Advertising Commercial Examples: 29 Ads Built on One Picture

CAAT Pension Plan's French-language spot asks whether DBplus suits the viewer. It answers by setting DBplus next to a self-managed retirement savings plan, one icon at a time.

What works here:

• A safe sits next to a jumpy investment graph. Security versus risk, with no chart to read.
• Income gets its own picture: a mailbox that keeps getting deliveries, for lifelong, inflation-protected payments. The savings plan side gets an hourglass running down.
• Costs are drawn too. Traffic cones stand for the savings plan's extra costs, while DBplus shows only core contributions, managed by experts.

The move: Pick one object for your product and one for the old way. If a viewer with the sound off can't tell which is better, swap the objects.

Atlas Copco Türkiye's animation sells making your own oxygen and nitrogen instead of buying it in. The whole argument rides on ice.

What works here:

• It starts in the olden days, when people bought their ice. Then the home freezer arrives. Nobody needs the gas business explained after that.
• Six numbered advantages follow in clean line art: the exact purity you need, no wasted gas, simpler ordering and predictable costs.
• Safety and the planet close it. No pressurized bottles or cryogenic liquids to handle, and fewer delivery trucks on the road.

The move: Find an everyday switch your buyer already made, like ice to freezer, and open on it. If your product still needs explaining after the analogy, change the analogy.

HP Australia's Instant Ink spot changes what the viewer pays for: pages printed, not cartridges bought.

What works here:

• The old pain comes first: running out of ink, and paying a lot for cartridges.
• Then the new deal, with the ad's own figures on screen: “Save up to 50%,” and plans from $1.99 a month.
• The printer orders ink itself when it runs low, under a “Never run out” animation. Plans change or cancel from a phone, and unused pages roll over.

The move: If your subscription replaces a purchase, put the two bills side by side. If the viewer can't name the new unit you charge for, redraw it.

Back Market dresses its ad up as a big phone launch for a mystery brand called “R.” Then “R” turns out to stand for “Refurbished.”

What works here:

• It borrows a format the viewer already knows. The fanfare of a new phone announcement builds intrigue before the brand shows its hand.
• The reveal plays out on billboards. CGI and real city shots turn the “R” slogans into “Refurbished” messages across famous skylines.
• The comparison ends in numbers on screen: 91.3% less raw materials and 89% less e-waste, by Back Market's own figures.

The move: Borrow the format of the thing you replace, then flip it. If the reveal works without the voiceover, keep it.

360Learning's ad asks a question every HR lead has: how fast are your new joiners ramping up? It sells onboarding as the answer to early turnover.

What works here:

• Data comes first. Graphs of early employee turnover set up the business problem before the product appears.
• Then two kinds of feedback, side by side. Bad new-hire experiences sit against rave reviews, and the gap between them is the pitch.
• The promise goes past day one: collaborative learning, upskilling, and a company culture new joiners feel part of.

The move: Show what your buyer's people say before and after. If the two quotes could swap places, they aren't different enough.

Berger-Levrault's InfoSILEM Academic sells course scheduling software to universities. The ad moves from scheduling bottlenecks to one timetable everyone can work on.

What works here:

• A fluctuating clock stands for the old way: a schedule stuck with a few people and always behind.
• Then responsibilities spread out. Administrators and faculty all reach and add to the same course schedule.
• One image proves the payoff: seats expand to meet student demand, which the ad calls “demand-based section planning.”

The move: Show one number in your buyer's world growing to fit demand. If it only grows in the voiceover, put it on screen.

This is an advocacy ad, not a product ad. Human Rights Watch sets Japan next to decades of LGBT rights milestones abroad, then asks for a law before the Tokyo Olympics.

What works here:

• The comparison is a timeline. Milestones from the first same-sex TV kiss to legal adoptions run in 2D motion graphics, so Japan's next step looks overdue.
• The Olympics give it a deadline. A rainbow-colored Olympic torch ties the cause to a moment the world is watching.
• It ends on one action: “SIGN NOW.”

The move: If most of your buyer's peers already moved to your category, show that timeline and put your buyer at the end of it. Then ask for one action.

Direct Cellars sells a monthly wine subscription. The ad sets the few bottles on a store shelf against a guided tour of wines from around the world.

What works here:

• The old way is boredom with a limited shelf. The new way is a rotating globe ringed with flavor profiles and country maps.
• The main offer is plain: hand-selected wines delivered every month, with online reordering.
• Then a second offer: members earn referral fees for sharing the club, which turns customers into a sales channel.

The move: If your product has two offers, show the main one first. If viewers mix up the two, cut the second into its own ad.

Avast's ad sells one cloud console for small and mid-sized business security. It goes from a rising tide of attacks to one shield.

What works here:

• Threats come first. Cyberattacks on small and mid-sized businesses climb across clean isometric animation.
• Then the center: separate security tools fold into one cloud dashboard. The ad calls it a “single pane of glass,” and the UI animation shows it.
• Reach is the last beat, from remote workers to data centers, all managed from the same place.

The move: If “all-in-one” is your claim, animate the separate tools folding into your screen. If they just appear together, the viewer won't feel the merge.

1Password's ad sells fit, not passwords. The title says it: pair 1Password with your existing infrastructure.

What works here:

• Concentric circles expand from 1Password out to identity providers, SIEM tools and multi-factor authentication. Fit becomes a picture.
• Automation is shown, not claimed: users and groups added and removed automatically, with sign-in attempts and item usage sent to tools like Splunk.
• Developers get a scene too: SSH keys and API tokens inside CI/CD tools and IDEs, plus SDKs for custom integrations.

The move: Draw your product as the center ring and name real tools in the next ring. If a buyer can't spot one tool they already run, add it.

Strictly, this is CyberArk University's end-user training film for Privileged Access Manager, not an ad. It earns its place because its opening plays like one.

What works here:

• It starts with a burden everyone knows: too many passwords. Then the stakes rise, with privileged users shown as prime targets for attackers.
• CyberArk sits in the middle as the hub, with single sign-on connecting users to different IT systems.
• It goes past passwords, to multi-factor authentication and access monitoring.

The move: Open on the chore your buyer does daily, then show what that chore exposes. If the stakes haven't risen by the second scene, shorten the chore.

PharMerica's 2D animation sells pharmacy services for senior living. It turns a pile of loose pills into one organized pack.

What works here:

• Loose pills come together into personalized Dispill packs. One motion explains the product.
• The pharmacy sits at the center of a web: primary doctors, specialists, insurance billing including Medicare Part D, pre-authorizations and refills.
• People stay in reach: geriatric pharmacists by phone 24/7, and the MyPharMerica online portal for trusted family members.

The move: If you coordinate many parties, draw them around your product and send one task through the web. If nothing moves, it reads as an org chart.

Audaces Idea is fashion design software. The Italian-language ad shows sketches, technical sheets and costs coming from one place.

What works here:

• Designers sketch garments over body templates, and the technical sheet builds from the sketch, seams and pattern placement included.
• Cost estimates appear automatically for each variant, as the YouTube title promises: “precosti in automatico.”
• The software sits between design, pattern making and production, so every team works from the same files and less work gets redone.

The move: Show the handoff your product removes between two teams your buyer manages. If both teams aren't on screen, the hub claim stays abstract.

Arctic Wolf's Managed Risk ad turns a flood of security alerts into a short list of what to fix first.

What works here:

• It opens on data rushing across a chaotic circuit board, colored red and orange. That's the overload.
• The Concierge Security Team sits in the middle, ranking risks from software defects and misconfigurations to unsafe practices.
• Coverage spreads across networks, endpoints and cloud, then closes into one shield.

The move: If people are part of your product, put them at the center of the diagram. If viewers can't tell who does the work, show the team by name.

State Street's ad speaks to one buyer, asset managers. Minimal icons and a particle globe carry its data services and global infrastructure.

What works here:

• The globe is the center: a particle sphere stands for global reach without a map full of labels.
• Proof moves to a laptop. Dashboards on screen show the data tools behind the promise.
• It ends by sending viewers to State Street to learn more.

The move: Name your buyer's job in your ad's title, the way “Asset Manager” does. If the title could fit any buyer, rename it.

Podium sells Webchat to local businesses. The ad follows a browser becoming a buyer, from a chat button to a text thread.

What works here:

• The handoff is the picture: a chat button on a business's page becomes an SMS conversation on the customer's phone.
• Contact details get captured, so the business can follow up after the visitor leaves.
• Live-action scenes mix with 2D interface animation, and routing and reporting show who answered and what happened next.

The move: Show the moment your product moves a conversation to where your buyer's customers already are. If that moment needs a voiceover, simplify the screens.

Digicel's ad sells Smart WiFi for the home. It makes the signal visible.

What works here:

• Glowing paths show WiFi moving room to room, learning how the household uses it and routing around obstacles.
• The frustrations are drawn plainly: walls blocking the signal and too many devices at once.
• The payoff is a home where everyone streams, games and works at the same time, in 3D isometric rooms.

The move: Give your invisible product a color and a path. If viewers can't point to it on screen, they won't believe it.

Bruker sells ESR instruments to food manufacturers. The ad shows chefs and scientists working together, then zooms in on oil going stale.

What works here:

• The kitchen is the setting. Culinary teams and scientists develop recipes side by side, backed by pilot-scale processing.
• Then the inside view. Electron spin resonance measures the free radicals formed as edible oil oxidizes, a key sign of shelf life.
• The business case follows: problem-solving in days instead of months, so new recipes reach shelves sooner.

The move: Zoom in to the level where your product works, then zoom back out to the business result. If you skip the zoom out, only engineers will care.

Carle Health's ad is built on one question: “What if?” It answers with the first 7 Tesla MRI approved for patient use in Illinois.

What works here:

• The film shows the scanner being installed, a rare backstage look at a hospital's most powerful machine.
• The claim is specific: twice the resolution of typical MRIs, aimed at earlier diagnosis for conditions like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
• A partnership with the University of Illinois widens it from one machine to a research program.

The move: If you have one hard spec, show the work behind it: the install, the lab, the team. If the spec could be anyone's, add where it happens.

Avantor sells sample storage to research teams. The ad follows samples from the moment they arrive to temperature-controlled storage.

What works here:

• Each sample is called an “invaluable, irreplaceable research asset,” and treated like one at every step.
• Animated timelines show real-time tracking in a 21 CFR Part 11 compliant system, from receipt to packaging and storage.
• The track record closes it: “100+ Million Assets over 40 Years” and “Never Failed to Return One.”

The move: Follow one unit of your buyer's work through your process, then end on your track record. If the record has no number, find one.

Ateme's ad asks broadcasters one question: is your Cloud DVR service ready for the future? Then it opens up the storage behind the answer.

What works here:

• Content moves into tiered storage across public or private clouds, scaling to “10s of petabytes of storage every day.”
• Viewers record and replay on any device and network, from fiber to 5G.
• Money and the planet close it: targeted ads, storage upsells, and a leaf for the carbon saved by sharing resources.

The move: If your buyer's worry is scale, show the system growing on screen. If it only grows in the script, the worry stays.

Milliken's ad sells modular carpet tiles to designers of commercial interiors. Bright morphing patterns open it, then the parts under the pattern take over.

What works here:

• Customization comes with a number: PrintWorks samples made locally within four days.
• Then the build: 3-week delivery from Sydney, an integrated cushion for acoustics and comfort, and single tiles that lift out for easy replacement.
• Certifications close it: PVC-Free, Declare Red List Free and Cradle to Cradle Silver.

The move: Show the layer your buyer can't see after install, like the cushion under the tile. If it's only in the spec sheet, it isn't in the ad.

Ingersoll Rand's film launches its new RF and RTE 45 and 55 kW air compressors under the line “The best things come in small packages.” Like many 3D product ad videos, it spends its time inside the machine.

What works here:

• The camera goes inside the compressor element. The oil filter, thermostatic valve and check valve are built in, which means fewer pipes, less risk of leaks and lower maintenance costs.
• Numbers carry the claims, by the brand's own figures: up to 10% more flow, 12% less energy consumption, and up to 75% energy savings with heat recovery.
• It ends on confidence: a 12-year warranty on compressor blocks with Ingersoll Rand Care.

The move: Show the parts you removed, not just the ones you added. If “fewer parts” is your claim, let the viewer see what's gone.

Schneider Electric's 3D ad introduces AvatarON wall switches and sockets. It sells style first, then the safety you can't see once they're on the wall.

What works here:

• Style leads: a frameless design, modular parts and three color options.
• Then the hidden part: a double pole design for switched sockets that meets critical safety standards, in combinations for 13 amps up to 250 volts.
• One modern feature rounds it off: fast charging through 21-watt USB A and C ports.

The move: Lead with what the buyer sees, then cut inside for the one thing they never will. If the inside shot is missing, safety is just a word.

The film still carries the company's earlier name: “Meet DefinedCrowd, your partner for smarter AI.” It sells training data for AI models.

What works here:

• The problem is unstructured data. The platform turns it into high-quality training data that teams can build models on.
• The work is shown, not described: project setup, progress tracking and global reach.
• Speed and accuracy guarantees close it, with a push to see case studies and demos.

The move: Show the step between raw input and finished output, where your product does its work. If you jump straight from input to output, the product disappears.

Intuit Credit Karma gives its ad to one person, Justin, and one arc: a credit comeback.

What works here:

• A first name in the title makes it a person, not a feature list.
• The product shows up as the help along the way: monitoring credit scores and reports, plus personalized insights.
• At 0:46, it's the shortest ad on this page, and it still has room for the turn.

The move: Put a customer's first name in your ad's title. If the title only names the feature, nobody is starring.

AppFolio's ad was made for property managers during COVID-19. It follows managers, owners and residents as their work goes remote.

What works here:

• Characters carry it. Property managers send bulk text messages and post policy updates to online portals.
• Residents pay rent online and submit maintenance requests with photos, so nobody has to meet in person.
• Speech bubbles and on-screen text break each step into one action at a time.

The move: Give each person who uses your product one scene and one task. If two of them share a scene, the viewer loses track of who benefits.

This is an employer ad. MSD Careers sells jobs in clinical research by showing the people who do the work and the patients it reaches.

What works here:

• 2D characters follow research from discovery to global patient access, with data charts and maps along the way.
• One symbol sums up the job: a “science people” heart, for work that needs both analysis and people skills.
• Patients come first in every scene, which is the culture the ad is hiring for.

The move: If you're hiring, show the person doing the job and the person it helps. If a candidate can't picture their own day, add it.

Codility's ad, “The Future of Campus Recruitment for Engineering,” moves campus hiring online with CodeChallenge.

What works here:

• The candidate stars first: coding problems, instant feedback and a live leaderboard.
• Then the recruiter: a dashboard of candidate results and reports, for spotting top performers fast.
• Remote hiring is the frame. Talent from anywhere, judged on merit.

The move: If two people use your product, give each one a starring scene, the buyer second. If the buyer never appears, the ad only recruits users.