Welcome back to Nice Ads. This week I found another three ad creatives to share with you in the hopes that you learn something new.
This week, we're going to be talking about
How to achieve creative diversity in 2026
The importance of a good UGC creator
A quick win: Black Friday creative
A couple of things before we get started: If you're looking to up your creative game in 2026, I'd love to chat with you. Click here to apply to work with me.
My agency is also looking for a new talented creative strategist to work across our DTC client. If this sounds like something that might interest you, click here to apply.
Leaf Shave
This is an ad that we actually made at the beginning of the year for Leaf to advertise their Dermaplaner.
This was inspired by a couple of ads that we saw in other niches where founders/staff were reading out reviews from their customers and then addressing any concerns or shedding light on the behind-the-scenes process of why they developed the product. We thought this was a brilliant idea, especially since there are many misconceptions surrounding dermaplaning, including how to perform it, which tools are best to use, and more. We thought that this would be an excellent opportunity for the brand.
We shot this all in our studio and hired a really talented actress who delivered the script really well, and I think the finished video looks fantastic. This is all about diversifying your creative, ensuring that you have different creatives for different customers, not just the standard UGC that everyone else uses.
This is going to be even more important across your net new variations and iterations in 2026, so make sure that you're planning ahead.
If this looks like something that you'd like for your brand and you're spending over $70,000 on ads, apply to work with us here.
Suvéea
This was an ad that was actually saved by one of our creative strategists as inspiration for a brand that we're working with at the moment. I think this shows a couple of things:
How important great casting is - If you can find someone who's natural on camera, then it doesn't really matter if the video is scripted
How you can lean heavily on one take style UGC to help a video feel more authentic and organic
if this video was a creator speaking to camera in a setup environment with the camera on a tripod, it wouldn't feel half as real as this video does. She's holding the camera, she's moving the camera to demonstrate certain points. It feels like something that you'd see on your TikTok feed.
And this is the number one thing that I see brands do wrong when it comes to UGC. How often do you see a video on your timeline where the creator takes the time to set up a tripod stand perfectly in the centre of the frame and delivers a message? Basically never. So why should your ads look like that as well? The trick is to give your creator as much direction as possible in the briefing stage so that you're not leaving anything up to chance. We shot list and script every single one of our UGC videos at Fraggell for this exact reason
TLDR:
Don't be afraid to tell creatives what to do
To make a UGC video feel more authentic, it takes more than just a well-written script
Looking for more?
Here are 4 ways I can help you 👇
Fraggell - Looking for ads that turn scrollers into customers? My performance ad creative agency has delivered high-convert ads to brands like ALOHA, Chomps, and Nailboo… It’s worth your time to apply today to see if you're a good fit.
The Ad Creative Course - Want to learn how to make converting ad creative yourself? Join over 100 students who are already learning with the help of my course. Grab your place today.
Sponsor Nice Ads - Reach over 10,000 marketing decision-makers and fill one of our few ad spots available. Join brands like Motion, Triple Whale, and Minisocial by expressing your interest here.
Poppy AI is my new go-to for ad creative — saves me hours, sparks better ideas, and just gets how I work. If you make ads, you need to try it. Click here and get $25 off any plan.
Foreplay - Improve your creative workflow. Save ads, build briefs, and more. Claim a free trial here.
Roofing Pros
I'm hoping most of you have already finished your Black Friday creative. However, if you need one last creative, then I think this should be it.
Order a cheap hand-sized whiteboard on Amazon or dig one out of the back of your cupboard. Write down your Black Friday offer, hold it in front of your product, take a photo and upload it to Meta Ad Manager.
There's no need to make it any more complicated, because I can guarantee you that this could be your best-performing creative this year.
This approach works for any niche, whether it's a DTC product-led business or service-based industries, like the example.
And as we all know, it's the creative that you spend the least time on that ends up performing the best.
This is similar to the Post-it note creatives that still work today, but done a little differently, so it stands out in the sea of sticky note creatives we'll see this Black Friday.
TLDR:
The best creatives are the easiest to make
DTC brands should look more at service industries for inspiration.
That's all for this week's Nice Ads. Thanks very much for taking the time to read. Please do share this newsletter with a friend or colleague if you think they'll find it interesting.
I actually just posted a brand new video that breaks down my ideal creative strategy process. If you'd like to watch that, you can click here.
✌️