Curiosity gap

The pattern

This commercial ad is filed under Curiosity gap.

Define

A missing piece is named but not filled, so the reader has to continue to close the loop.

Mechanism

Incomplete pattern. Attention is the itch. The next line is the scratch. The gap is a debt we must pay.

Verdict

The following sentence can pay off the gap with a fact, a name, or a mechanism

Why it works

The open box with a question mark where the contents should be makes the missing information the picture: the device is real and branded, its benefits are hidden. A fan who wants the shirt has to look the features up, which means reading the brand's own material. The cost is that a viewer who does not search never learns what the device does.

The big idea

The Drive device is shown with an open box holding only a question mark, so fans have to go and find out what it does to enter the shirt draw.

The offer

Reply under the match hashtag with the features the Tawuniya Drive device offers, to enter a draw for Al Hilal shirts.

Lines from the ad

وش الميزات اللي يقدمها لك جهاز درايف؟

What features does the Drive device give you?

Steal this when

When a product's benefits are written up elsewhere and the brand wants a motivated audience to go and read them.

The emotion

Written to Curiosity. It makes the Avoid mistake.

It withholds the whole answer: the box shows only a question mark, and nothing on the creative or in the caption says what the device does.