408 people were shown one of three versions of a shampoo advert. The control just had the words “Say bye-bye to your dandruff” with an image of a couple. The two metaphor versions both had “You may erase anything unwanted” with either an eraser (implicit) or the bottle of shampoo (explicit) rubbing out words on a blackboard.

Results showed greater purchase intentions for the product with either metaphorical ad.

Leverage our existing understanding of the world for new ideas or concepts. Complicated ideas are best understood through existing ones. What analogies can you draw that your customers can relate to?

Easy metaphors aren’t always best. Research has found that metaphors with a little complexity are fun and act as a mild problem to solve. Use with Curiosity and Humor.

Reserve this for known brands or products; for new or abstract technology, keep metaphor complexity low.

Metaphors come in different flavors:

Juxtapositions: two images next to one another;

‍Fusions: mixing two concepts into a single one; or

‍Replacements: switching one thing for another. 

Just make sure that you harness real world understanding to help ground your new idea.