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Japan prides itself on ludicrous advertising. But every year, a few commercials go beyond—transcending the market’s typical weirdness and reaching a state of truly inspired lunacy. “Gravity Cat,” which won a silver Lion in Cannes, came close, but its oddness was relatively mild—and also wrapped in jaw-dropping craft. But thankfully, another silver Lion winner from Japan has stepped in to take the prize. Check out the spot below, from agency Asatsu-DK and production company Spoon. It would be a spoiler to reveal the advertiser, so just sit back and soak up all the screaming and yelling from actors whose true character reveals itself only at the very end....
A puppet of a cockroach lies on its back, flailing its arms wildly. A mouse cursor hesitates over an order on the website “Poison Depot” before changing it from one bottle to eleven. A gleeful Victorian marriage proposal goes awry when lightning strikes a nearby tree. Each story is told in just six seconds of video. And there are more than a dozen such short recreations of classic books from the Western canon, all promoting YouTube’s new brief pre-roll ad format. Those three vignettes, of Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis (famous for its protagonist waking up one morning as an insect), William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (spoiler alert: everybody dies) and Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre (with its romantic symbolism around a split chestnut tree), join similar takes on George Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and more....
Like any creative effort, a successful design project involves many different people with different talents coming together. But too often, lots of cooks in the kitchen can be a recipe for disaster. That’s why great design starts with a great creative brief: a single, clear direction that communicates everything anyone needs to know about a project.
This can seem daunting at first, and that’s why we’ve provided this easy guide to putting your best foot forward with a comprehensive brief. Creativity is messy, but it’s definitely worth it.
Overview
Here’s a basic outline of what your brief should include. This won’t be the same for every project, so just consider it a starting place....
"We understand that the environment is changing inextricably, but what do we do now to prepare for this new reality?”
I had become so accustomed to describing the changes in content consumption and its implications for marketers, media companies, and tech-enabled content platforms that I was taken aback.
The nods among her team made it abundantly clear that “what now?” was more than a theoretical question, and one that needed to be addressed ASAP.
Thus, herewith are five practical predictions on the future of digital advertising creativity and real-world recommendations on what to do now to prepare....
Nothing says "family" like pretending to love the terrible gifts your relatives have gotten you for the holidays.
That, at least, is the basic premise of a new 30-second Christmas ad from Heineken starring Benicio del Toro, and emphasizing that Heineken is, technically speaking, a family-owned business.
Part of Publicis Worldwide's new "There's more behind the star" campaign, it's the latest in a series of spots, launched earlier this year, featuring the A-list actor as a spokesman for the brewer, whose logo is, like him, a star....
If you're a marketer of any kind, this phrase is probably lurking somewhere in the back of your mind when you start a new project: "How do we make this brand really stand out?" The constant battle to differentiate a brand in a crowded playing field is challenging, and it's pushing some marketers to the extreme.We've rounded up 14 creative campaigns and promotions that rely on unconventional mediums to spread brand messaging to consumers. Check them out for some unique inspiration for your next big campaign....
Riddle me this: Why do people buy quarter-inch drill bits? While there are a million possible answers to this question, Leo McGinneva offers perhaps the most interesting explanation. "They don’t want quarter-inch bits. They want quarter-inch holes," he explains. This notion suggests that as consumers, we aren't after all the bells and whistles as much as the solutions they provide. In other words, we don't want to know what brands are selling, we want to know what's in it for us....
If you want the best pizza, you're not going to order Domino's. But if you want your pizza delivered in the most innovative way, well, Domino's may have that market cornered.
The chain took four years to modify a car to become the perfect delivery vehicle. And now it is testing drone delivery in New Zealand. And by all accounts, the first drone test went well, with the pizza landing gently and without major damage—save for a little cheese stuck to the top of the box. (Domino's did something similar in the U.K. way back in 2013, but that was when commercial drone delivery was years away from approval. We're much closer now.)
Check out a video of the successful test below, which is, aptly enough, itself quite cheesy. But the brand is serious about the method. According to Reuters, it's is looking to conduct tests in Australia, Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Japan and Germany....
Sometimes, it takes an entire village … to answer the telephone.
To wit: Tschlin, a bucolic community nestled in the majestic mountains of eastern Switzerland's Graubünden region, is famed for being so peaceful, so quiet, that when the phone rings in the village square, the whole population of 166 can hear it.
So, what could be better than a tourism campaign designed to shatter the alpine serenity by making that phone ring constantly, right?
Last month, Jung von Matt/Limmat staged a six-day promotion in Tschlin, inviting folks from far away to call the village-square telephone. Each time a resident failed to pick up, the caller would win a Graubünden vacation or other prizes....
The idea of reimagining and reinventing everything we do, across our entire industry, for a connected world of billions, sounds like an incredible opportunity. It also sounds like an incredible amount of extra work. Do we really need to reinvent everything? The answer is, happily: no. But we do need to learn how to connect. For all of the hyperbole, the world really is changing. OUR NEW NORMAL Klaus Schwab, chairman of the World Economic Forum, refers to the present era of connectivity as the "Fourth Industrial Revolution." The first Industrial Revolution was powered by water and steam, changing the way we built things. Electricity powered the second and enabled mass production. In the third, electronics and information technology accelerated scale and complexity. Now we are in the fourth, an era of connection between our physical, digital, and biological worlds; a new phase of massive creative potential, where everyone has the power to share anything with anyone. This era brings with it an avalanche of new, creative ideas and opportunities....
The ad was dreamed up by Mike Catherall, creative director at Immersion Creative in Vancouver, who tells AdFreak that he made it a few years ago—and Houlihan finally decided she was OK running it.
"I dug up that campaign from the archives. I said, "What do you think, should we give this a shot?' She always thought it was kind of funny, so we were like, 'Sure, why not?' " Catherall says. "What I love about it is that it is irreverent, fun and totally different than the literally hundreds of realtor ads in Vancouver at the moment that are all so boring and cliché."
The ad took a while to get picked up in social media because Catherall and Houlihan were both a little reluctant to draw any attention to it themselves.
"Honestly, we put zero effort into getting buzz," Catherall says. "We should have posted it on our Instagram accounts, Twitter, Facebook—anything. But we didn't. I think Patricia and I were both a little wary of the ad at first, so we just kind of left it up to the public to decide what to do with it."...
We'd like to preface this story by saying "Don't try this at home," but we already know somebody—probably in Ukraine—is going to seize the opportunity anyway. Having warned you, we hereby assuage our consciences. Companies like GoPro and Samsung have made a mark on YouTube culture by using powerful demonstrations—from smart surfboards to sledding toddlers—to punt their fare. Now, LG's jumping into the fray with something we can't quite recall seeing before. It partnered with 2015 U.S. Extreme Rock Climbing medalist Sierra Blair-Coyle, who, in a video that defies belief, scales a skyscraper Spiderman-style, using suctions powered by two LG Code Zero K94SGN vacuum cleaners mounted on her back....
That dog won't hunt, but it will rack up debt via chew-toy impulse buys. Canada's Zulu Alpha Kilo is well known for elaborate self-promotions, like its recently revamped agency website poking fun at agency websites. But the shop does have real clients,...
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As part of a tasty new tourism campaign, ad agency Lapiz just made Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs a reality. But instead of soup and juice, this futuristic cloud rains something altogether more buzzy—tequila. Lapiz, a unit of Leo Burnett, used ultrasonic humidifiers to vibrate tequila at a frequency that actually turned it into visible mist. This mist was then condensed into liquid form, which fell as raindrops. All of this happened as a special exhibit in Berlin, Germany, during the rainiest month of the year—to promote Mexico as a vacation destination....
If anything is going to convince a smoker to quit, it's a judgmental, passive-aggressive, coughing billboard. At least, that's the ostensible premise of a new campaign from Swedish pharmacy Apoteket Hjärtat and agency Åkestam Holst. The digital poster uses outdoor smoke detectors to identify any nearby smokers and shame them by sending the man on the screen into a hacking fit, according to a case study video promoting the ad. It then displays a series of nicotine patches and other kick-the-habit products, because obviously, the smoker is going to be most receptive to a pitch right after having his or her moment of self-destructive indulgence interrupted by a virtual asshole....
In June, the brand's premium Elit vodka line started analyzing Google Trends data to zero in on online chatter and use it to crank out stylized posts of bottles, martini glasses and recipes. For the holidays this year when searches for martinis and vodka cocktails spike, the brand is enlisting such data to inform an Instagram campaign called Elit Live Social Lab. If a recipe for a chocolate martini is trending online, for instance, Elit's social team will whip up and post a picture of a chocolate drink within 24 hours. Brand manager Lauren Ryan said that when it comes to which social platforms Elit prioritizes, "Instagram is first and second for me, and Facebook follows," because the visual platform is particularly conducive to targeting luxury consumers. "If you take too much time, that conversation is over and you miss it," Ryan said. "When we saw this as a way to approach social, we knew that it would only work if we flagged these conversations and said, 'OK, we're going to tap into this today, but this is our only day.'"...
Christmas, the Olympics/ Paralympics and OK Go. Those are three reliable buckets for great advertising, and they all show up in Unruly's new list of the most shared ads of 2016. The top spot on this year's list goes to a Christmas spot; No. 2 was made for the Paralympics; and OK Go put two videos on the list, including one at No. 5. Ads from 10 different countries appearing on this list, Unruly says—the U.K., U.S., Denmark, Egypt, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Norway, the Philippines and Indonesia. The average runtime for the top 20 videos is 2:49. "Video advertising has once again reflected the wants and needs of society and offered a powerful route to escapism for consumers," said Ian Forrester, global vp of insight at Unruly.
Despite changing demographics and consumer behaviors, the holiday season remains one of the more influential times of year to launch a campaign and seal it into holiday memory for years to come. To do that, though, your brand needs to come up with something seriously innovative, engaging, and interesting -- something that'll resonate with your customers. This usually means lights, emotions, and celebrating family and friends. Of course, there’s no harm is looking to the past to see which other brands and campaigns have made their way to the holiday retail hall of fame. Here, we look back on 150 years of inspirational ads and campaigns that many consumers say the holidays just wouldn’t be the same without....
Comedy is one of the most effective way to advertise anything, but some brands and companies take absurd to the next level in a trend you may not realize you’ve seen called “oddvertising.” “Oddvertising is sometimes funny and sometimes it’s just plain odd,” according to Mike Johnston. Advertising appeared as the first dot com bubble was burning and was birthed by marketers really pushing the envelope in advertising. many of the odd pioneers were startups or smaller brands trying to stand out with off-the-wall concepts like firing gerbils into their logos. THE RISE OF AN ART FORM But what they made went beyond unusual into a new realm that was later coined as “oddvertising.” Things got even weirder as they had some success reaching young audiences with money to spend. Some were all business and some were just fascinated with finding out how far they could get....
Tourism campaigns for Caribbean destinations often have a similar aesthetic—sandy beaches, honeymooning couples, frosty drinks by the pool. But the Belize Tourism Board and its agency, Olson, had enough of that. For its latest ad campaigns, the BTB focused on local experiences unique to Belize and making flying to the country easier. Three years ago, Olson started working with the BTB, launching "Discover How to Be," a campaign that showcased the country's culture and experiences you can have there. Olson and the BTB also worked with Southwest Airlines and WestJet Airlines to open up more routes and direct flights to Belize from the U.S. and Canada. The strategy worked—the campaign was responsible for increasing travel to Belize and boosting the country's GDP by 2.24 percent, according to the Central Bank of Belize.
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"We set rules from the beginning—no honeymooners, no frozen drinks, nobody getting a massage by the pool," said Kevin McKeon, chief creative officer at Olson. "We want to go for someone who's a little more ambitious about what they're looking for in a vacation. The takeaway is you're going to meet some fascinating people and come back with a story you didn't expect to have."
Its latest campaign, "A Curious Place," which launched this week, continues that theme. Videos feature a cacao farmer, a meat pie seller and "Coconut Leo," a Belizean who climbs trees upside down and cuts down coconuts.
If you've lived or worked in a downtown as it came back from the brink of blight, you know that one bold business idea can be the tipping point. Whether it's a brewery based in an abandoned warehouse or a gourmet coffee shop that reclaimed an old fire station, these entrepreneurs can often offer a proof of concept and end up reversing decades of decline. Heineken captures this frequent reality in a new spot called "The Canvas," part of the international brewer's years-long push that promotes urban pride, creativity and revitalization.In the new spot (likely from Publicis, though we've reached out for agency and production credits), we see a trio of guys getting tossed out of a beer shop at closing time, only to find the rest of the neighborhood vacated....
The landscape of content is evolving. In an age where most advertisements fall victim to the "skip" button, it takes something truly creative to make people pay attention.It's no longer enough to simply create a straightforward ad -- to shine, content must make us laugh, cry, think, and believe. There is no bigger stage for celebrating advertising that moves us than the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. This year's recipients blur the line between marketing and art, delivering pieces of content that push the boundaries of media.Get inspired by 21 of the best below....
Even online, long copy has proven its effectiveness. Groove's founder Alex Turnball grew conversions by 100% when he tested a long-form landing page, and CrazyEgg saw conversion rates improve by 30% when it tested a long copy landing page.
With long copy, a brand can increase trust, break down the viewer's objections, and provide her with a better understanding of the product or solution. It gives your brand a chance to tell a more complete story, and in the process, more thoroughly convince the person that your brand is the best brand.
The main objective is to maximize the impact of every word and phrase. People do not read bad copy, irrelevant copy, and plain boring copy.
Check out the below examples of long copy to become a more prolific copywriter
Samsung makes big smartphones and now has a clever way to advertise just how big they are in Europe. This week, the brand installed a massive 80-by-40 meter digital billboard onto the side of a building that runs alongside the Volokolamsk highway in Sokol, Russia that plays up the size of the Galaxy S7 Edge phone, which has a 5.5-inch screen and weighs roughly 5.54 ounces. To compare, Apple's iPhone 6S has a 4.7-inch screen and clocks in at 5.04 ounces....
This week is American Craft Beer Week. To celebrate, craft brewers have teamed up to create a single beer, which is being made using the same recipe by more than 100 craft brewers—and in an act of even greater unity, features the names of 4,490 craft brewers from all 50 states on the can.
It's a cool idea, and an interesting design, though truth be told it doesn't exactly pop. Still, it's the thought (and the quality of the beer) that counts—and craft brewers are using this week to spread their message with a movement to #MakeSmallBeerBig....
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Funny, weird ad! From Japan, of course.