Every day we come across hundreds of commercial messages. Only a handful are memorable. Here are a few top creative ads which caught my eye, the week ending 6th April, 2018: iPad’s ‘Homework’ ad, a TV spot for accounting firm Grant Thornton and more.
TESCO Malaysia: The Unforgettable Bag
Geography is certainly history when it comes to stunts performed by brands. What I mean is that a unique activation or a PR stunt can gain global exposure thanks to the viral nature of the web and is no longer restricted to the location of origin, as was the case earlier. Here is one from Malaysia which is doing the rounds of ad blogs. The centra purpose was to encourage reuse of shopping bags and the execution involves a simple yet clever idea: barcodes in the bag itself. Scanning such barcodes leads to discounts at the shop and leads to feel good factor of doing something for the environment.
Agency: Grey
Zomato: topical ad
In India, Amul is the brand known for its long running topical ads. Of late, Zomato, the food delivery service has been trying its hand at it. Topical ads work best when the news of the day is linked to the brand or service being advertised in a clever manner, with humour and word play being common. The latest from Zomato, linked to the Salman Khan trial, brought a smile to my face.
B-Natural: #SayNoToConcentrate
Referencing the dominant brands in a category is one way for a new or middle-rung player to create buzz. Very often such brands take the comparison route, claiming it to be ‘as good as’ or ‘superior to’ the dominant brand. Micromax created an ad many years comparing itself to the iPhone launched at that time. Such forced comparisons lack credibility; other examples abound. In this context comes an interesting campaign from B- Natural juice, a brand owned by ITC Foods. They ‘invited‘ leading brands Dabur’s Real and PepsiCo’s Tropicana to make juices “concentrate free” through strategically placed billboards.
The real action (no pun intended) seemed to be over at Twitter with Tropicana taking jibes at the invite.
Thanks for the invite @bnaturaljuices Glad to see more people following in our footsteps. But first, let’s #ConcentrateOnTheFacts https://t.co/gW7H14MkGT pic.twitter.com/3hq6zaPKvm
— Tropicana India (@IndiaTropicana) April 5, 2018
That’s great, and we’re sure you’ll will be happy to hear that we love serving our range of fruit juices & beverages, including 100% juices, absolutely concentrate-free!
— B Natural Juices (@bnaturaljuices) April 6, 2018
Experts in the PR & communications field too weighed in on the campaign. In my view, while it was a clever idea to make it an industry initiative and make it inclusive, the tone of voice in social media was a tad confusing for me. It first appeared as if the brand was spoiling for a fight but later sounded a bit placative.
Ford UK: elephant
As one of UK’s biggest employers, Ford UK wanted to raise awareness about mental health. The attempt is simple and straight forward: get people to talk about their problems. The creative idea uses the idiom ‘elephant in the room’ in a cleaver manner, linked to the category Ford operates in.
Agency: GTB
Tasty Treat: Chak Chak Chabao
‘If you have nothing to say, sing it’ said David Ogilvy a bit uncharitably towards ads which have jingles. While the ad format of a montage of visuals set to catchy music is common, it is a tried and tested format. It can tell a story through the visuals depicted and a quirky execution aids memorability. Many an ad has been remembered due to the magical combination of music & visuals. Here’s a fun jingle-led ad for a food brand to showcase their range. When it comes to ad jingles many of the memorable ones had their brand name built into it so that the jingle was unmistakably for that brand. A trick missed here, perhaps? Nevertheless, a fun ad.
Agency: Infectious
Which one was your favourite? Comment in.
