Every day we come across hundreds of commercial messages. Only a few of them are memorable. Here are a few which caught my eye the week ending 13th Oct, 2017.
1. Unif-400: a ‘romanocumentary’
Advertising from Thailand has set very high standards over the years. What sets them apart is that they are uniquely Thai in the sense that they don’t try to ape western advertising in both the idea and execution. They don’t have the constraint of having to make the idea work in a multi-lingual, diverse country like India and neither do they have to think in English first (as is often the case here) and then translate it later. Their advertising has shown a tremendous range in terms of formats – there is humour, emotion, wit and more. Their whacky sense of humour, great writing (even when sub-titled in English) and fantastic production values (in print advertising too) have delivered many memorable campaigns.
Here’s another winner from Thailand – this time a web film dubbed a ‘romanocumentary’. It is for a brand of vegetable juice called Unif and encourages viewers to eat more vegetables and fruits. The film is absolutely top class keeping viewers engaged for a full 8.5 minutes.
Agency: GREynJ United
These are some of the things I liked about the film:
‘Made for YouTube’ web films have been considered ‘long format’ advertising by many ad agency creatives. In broadcast media since the airing costs are high, brands usually limit their TV spots to 30 seconds. In those 30 seconds with the mandatory product window and such like it is very difficult to ‘tell a story’. So creatives love long format opportunities – always preferring a 60-second version than say a 20-second one. YouTube removed those constraints as there was no airing cost to worry about. Result: a slew of long format web films from brands (3 minutes+ being the norm). In most such cases it became just another ad than anything entertaining (which is what people come to YouTube for). The Unif film breaks that mould with entertainment (with a brand message woven in seamlessly) taking precedence. The situations are hilarious and the writing, top class. I loved the subtle mocking of our work culture where a customer support executive who simply parrots the same response to customer complaints, take his job so seriously that he forgets to have lunch. The idea is also based on research that 400 grams of vegetable and fruit per day is the recommended daily intake and drives home the point. Lastly, even though there is an in-your-face placement of the brand in the web film it is done in a deprecating, light tone that the viewer doesn’t feel it is an ad. However, the message regarding the 400gm of fruit & vegetable intake per day and the brand’s role in it is established.
2. Eir: Daily Mail print ad
Call drop or ‘losing network’ is a common problem on mobile networks worldwide. A new product from eir, an Irish telecom brand ‘eliminates’ such mobile phone coverage ‘black spots’ by using WiFi connections to boost network signal. In order to promote this idea, the brand took over an entire magazine by literally removing ‘black spots’ – every full stop, every semi colon, every tittle on every ‘I’ and every ‘j’ was replaced with a colourful dot. All of this was then explained in a print ad at the back of the magazine.
Agency: Rothco
3. BMW: pre-owned cars
It is said that advertising is about ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ as one tends to view claims and exaggerations indulgently. Here is a set of ads which exaggerate the claim ‘you’ll never want to stop driving’ in a certified pre-owned BMW without bothering to explain why that would be credible.
Agency: KBS
4. Lily’s Kitchen: it’s not loopy, its love
A set of print ads from UK highlighting the way pet owners behave with our pets – sure to strike a chord not just with them though.
Via: Newsworks
5. Canada’s Chartered Professional Accountants – record
“The world potential market for copying machines is 5,000, at most,” said IBM to Xerox in 1959. The internet is full of memes where utterances like these have gone wrong. On hindsight such ‘predictions’ having gone wrong strike a chord, especially in business owners. That’s the insight behind the ad for Canada’s Chartered Professional Accountants which goes back in time to the early 90s to dramatise the problems faced by record labels back then. The attempt: drive home the point hat CPA helps keep “your business on the right side of change”.
Agency: DDB
Which one was your favourite? Comment in.
