Welcome to the first issue of 2026. Very excited for everything this year will hold, and I hope you are too. Let's kick things off with another three ad creatives.
If you're new here, every week I break down a couple of ads that I've found, and I expose the creative strategy behind them. This week, we're going to be learning
The best way to make your AI voiceovers sound real
Why ads in 2026 are going to be more aesthetic
Why your creative strategist and editor should work together
The Foldie
The Foldie is a brand that we've been working with for a while now, and as of late I've been very proud of some of the ads we've been making.
I think this is a great example of that: UGC doesn't need to follow the same formats you're used to. It can be a product showcase with many clips, put together with a strong hook and an organic-sounding voice-over.
I think voiceovers are becoming a key way that a lot of brands are driving narrative with their ads, and with this, there become three core ways to generate a voiceover:
The first one is to use a UGC creator.
The second one is a professional voice-over.
The third is, of course, using AI tools like ElevenLabs.
I'm a big fan of using AI voiceovers; however, one of my biggest challenges is that many of them sound almost too professional for a UGC mashup setting. Recently, I've been using Cloud or ChatGPT to write a prompt, then generate a completely artificial voice in ElevenLabs. The goal is to have AI write a prompt for a natural-sounding UGC voiceover that captures the imperfections of a UGC voiceover, such as room echo and inconsistent speaking cadence. All the things that you'd expect from an average person speaking into a microphone.
I think this is the secret hack that almost no one is using right now: it creates voice-overs that are indistinguishable from the real thing.
For this video, we did use a real creator; however, if you did want to test a different script, then you could very easily generate a voice-over using the method above.
If you happen to be a brand that's spending over 70,000 a month on ad creative and you're looking for a new agency to help generate creative diversity in your ad account, then apply to work with us here.
Well Verti
I wanted to showcase an ad one of my creative strategists saved this week because I think it's a strong example of the direction some ads are heading in 2026. I think we're reaching a point where ads need to either look like ads or need to look incredibly organic. The days of traditional testimonial UGC are gone, and we need to lean more into one side or the other.
I'm not saying your ads need to look like TV commercials. They still need to feel like videos that belong on the platform, but I think you can create them to look more aesthetically pleasing and tell a story.
Like in the example, this ad basically wouldn't exist without a good editor. They've pieced it together with the right footage and effects to create an almost scrapbook-style ad. I think that is very aesthetic and aligns with what we're seeing a lot on Instagram Reels currently. I have a feeling that this ad would have performed incredibly well for them.
TLDR:
Ads will either look more highly produced or more organic in 2026
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Nood
The next ad is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from the previous example. When I said ads would either look more like ads or more like organic content, this ad clearly falls on the organic side.
The style, captions, and creator make this ad feel like something you see on your TikTok or Instagram Reels feed. For that reason, this likely performed extremely well for the team at Nood. Also, because this ad is clearly aimed at a Gen Z audience and the content they consume, you're not only creating something that looks organic but also something very similar to what the customer sees daily.
Making an ad like this often comes down to a strong creative strategist and a strong editor who can work together to create something that looks real and organic. I think, as we move into 2026, creative strategists should work closely with the post-production team to ensure their vision comes to life in the final piece.
TLDR:
Organic ads come from great creative strategy and great editing
That's all for this week's Nice Ads. I appreciate you giving this one a read. As always, if you think a friend or colleague might enjoy reading this, be sure to forward it to them.
I just released a brand new YouTube video revealing all the secrets of how we source and hire UGC creators at Fraggell - you can watch that here.
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