that guided the creation of the campaign. But usually, we don’t have access to that. It’s an internal document, shared between the client and its ad agency. So how can you figure out how well an ad hits the mark? Here are a few questions to keep in mind when judging what is "good".

Did it grab your attention?

With the average consumer being bombarded by thousands of messages on a daily basis, the ad must do something to attract the reader's/viewer's attention. In some cases, you have less than a second to do so.

Did it hold your interest?

Did the headline hold your interest long enough to even care about reading more?

Did it communicate its message quickly and directly without making you guess what was going on?

Or was there so much information on the page that it gave you a headache just looking at it?

Could you relate to the message?

Did the ad communicate its point in a way that you could understand or relate to?

Did the message create a desire for the product or service?

Each ad, on some level, should create a desire for the product by revealing appealing features or positive qualities about the product or service.

Was it memorable?

Did the ad affect you such a way that you actually remembered the advertisement and the product it was selling? Or did you only remember it because the monkey in the picture was wearing a coonskin hat?

Did it have a specific call to action?

Did the ad ask you to do something? The only time an ad should not include a call to action is... well, never. An ad must always contain some sort of instruction to the reader. It may be as simple as a website address or phone number tucked into a corner, but it needs to have something.

Hopefully the above information will be helpful to you in determining what is "good". But remember, just because you may not understand something doesn't mean it wasn't good. It may only mean you weren't the intended audience. A perfect example are those Teletubbies. Personally, I don't get it, and don't understand them. Matter of fact, they totally irritate me. But for some reason, kids LOVE them and the videos sell like hotcakes - which as much as I hate to admit, helps them fall into the "good" category.