This month, instead of writing several short posts, I have decided to punish all of you with one extremely long one. And, if you don’t keep reading all the way until the end, a shark might jump out of your monitor and bite you. Seriously. But don’t worry, there’s a chance that you might like it; at least 1%. Have you heard of TED talks? If you haven’t, you should check them out, and if you have, you may have heard of TED’s ‘Ads Worth Spreading’ project. The project invites any individual, team, organisation or agency to create an ad, to prove themselves as a recognisable talent in the industry and be lauded as one of the Top 10 winners. According to the TED judges (of which there are several whom still work with ad agencies – that didn’t bias the results at all, I’m sure), the list below represents some of the finest work that has come out of advertising this year. So what better set of ads for me to review? I’ve taken the Top 10 and given them my own personal ranking, taking creativity, fit of the ad with the brand’s image, persuasiveness, and effectiveness into account. Also, keep in mind that these ads are intentionally longer than the TV norm of thirty seconds, so I’ll also keep in mind whether they would work or not as regular campaigns, without TED to hold their hands.
10. Dulux – Let’s Colour
You know, it can’t be that easy to make a paint brand the life of the party, but I think that Dulux makes a pretty decent effort at it. I doubt that this ad would be many people’s favourite from the Top 10, but it sparks up the right emotions for paint. Actually, one could say that it paints the right emotions (…silence…). Well, it made me associate a sense of overwhelmingly transformative power with paint, an association I would never come up with on my own. Was that description overwhelming in itself? Probably not, but it would have been if it were in a Dulux paint ad. On the downside, the ad isn’t very clear about its main message, which is meant to be about a collective painting project, and not just a general campaign for the brand. I don’t know the project’s details – as I said, the ad wasn’t very clear about it. Despite that, it’s not like Dulux loses out massively; it’s a great ad, it showcases the brand impressively, and they’ve done well.
9. Hornbach and Heimat – The Infinite House
I have never held any sort of passion for sheds, but I really like the way this ad even made me think of ‘sheds’ and ‘passion’ in the same sentence. And I don’t mean that in a romantic sense. Or do I? Regardless, I definitely want to give credit to the creators of this ad for nailing the main message: that a hut can be a home. It places sheds up a few notches on people’s priority belts, making people inclined to choose their brand of shed more carefully. This is exactly in line with what Hornbach and Heimat are aiming for – lifelong customers. Associations of community, family, and a positive impact on all ages are flourished throughout the ad, and will help to create a relationship between consumer and brand. However, the ad takes too long to build up to an interesting story, and I don’t think that people would have the patience to wait for that during a typical exposure. In other words: for TED, yes, for TV, no. In addition, even though the visuals are enjoyable and creative, they’re far outdone by some of the other Top 10 winners, which ends up rolling this ad down to 9th place.
8. The Girl Effect – The Clock Is Ticking
For me, the best aspect of this ad is its seamlessness, which gives it a perfect flow. Once it has your attention, you can’t tune out. The ad is created on behalf of Nike Foundation’s ‘The Girl Effect’, which raises awareness for adolescent and young women’s health and well-being. Usually you’d be aiming to slap your brand’s logo all over a campaign, but, in fairness to Nike, they’ve appropriately showed some sensitivity to the cause that they’re raising awareness for. Plus, a social marketing campaign like this one would probably be more credible without any corporate connotation attached. All in all, if the ad aims to raise awareness, it does it well. The question is: is it effective enough to make people take action? Did you think of paying a visit to the website after seeing the ad?
7. Topsy Foundation – Selinah
This ad is a good one to compare to ‘The Girl Effect’, as it also portrays women’s health issues in third-world countries. However, I’ve ranked ‘Selinah’ just above ‘The Girl Effect’ because I thought that in the long run it would be more effective in making people take action. Usually people aren’t thinking, “oh, I’d love to see a dark and eerie ad right now”, which is why I think many people would rank ‘The Girl Effect’ above this ad, but I think the simplicity and creativity, combined with the dark tone, makes this ad more effective. Also, when I mentioned that once ‘The Girl Effect’ has your attention you can’t tune out, I undermined the challenge of getting somebody’s attention in the first place. ‘Selinah’ does a good job of this by bracing you with its brief message at the beginning of the ad, while sounding off with an encouraging message to finish. So, I award a respectable 7th place to the Topsy Foundation.
6. Target – Kaleidoscopic Fashion Spectacular
Target unleashed this marketing masterpiece when unveiling a new fashion/clothing line, and I must say, it’s a great idea. They’ve managed to cram fashion, colour, and cheerful grandiosity into a radical media placement that attracted crowds, hype, and an all-round positive experience. It’s definitely suited to viral, rather than more traditional forms of campaign, but hey, who’s judgin’? Viral, TV, non-spot, creative; it doesn’t matter, as long as it gets results. Actually, the reason that I haven’t ranked this ad higher in the list is because it’s much more than an ad, and has an unfair advantage over the rest of the contenders. I’m just being fair, it’s not like I’m treating this ad like a target (last one, I promise). This was more of an event than an ad for me; therefore I’m slapping it with a ‘cross-media’ label and dragging it down to 6th place.
5. Chrysler – Born of Fire
This ad has actually got the most YouTube hits out of any of the ads on this list, and by quite a distance. But I’m still ranking it at number five, because nobody listens to me and it won’t matter anyway. According to TED, the ad ‘repositions the luxury automobile – and, at the same time, rebrands a troubled city’. Thanks TED, that was exactly what I was going to say. Seriously though, I completely agree; it’s an inspiring ad and deserves to have been viewed so many times. However, I suppose I have to justify why I’m only ranking it in 5th place. The target audience for the ad seems a lot more specific than the rest of the Top 10 entries. I’m wondering how effective the ad is once you start venturing further and further away from Detroit. Also, when Eminem comes out and it starts to get epic…I’m not sure that’s going to persuade European car-buyers, because we’re used to more functionally oriented car ads. Nevertheless, as a brand image booster, and, in general, a creative and inspiring clip, it’s a golden nugget.
4. Nokia – The World’s Smallest Stop-Motion Character Animation
The animation used in this ad is brilliant, and really entertaining to watch. There’s nothing to criticise about the concept, it’s really well-executed and captures the main point of the ad – showing off Nokia’s new magnification technology for the cameras built into their tablets and smartphones. However (here we go again), I would have appreciated the ad more if I knew from the beginning that it was shot using this new and amazing technology. In contrast, I loved the shot of the worktop at the end. It achieves what a lot of the ads on this list haven’t: showing the product or service in action, creating an association with the physical design of the product and the emotions stimulated by the ad. To be honest, I would probably rank this ad in my top two if (Nokia sent me a free phone and) it were more in line with Nokia’s brand image. Apart from the shot of the worktop at the end, they could have slipped in more colours, music, and style elements that at least reminded people of Nokia. This ad is a case of the classic ‘artist versus businessman’ argument. It’s beautifully crafted, but needs more direction to sell itself. However, it’s still brilliant and it’s still getting 4th place.
3. Savory Institute – Changing Our Future
I would imagine that most people will disagree with my choice here, but I really like this ad because it’s so old school with its persuasion. There’s very little artistic creativity and design involved, but Allan Savory has definitely planned his speech well. For example, the ad starts out by establishing source credibility by summarising Allan’s credentials from Wikipedia (and yes, everyone loves Wikipedia, despite what university professors imply); the kind of credibility that needs to be established before clearing up a misconception as big as the one that’s mentioned, regarding fossil fuels. There is a lot of emphasis on the scale of the problem, the work that was involved in finding a solution, and how it affects ‘us’. Which means cute puppies are probably at risk too. That all gives a revolutionary feel to the work that the Savory Institute is doing (and I’m not saying that it isn’t actually revolutionary. Calm down). It’s also very appealing to Westerners, since the problem appears to be shifted from fossil fuels to desertification and agriculture. People realise that they are not directly involved in the problem and will find it easier to give support to the solution. The perceived ‘low cost high gain’ tone of the message is really championed by our friend, Allan. He’s a good guy. Lastly, they set a specific, transparent goal towards the end of the ad, of which I think is an interesting approach – that is, inviting influential figureheads to the institute. Research has shown that there are three aspects of charity messages that influence somebody to donate: stating specific goals or objectives; stating that those goals can be realistically achieved; and, mentioning how the individual’s involvement can help to achieve those goals. This ad emphasises all of those points well, and I’m a big fan of it because it shows how creativity and persuasion isn’t all down to the artists. Let’s just forget about the fact that it’s longer than three minutes and probably wouldn’t work if it weren’t on TED.
2. Batelco – Infinity
You probably haven’t heard of Batelco before, unless you were ever in conversation about communications services in Bahrain. I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t familiar with them until today, but they seem like quite an innovative business, creating products and services at any opportunity that they can. That, Sir/Madam, is a splendid match for the ad, because it just keeps going and going with innovativeness and awe. The ad is appealing for consumers and businesses, both markets in which Batelco operates, displaying a professional yet creative outlook. What else can you say about this ad? I mentioned how the Savory Institute’s ad was a prime example of great commercial that didn’t rely on design. Batelco’s ad is at the other end of the spectrum; it lets the visuals do the talking, and needs nothing else. Enough reading – start watching.
1. Intel – The Chase
We have a winner! If Batelco’s ad is like a short adventure movie, then this one’s all about action. Or, it's just a modern version of A-ha's video for 'Take On Me'. This ad is so engaging, from start to finish. It just does not feel like you’re watching an ad, there is so much credit to be given while there is so little persuasion involved. I love the way the creators have managed to create a decent story that is also so short, while integrating all of the action into media references, computing, and gaming; all platforms that Intel runs as part of its everyday routine. The story is visually stunning and attention grabbing, but also conveys a message as the bigger picture: our capabilities are vast, we can easily perform them, and this is how you make use of them yourselves in your everyday lives. And my favourite part of the ad? The Intel Jingle, obviously. That thing is just awesome, how can anyone not like it? I’m going to set that shit as my alarm clock tomorrow. As long as they keep the jingle in their ads, I’ll keep heaping praise upon them.
Are you still reading? That’s a surprise. I’m impressed. Perhaps you disagreed with my ranking completely, but that’s ok. You’re special and so are the choices that you make. That being said, what do I think of the project overall? The project aimed to ‘reverse the aggressive trend’ of ads being forced on people and instead celebrate and share ads that were worthy of it. I think it’s a nice idea. I really do. But, apart from a one-time project, do people really want to actively search for ads in their spare time? Keep in mind that TED shows ads after and not before their talks. I don’t know about you, but usually I wouldn’t bother staying on the webpage just to see an ad, but hey, I hope they prove me wrong. And, in case you were wondering, I’ll tell you the Top 10 winners ranked in order of amount of YouTube hits received. They don’t match up to my list at all, while in terms of views, the Chrysler ad is the only one to have easily broke into the millions. I know you trust my rankings wholeheartedly, but for the sake of argument, here is the second most accurate ranking of the Top 10 you can find on the Internet, ordered by YouTube hits:
1. Chrysler – Born of Fire
2. Nokia – The World’s Smallest Stop Motion Character Animation
3. Intel – The Chase
4. Batelco – Infinity
5. The Girl Effect – The Nike Foundation
6. Dulux – Let’s Colour
7. Selinah – The Topsy Foundation
8. Target – Kaleidoscopic Fashion Spectacular
9. The Infinite House – Hornbach and Heimat
10. Changing Our Future – Savory Institute
