My weekly compilation of creative ads is a small tribute to the efforts of marketing & advertising teams everywhere. Aside from the ads, it takes innovative thinking to come up branding efforts like Lego McLaren and Apple Intelligence, which feature in this week’s list.
PayPal: Everywhere
Sometimes, an idea might sound silly on paper, but fits so well to the concept when executed well. PayPal’s new rewards program is described thus in the press release:
PayPal is making it easier and more rewarding than ever to shop and pay with PayPal anywhere, anytime – both in stores and online. Now, customers have access to rich rewards, stackable cash back offers in the PayPal app, and more personalized ways to manage their spending.’
Fleetwood Mac’s “I want to be with you everywhere‘ is tweaked as a jingle in a new ad starring Will Ferrell who mouths ‘I wanna pay with you everywhere’. It’s LOL kind of funny and drives home the point in a charming way, IMO.
Agency: BBH
Volvo EX90: for life
Over the years, Volvo has been strongly associated with ‘safety’ as a benefit. There are several classic print ads, activations and even tactical communication during COVID that further the brand positioning. A new 3-minute tells a ‘likely’ story and weaves in the safety feature at the apt moment in the story.
Another new dramatizes the space & flexibility of the Volvo XC90 – being able to tackle unexpected needs. Both the films are held together with the ‘For Life’ tagline.
Agency: Stendahls, Gothenburg, Sweden
Apple Intelligence: more personal than Siri
Apple rarely uses celebrities in their ads. Yes, the legendary ‘Think Different’ showcased many celebrities but not in the capacity of an endorsement. Mostly, they let the product or service be the hero, across the range. A new ad for Apple Intelligence breaks the mould in that sense, using ‘The Last of Us’ star Bella Ramsey as the protagonist. The benefits of Apple Intelligence (a case of great branding) to remember handy things from calendar events (beyond just dates) and summarise content of long emails thanks to AI is positioned as more than a voice assistant like Siri.
Agency: TBWA
The North Face: We play different
There’s an hierarchy in everything, I guess – including sports brands. Several brands cater to the ‘everyday athlete’ or the casual sportsperson while showcasing professional athletes endorsing the brand. Nike, Adidas and many others come to mind. And then there are brands like The North Face which cater to seekers of extreme outdoor adventure such as mountaineering, rock climbing and skiing. These are high-risk individual pursuits rather than competitive games between individuals or teams with rules & referees.
A new campaign, ‘We Play Different’ is inspired by such mindsets. The brand says:
You won’t find state-of-the-art stadiums. Only couloirs and canyons. You won’t hear starter pistols or whistles or the roar of 80,000 fanatics screaming at the top of their lungs. You’ll find no mascots in animal suits out here. But you might find bears, or wolves or bald eagles.”
Maybe I am reading too much but the mirror image visual treatment cues that one’s competing against oneself? Nevertheless, a gripping ad that’s sure to appeal to the core audience of the apparel brand.
John Lewis: autum idents
It’s a pity that the art of the ident (much like the classy print ad) is dying in advertising. Idents are 5 or 10 second intros which remind the audience of a TV channel they are watching or convey that a particular brand is sponsoring an event. MTV (back when it used to play music videos) had some great channel idents. Channel 4, McDelivery and McVities are good examples too. A new set of idents from John Lewis convey their sponsorship of a home improvement segment in a charming way.
Cornetto: summer unwrapped
Some creative ideas resonate only in a particular region or consumer segment. And I mean that in a good way. While summer is associated with surfing, sailing and soaking in the sun in parts of Europe, such visual cues may not connect with audience elsewhere. A new outdoor campaign for Cornetto ice creams is a visual treat and a great example of craft in advertising. The posters resemble the action of unwrapping a Cornetto and marry a visual element associated with summer at the beach.
Agency: LOLA MullenLowe Madrid. Interesting to see another interpretation of summer for Magnum from the same agency.
Campaign Against Living Miserably: Missing Birthdays
Activations and special installations (which are usually one-off at a single location) are effective only if news of such an activity goes viral to create awareness. A suicide prevention charity in UK (loved their statement: ‘on a mission to help people end their misery, not their lives‘) installed 6929 balloons in London, to mark the number of lives lost in the last decade in UK, due to suicide. The campaign includes outdoor & kiosk which highlight such tragic incidents of youngsters taking their own lives.
We created our “Missed Birthdays” installation to raise awareness of the devastating reality of youth suicide in the UK. Each balloon represents a young person who took their own life, and a birthday they didn’t get to celebrate. Ultimately, we want it to act as an urgent call to act now; to have the conversations today that will help more young people see tomorrow.
Agency: adam&eveDDB
Lego and McLaren: The Ultimate Challenge
How do some brands retain the halo around them or make it glow brighter? It is fashionable to attribute it (in a deriding sort of way) to marketing. We see such comments made about Apple and iPhone in particular. Those who hate Apple products will be quick to attribute (wrongly so) its success to mindless ‘fans’ who allow themselves to be fooled by marketing. Nothing can be farther from the truth: no amount of good marketing can sell a bad product. Of course, relevant and innovative marketing plays a crucial role in building upon the consumer love for the product. But it all starts with product quality that turns consumers into lifelong fans.
The love for LEGO transcends age groups. The brand taps into the curious, creative child in all of us. The product & the marketing team come up with new challenges which attracts the core fan base and brings in new fans too. The latest is an activation with McLaren. Lego has built other 1:1 car reproductions, but this McLaren can actually be raced, which is what Lando Norris did when he took a lap around the Silverstone Circuit.
Almost everything in this car, from the seats to the bodywork to the dashboard, is made of Lego pieces: 342,817 Lego Technic elements to be exact.
In a way, it reminded me of what Volvo Trucks did with Epic Split in 2013 with Van Damme. Instead of simply putting out a 30-second ad they demonstrated the precision and directional stability of Volvo Dynamic Steering. We live in a world where brands needs to practice what they preach and not just stop at an advertising claim.
Which one was your favourite? Do comment in.