In any marketing campaign, businesses aim to create advertisements that capture attention. Therefore, when discussing the imagery of a campaign, businesses cannot overlook the Key Visual - a crucial element for conveying a unique product and leaving a strong brand impression.

So, what is a Key Visual and how is it created? What are the key considerations to create an impactful Key Visual? M&M Communications will answer all these questions for you, so let's dive in and explore the world of Key Visuals!

What is a Key Visual? 

Key Visual is a term used for the main creative image that contains the core message to guide communication throughout product marketing campaigns. Using Key Visual helps businesses convey product information, attract attention, and create curiosity among customers, leading to interest and purchase actions.

A unique Key Visual is crucial as it meets aesthetic requirements and effectively communicates in advertising campaigns, while also enhancing brand recognition for businesses after each advertising campaign.

The role of Key Visual in Product Marketing

Statistics show that users typically only glance over an advertisement for a few seconds, so the Key Visual acts as the "ace card" to captivate viewers and contribute to business success in every campaign due to its prominent roles:

Increasing brand recognition

When a well-designed Key Visual advertisement image is attractive and professional, it easily captures the attention of customers from the first glance. Moreover, it can convey information in a creative and unique way, reflecting the "ever-changing, responsive" capabilities of businesses in today's trends. These factors will help businesses leave a certain impression in consumers' minds, enhance brand recognition, and easily access many target customers in the market.

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Revealing the unique characteristics of the brand

In a marketing campaign, owning a Key Visual that stands out will easily impress customers. A groundbreaking Key Visual, using eye-catching color schemes with the ability to convey unique messages, will be the key to customers remembering the image of the business. At the same time, a beautiful Key Visual will reflect the level of investment of the business, indirectly touching the emotions of customers and successfully helping the brand stand out in the market.

Turning Key Visual into a trend

In the era of booming social media platforms today, any business that can bring a "hot trend" Key Visual will create a huge turning point. The spreading power of social media platforms will help the business's image to be widely covered and increase the popularity of the brand.

Tips for Creating a Standout Key Visual

To create a visually appealing and deeply meaningful Key Visual (KV), the Marketing team always needs to invest a considerable amount of time and creativity. Besides understanding the nature of KV, businesses should know the following:

Identifying the Target Audience

The first step is to determine which target audience the business wants to reach in order to develop a Key Visual that resonates with them. Key Visual is like a mirror reflecting the needs and desires of customers, so images styled accordingly will successfully connect with and quickly leave an impression on them.

Bitis Hunter targets Gen Z customers - the generation of energetic youth. The Key Visuals of Bitis Hunter are always innovative, unique, and youthful. Along with the message "Go to return," Bitis' campaigns consistently achieve excellent results and are well-received by many.

Appealing to Emotions

Typically, things that impact emotions tend to be more memorable. A Key Visual is considered effective when it can convey a message and evoke emotions in customers. They might feel surprised, joyful, curious, nostalgic, or contemplative... All of these emotions foster empathy between the business and the customer. Consequently, customers are inclined to pay attention, engage with, and share the business's advertising Key Visuals.

Coca-Cola always emphasizes joy and full sharing in every advertising campaign.

Investing in Design

There are many factors to focus on to ensure the visual appeal of the design, such as color, consistency, layout, etc.

Firstly, regarding color, it plays a crucial role in Key Visuals as it can convey the content and meaning of the image. Prioritize using vibrant colors like red, yellow, orange, green, black, etc., as they have the ability to stick in memory and create a more prominent impression than dull colors. Therefore, when developing ideas for Key Visuals, this is something to keep in mind so that the image can "mark its territory" in the minds of consumers.

The Diana Cool Fresh campaign "Freeze Trouble - Free Yourself" has achieved brilliant success. Thanks to creative design, consistent visuals, appealing color schemes, and a message that resonates with women's insights, Diana has attracted a large audience and achieved significant sales in the market.

There's no denying the importance of words, but for Key Visuals, less text is often better. Consumers typically don't spend much time reading through content businesses want to convey. Therefore, to maintain customer attention longer, businesses should minimize lengthy textual content and prioritize impactful language that resonates strongly with their minds.

Equally important is consistency in conveying the image. In reality, a Key Visual that makes a deep impression but lacks brand identity linkage will be difficult for customers to remember. Conversely, Key Visuals that invest in design and maintain brand coherence create focal points that help customers recall the brand image more quickly.

Determining the golden timing to launch Key Visuals

Besides color and unique imagery, customers are also easily drawn to "hot" events as a natural reflex. It's wonderful if advertising materials can integrate with trends that consumers are currently interested in, helping them associate quickly with the brand and its key visual image.

Some standout Key Visual trends

If a business opts for Key Visuals to run its communication campaigns, here are 5 trend suggestions to design an eye-catching Key Visual:

Digital Get Delicate

In the digital age, the rapid development of technology significantly influences design styles, bringing about more refined and unique artistic elements. The Digital Get Delicate trend demonstrates that images designed using digital techniques lead to increased product quality, enhanced flexibility, and creative opportunities for Key Visuals.

Female Creator

Women are undeniably inspiring figures who resonate deeply with viewers. If a brand can cleverly integrate positive life stories involving women, the Key Visual message will attract customers more than ever before.

No Man Is Island

Since ancient times, environmental issues have consistently been the most concerning topic within communities. This is also considered a sensitive issue because businesses bear a significant responsibility for environmental protection. Understanding this, many businesses emphasize conveying messages that reflect natural elements and surrounding contexts.

Moreover, according to Adobe Stock's analysis through Adobe Digital Insights (ADI), the majority of search results focus on images balancing urban settings with natural landscapes. These include pictures of parks, gardens, rivers, and scenery... with only about 25% of urban images searched being entirely human-made.

Brand Storytelling

Appearing since 2017 and becoming a powerful trend in 2022, Storytelling has garnered a lot of positive feedback and is the most widely accepted trend to date. Storytelling bridges the gap to customers through engaging narratives, meaningful anecdotes, or experiences surrounding life. Many businesses cleverly integrate calls to action into their stories, contributing to campaigns that achieve optimal profitability.

3D Design

One of the intriguing design ideas that brands cannot overlook is 3D design. 3D images and advertisements often feature prominently in marketing campaigns across industries such as automotive, film, real estate, enhancing customer experience and providing a fresh feel.

Conclusion

Key Visual is the crucial key determining the success of a brand campaign. Therefore, understanding the essence of Key Visual and how to effectively achieve it will greatly benefit marketers and businesses in their brand promotion strategies.