Every week, I attempt to share a compilation of creative ads. The first and most important test for any ad is getting noticed. Everything else – ad being liked or disliked is secondary. Here are a few ads which caught my attention over the last week or so.
CRED: Buzzkill
Advertising for CRED has created a lot of buzz over the last few years. A few common aspects can be observed in their advertising: the core target audience seems to be those who were in their growing up years or began working a couple of decades ago. At that stage in life our heroes from sports, movies and popular culture tend to leave a lasting impression and we look up to them or at least revive those memories with fondness. That perhaps explains the choice of celebrities such as Venkatesh Prasad, Rahul Dravid, Bappi Lahiri and so on.
Another aspect of the ads (most of which have been hits) has been the creative link to a feature of CRED and a story. In the latest one, CRED UPI is pitched against ‘normal UPI’ in a humorous story featuring tennis star Leander Paes. The format – letting the protagonist ‘imagine’ a situation and then to be brought back to reality, has been done before but fits well in this situation, gets the laughs and drives home the point.
Agency: Moonshot
The team’s social media skills is also top notch as they ‘got’ Andre Agassi to tweet about the ad.
iPhone: Don’t let me go
Benefit laddering at its best here. A creative technique is to ask the ‘and therefore?’ question repeatedly about a product benefit. The iPhone 15’s ‘generous’ storage could be interpreted in many ways. A new ad chooses to showcase it as those in the photo gallery of the device pleading ‘not to be deleted’.
Britannia: Hungry for gold
Back when I was in advertising, tactical promotions and ads advertising them were common. Typically these could be freebies like a pen offered with the purchase of a soap or a scratch card with every purchase leading to participation in a lucky draw. Among the attractive offers which were seen as holding potential to increase sales is the carrot of a foreign tour. Ads promoting such offers were given least priority in terms of an idea or investing in production values. In that context, it’s nice to see a promo anchored on a trip to Paris as the big prize. The creative idea links Paris – this year’s Olympics venue to India’s sports stars and the gesture of ‘biting into a medal’.
Mahindra Rise: Sujith
I wasn’t sure if the tweet below was part of a campaign promotion. Curious, I checked out the video and it turns out ‘Sujith’ is a character in the ad for Mahindra Rise. This tweet got a response from Anand Mahindra too. The ad highlights the good work done by the Mahindra Group. In the pre-digital world, such ads would have been limited to a paid TV spot in some channel or programme presumed to be watched by decision makers, backed by a print campaign in English dailies and premium business magazines.
Alzheimer’s Society: the long goodbye
It is said that the most effective ads evoke an emotion in us – it could be a feel good smile, laughter or something that deeply touches the viewer. It is difficult not to hold back one’s tears as this ad conveys the feelings of those who have people suffering from Alzheimer’s in their midst. The creative idea is to equate major moments in the various stages of Alzheimer’s with death – suggesting that those suffering die many times over. The ad recounts the life of a patient through the words of her son who recall the various moments when she died. The message powerfully links it back the advertiser who promises to be there at every stage, offering support.
Agency: New Commercial Arts
Sabina Braless: comfortable
What is it about the ad industry in Thailand that it seems to consistently produce unconventional, clutter-breaking advertising which leaves an impact? Also, humour – often self-deprecatingly so, is a common tool in their ads even for serious subjects such as alcoholism? Some of the ads move us to tears too. And while the production qualities are top notch, many of the ads have a solid creative idea based on a product benefit. In this for a lingerie brand, the phrase ‘make yourself comfortable’ forms the platform from which the brand link is created in a totally unexpected, humorous and relevant manner. Loved it.
Agency: Sour Bangkok
Pepsi: AI took over Pepsi during holi?
This is just brilliant from Pepsi. So much better than their thematic celebrity based advertising. I believe this is created by an independent creative consultant.
Creative: Sidhant Mago
Globant: Taste ID
It is unusual for a large IT services company to invest in advertising campaigns. Of course a handful have done it – to establish the brand positioning and convey their core promise. Even among them, the tone of voice is usually pretty serious. Globant has made a departure from such (they even acquired an ad agency) by taking a lighter vein in their plots. A new ad conveys that they are serious consultants when it comes to tech and don’t indulge in ‘nonsense tech’.
Agency: Gut
Japan Railway Group: My Japan Railway
This campaign, a Cannes Lions winner in 2023 was covered in ad portals recently as it won big at Spikes Asia and Adfest 2024. Here’s a background to the campaign: ‘Train lines operated by Japan Railway form the backbone of public transportation infrastructure in Japan. They traverse the entire country, and have made life more convenient and helped society grow for 150 years. In fact, they are so integral to daily life that people often take them for granted. To address this issue, we were asked to develop a campaign that would reconnect Japan Railway with its customers in a personal way. Despite the fact that Japan is a small island nation, only 6% of Japanese have visited all 47 prefectures. So our objectives were twofold: 1) to maximise interest in domestic travel that had grown during the pandemic and encourage people to visit Japan’s scenic attractions, and 2) to inject an element of fun into rail travel and engage people in an interactive activity that enabled them to create their own personal “My Japan Railway”.
Japan Railway 150th Anniversary Campaign ‘My Japan Railway’ was a mind-blowing piece in so many ways. It is deeply embedded in the Japanese culture where railway is a part of life for over a century. Stations, trains, and journeys have stories of people, architecture, nature and even food culture of Japan. This campaign is a true celebration of all those stories. Each of the 900 (no less!) stations has been given a beautiful, unique, and yet harmonious illustrated identity that represents the true spirit of the station. Travelers can scan and collect those identities as stamps through an app. The campaign embraces multimedia, through maps, books, merchandise and of course an app. Every single illustration is a piece of marvel, and yet when it all comes together as a system, it never loses the warmth of a hand-crafted story.
Agency: Dentsu
Sammakorn not Sanpakorn: mistaken names
Another campaign from Thailand which won a lot of awards. It ticks all the boxes for a typical entertaining campaign with a sharp brief. The creative idea is based on a universal truth.
Agency: Choojai & Friends
The campaign metrics has the usual ‘billions of impressions’ and ‘zillions worth of PR’ but I enjoyed the output nevertheless.
Old Spice: Hair rescue squad
Can you imagine a shampoo brand from the Unilever or P&G stable doing such ads in the 90s? I am glad that both these advertisers – who lead the way in FMCG have resorted to fun, non-serious ways to drive home their product benefit.
Which one was your favourite? Do comment in.