A hero earns their place in an idea by doing more than attracting attention. They might embody the person the audience wants to become, make a modest benefit feel magnificent or prove the brand promise by putting it into action.
Here are six Powerful Hero tactics that turn characters into persuasive shorthand.
- The Aspirational Ideal
- The Feeling Amplifier
- The Borrowed Reputation
- The Working Hero
- Everyday Elevated Protagonist
- The Contrarian Hero
1. The Aspirational Ideal
Invent a character who embodies exactly the confidence, status, charisma or freedom the audience fears it lacks.
The Most Interesting Man in the World — Dos Equis, Euro RSCG, 2007
Most beer advertising promised a good night out. Dos Equis created the man you might secretly wish you could be during one.
The Most Interesting Man in the World was suave, fearless, well-travelled and comically overqualified for almost every situation. Dos Equis did not need to claim that drinking the beer would make you more interesting. Its hero turned the brand into a badge for people who wanted a little more intrigue in their lives.
Girls Don’t Poop — Poo-Pourri, 2013
Going to the loo in someone else’s home can produce all kinds of quiet panic. Poo-Pourri introduced a woman entirely free from it.
Sitting elegantly on a toilet, she spoke about poo with the composure of someone discussing table manners. Her confidence embodied the freedom the product promised. Rather than dwelling on the source of the embarrassment, Poo-Pourri showed us the person we could become once the problem disappeared.
2. The Feeling Amplifier
Use a character to dramatise how a mundane functional benefit feels at a disproportionate emotional scale.
Epic Action Man — MoneySuperMarket, Mother, 2018
Saving money on insurance is useful. It doesn't usually make an action figure abandon his military duties and launch into a euphoric dance routine.
That was precisely the point. MoneySuperMarket gave Action Man the small satisfaction of saving money, then let him experience it at blockbuster scale. The character transformed a routine financial task into a moment of ridiculous personal triumph. He did not explain the saving. He showed us how saving could feel.
Life’s Little Moments — Samsung Galaxy, Taylor Herring, 2026
An expectant father travels to hospital while recording a voice note for his unborn daughter. During the journey, he begins imagining the countless ordinary moments they might eventually share.
Samsung compresses a possible lifetime of fatherhood into one small act of recording. The protagonist turns a familiar phone feature into a way of holding onto something much bigger: anticipation, memory and the beginning of a relationship that has not quite started yet.
