1. Gillette: Assisted Shaving Razor
It is so refreshing to see a long format, web film which is anchored on the product. We have all seen many such initiatives where one is left wondering about the tenuous link of the brand to the theme advertised. This film, launched to introduce TREO, the ‘first-ever razor designed solelyfor assisted shaving‘. The film is a touching story of a son taking care of of his elderly father and is sure to tear you up.
Agency: Grey, New York
The ad has won six awards at the Cannes Lions 2017.
2. Charmin Van-Go: On-Demand Private Restroom
Many years ago, Charmin created one of the first branded utility apps with their ‘Sit or Squat’ initiative. It was a service to track clean public toilets in large US cities. The brand has now launched Charmin Van-Go, an on-demand mobile bathroom in NYC. It can be dubbed ‘Uber for toilets’ as one can order a personal bathroom to a location via mobile.
Interesting to see that a brand called PeeProvider offered to tie up with Charmin for such an initiative in India.
3. KFC: Double-Down Meal
Here are a set of funny – not laugh-out-loud funny but brings-a-smile funny, radio spots for KFC in South Africa. Another example of the medium being used well.
Listen to rest of the spots here.
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather
4. MailChimp
If you had listened to the podcast Serial in 2014, you would not have missed the sponsor, Mailchimp which was mispronounced ‘MailKimp’. The idea of playing around with the name has been taken forward to what might be called bizarre levels in the US. The brand launched a line of potato chips called FailChips and other properties like NailChamp, MaleCrimp and more.
Agency: Droga5
As Adweek reports:
The campaign, invented the names MaleCrimp, MailShrimp, KaleLimp, FailChips, VeilHymn, SnailPrimp, JailBlimp, WhaleSynth and NailChamp, and included all sorts of wacky ads and activations paid off with the line “Did You Mean MailChimp?”
It is certainly a bold execution of an idea to register a brand name. They could have easily stopped at creating web properties but the execution included actual products, media tie ups and more. The campaign won a GrandPrix in the Cyber category at Cannes 2017.
5. Jet.com
The case study video begins with a powerful message: ‘in one year, Jet.com went from a retail startup to a $3.3 billion company’. With an opening like that it certainly makes you want to know more. The campaign was a clever idea to hijack Super Bowl from a media perspective – the ads featured a bunch of “Super Bowls,” from ice cream bowls to decorative bowls, that could all be purchased on Jet.com. The ads showed up in results for Super Bowl on YouTube so the brand effectively ran a Super Bowl ad without paying millions of dollars for an actual spot during the event. Brilliant stuff.
Agency: R/GA. Media: PHD
Which one was your favourite? Comment in.
