Every day we come across hundreds of commercial messages. Only a handful are memorable. Here are the top creative ads which caught my eye, the week ending 9th February, 2018: Tide’s Super Bowl ads, Apple’s 3-minute film for Chinese New Year and more.
1. Tide: Super Bowl 2018
As is evident over the last few years, the Super Bowl is not just a sporting event, but an advertising event too. Given the astronomical cost of airing (not to mention the cost of making the ad, especially for those with lavish production values) advertisers seek to extract as much value as possible. In today’s context it means creating talking points around the ad so that media keeps the buzz going before and after the event. Many of the ads opt for quirky or bizarre plot lines executed with humour. This year’s Super Bowl saw some good ads, as mentioned last week. A campaign for Tide, which aired on the game day was mentioned by many as the best of the brand campaigns this Super Bowl. What I liked about it was that it had a powerful idea which was unique to the brand: every ad in the Super Bowl could be a Tide ad as they all feature clean clothes. The execution spoofs many of the popular categories of ads and also the company’s famous Old Spice ad.
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi
2. Nike: ‘Nothing beats a Londoner’
Just when you thought Nike couldn’t possible come up with a new, refreshing way to celebrate athleticism, comes this riveting ad celebrating London and its sporting community. The ad features many Londoners including some famous athletes with one-upmanship as a thread running (no pun intended) as a theme. The ad dramatizes how stars in have overcome difficulties like family pressure, weather and travel problems to become successful. The campaign seems to have caught the fancy of Londoners who’ve began commenting about the ad on social media.
Agency: W+K London
3. Manipal Academy: Experience Education
Recruitment ads in the education sector focus largely on the institute’s credentials, facilities, ranking and so on. In that context, this campaign for Manipal Academy of Higher Education which highlights learning experience caught my eye.
Agency: Famous Innovations
4. GEICO Insurance: interrupting own ad
The premise: GEICO could interrupt your life with some savings. The brand is known for some great use of media, especially YouTube and this campaign does not disappoint by ‘interrupting their own ads’.
Agency: The Martin Agency
5. Apple: Three Minutes
Web-only films are a boon to the ad agency creatives. Usually, they feel ‘constrained’ by having to create TV scripts which are only 30-seconds as the cost of airing anything longer on broadcast media is high. Advertisers prefer short duration ads as it allows for a higher frequency of media buying. The debate on whether they should chase impact or efficient TV ad duration is never settled. YouTube films have no such constraints. So ad agencies began creating long-format films. The problem with most of such films were they either suffered from force-fitting the product or service being advertised or swung to the other extreme – with no link to the brand. In my view such films should be treated as entertainment first. Remember, viewers are coming to YouTube for such content – not a direct, in-your-face brand message. However, if the brand’s role is intelligently but unmistakably woven in (easier said than done) viewers will reward it by watching and sharing it. In that context, comes this 3-minute film for Apple made in connection with Chinese New Year. The only connection to the brand is that it is entirely shot on an iPhone X but the film does not even show the product. The story is simple, yet moving.
The film was made by Chinese film maker, Peter Chan. Tor Myhren, Apple’s vice president of marketing communications speaks more about it here.
Which one was your favourite? Comment in.
