Libraries/Social Media Ad Techniques/Formats

    Street Interview

    Real strangers stopped on the street, answering one question on camera.

    VideoCost: low-mid

    An interviewer stops passers-by and asks one sharp question, then cuts the best reactions together. It works because the answers are unscripted and the faces are unknown - the viewer reads that as honest, so the product praise lands as discovery rather than a claim the brand is making about itself.

    Why it works

    Unknown faces and unscripted answers read as honest, so praise lands as discovery instead of a brand claim. The question format also creates a small open loop - you watch to hear how strangers answer.

    Format Examples

    How this format plays out across different products and segments.

    DTC

    Asking strangers to guess the price, then revealing it.

    App

    'When did you last actually read a privacy policy?' cut to the product.

    Service

    Stopping people to react to a competitor comparison on the spot.

    How to build it

    1

    Pick one sharp question

    A single question that surfaces the problem or the reaction you want on tape.

    2

    Shoot more than you need

    Stop many people - the format lives on the two or three honest reactions.

    3

    Cut to the turn

    Edit reactions tight, then pivot to the product as the answer, close on a CTA.

    Example executions

    'When did you last actually read a privacy policy?' cut to the product.

    Stopping people to react to a price comparison on the spot.

    Asking strangers to guess what the product costs, then revealing it.

    Carries these angles well

    Social Proof / Crowd LogicProblem / Pain IdentificationFOMO / Cultural Moment

    Reach for it when

    Cold and mid-funnel audiences, social-proof and cultural-moment angles, and brands confident real people will say something good unprompted.

    Skip it when

    Niche B2B with no street-level recognition, and any product whose value is too technical to explain in a one-line answer.

    Common mistake

    Faking it with actors. The whole format trades on the answers being real - the moment it feels staged, the honesty advantage is gone.

    Combine it into an ad

    A format is the container. In the Hi5 Framework it wraps an angle and opens with a hook to become a finished concept.

    The Hi5 FrameworkBrowse angles