UK insurance firm MoneySuperMarket.com has launched another hilarious ad featuring a chap with a large bottom, tight short shorts, and high heels, twerking to“Don’t cha” by the Pussycat Dolls. The ad also feature Sharon Osbourn to top it off.
Another great ad from ad agency Mother London.
Newcastle Brown Ale invites small brands to share a Super Bowl ad
Newcastle Brown Ale wants to split the tab on a Super Bowl ad with other brands.
The campaign features actress Aubrey Plaza, and asks small brands across the USA to chip in an buy a Super Bowl ad with them.
To apply just head to www.newcastlebandofbrands.com, and you could be splitting the tab for a $4m thirty second ad….bargain.
The campaign is a follow up to last years hugely successful “If we made it” Super Bowl campaign that never aired, but got a huge amount of press. Yet again the campaign is being made by Droga5.
The best ads from 2014
What better way to start 2015, than by looking back at some of the best ads from 2014. Below are my picks, in no particular order. More than anything each of these ads I believe will make you feel something..
I may be one of the few people to leave out the very popular First Kiss ad for Wren Clothing. Whilst I think the short film is wonderful, I know not one friend that could tell me the brand behind the ad.
Overall 2014 saw some wonderful advertising, perhaps not as great as previous years, however I suspect that 2015 will be a lot better. Expect more social experiments, and many things that further blur the line between advertising, art, and technology.
Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous 2015.
Chris.
1. Honda: The other side: An incredible interactive use of YouTube and storytelling. Try it out for yourself at http://www.hondatheotherside.com.
Advertising Agency: Wieden + Kennedy London.
2. Save the Children: Most Shocking Second a Day Video:: This fantastic PSA highlights the plight of Syrian refugees by showing what it would be like if war came to the UK.
Advertising Agency: Don’t Panic, London
3. Nike: Together – LeBron James. Nike celebrate the emotional comeback of LeBron James’s to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Advertising Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland.
4. TD Bank: Sometimes you just want to say thank you. When people think of banks they rarely think of a positive emotion, this ad helped to change that for Canadian TD Bank.
Advertising Agency: Diamond Integrated Marketing, Toronto
5. John Lewis: Monty The Penguin. For this years Christmas ad spectacular they created an ad, an app, a song, and a teddy bear, and enjoyed a very happy Christmas sales uplift.
Advertising Agency: adam&eveDDB
6. Newcastle Brown Ale: IfWeMadeIt.com. This years biggest Super Bowl ad, didn’t even air at the superbowl and came from an English beer brand. If you enjoy the ad below go to www.IfWeMadeIt.com. or watch the case study at http://youtu.be/6nKkOjkKyf8
Advertising Agency: Droga5, New York.
7. Beats by Dre: The Game Before The Game. This wonderfully shot ad shares the story of the game before the game, although not an official sponsor of the World Cup this was one of the most popular ads during the World Cup.
Advertising Agency: R/GA
8. Guy Cotton: Sortie En Mer. This is one of the few ads that really effectively ties together technology and emotion. The ad is a website, that challenges you to save yourself from drowning. Try it out at http://sortieenmer.com/
Advertising Agency: CLM BBDO
9. P&G / Always #LikeAGirl. This year P&G made two wonderful ads, one was a their “Thank you mum” ad for the Sochi Winter Olympics, and the other was the one below that aims to change the way the phrase “Like a girl” is perceived. I admire the way they told this story, and the positive impact it has had on society, it’s something I believe marketers should strive to do more often.
Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett
10. Fantastic Delites: How Far Would You Queue. So simple yet so funny, a brilliant activation that tested how long people would wait to get a free sample. A smart bit of humour can go a long way, this ended up being one of the most viewed ads on YouTube in 2014.
Advertising Agency: Clemenger BBDO, Melbourne.
The 5 Building Blocks of Culture
Recently Merriam-Webster declared Culture the 2014 word of the year. In life and work if we can better understand culture and what influences it, then our general happiness, and our work will be all the better for it.
The short presentation below is something I worked on with Dave Duarte, it’s a good first stab at the key building blocks that make up culture, I have added the main speaking notes into the slide so it’s easier to understand. This edit was made for a WPP event I helped run recently.
Hope you find this helpful and please feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions or want to discuss anything.
World famous light artist makes unique art with Infiniti cars
World famous light artist Patrick Rochon transformed three Infiniti cars in Dubai into moving light painting brushes to create giant colourful images.
Supposedly this is the world’s first Light Painting featuring cars, to see the images, visit http://Infiniti-me.com/InspiredLight.
Work by TBWA RAAD, Dubai
Google and Facebook share their 2014 year in review videos
It’s that time of year again when things start to draw to a close, and Google & Facebook have released their 2014 year in review videos.
Last month was the first time Facebook video were watched more than YouTube videos on Facebook….is going to be interesting to see the plays they make in that space.
To see the full Google year in search head to google.com/trends/2014 and to see Facebook’s go to yearinreview.fb.com
Enjoy the look back in the clips below.
2014 Year in Review from Facebook on Vimeo.
Advertising for Startups
One of the things I do for Ogilvy is help mentor startups, and share some of the lessons learned in advertising.
A while ago I was kindly asked to do a talk on advertising to a group of education startups from across Africa for the Pearson Catalyst for Education team in Cape Town.
Below is the talk I shared with them, if you want to learn more feel free to get in touch.
Watch a real truck jump over a speeding F1 car
EMC break a world record by jumping a real truck 83 feet, over a speeding Formula 1 Lotus car.
At first I thought this was a fake….but it’s not, is pretty impressive.
If you are wondering who EMC is, they are a data computing company that sponsors the Lotus F1 team.
To see more have a look at the behind-the-scenes video.
Facebook create a series of Wes Anderson style “How To” videos
Facebook have created a series of really charming and well shot “How To” videos.
The videos currently cover 4 common facebook tasks that are handy to know, namely, How To Block Someone, How To Untag a Photo, How To Share With Just Friends, and How To Edit a Post.
Watch them all below. Am not sure if there are more of these coming out but hope there are.
The Voice YouTube pre-roll ad singing contest
Really smart work to promote The Voice singing contest in Brazil using YouTube pre-roll ads.
They got musicians to play in the pre-roll ads, if you didn’t skip the ad after 5 seconds the singers won and got to play on, if you skipped the ad they failed.
Clever way to get people to feel like they are judges and more involved with the show.
Work by Publicis Brasil