Every week, I attempt to curate a list of creative ads which break through clutter and information overload. In this week’s edition: ads from the US and Australia for Uber, a TVC for an e-commerce brand in Canada and more.
Uber: master class in theme advertising and use of a medium
Recently, I came across a campaign for Uber in the US which caught my eye in the context of two things (a) creating theme & tactical ads and (b) optimal use of a medium. The head of marketing at Uber, North America said ‘We’re reimagining how Uber fits into daily life outside the city, because wherever you are, there’s a driver you can count on.’ So it’s all about reliability of an ‘always available’ driver in the context of life outside the big metro in the US.
What I liked about this campaign: a ‘hero’ film which takes forward the idea of driver available everywhere through an emotional love story. The creative idea of a ‘drive arriving in 4 min’ or 6 min is brilliant. It immediately cues reliability and the possibility of so much can happen in a short span of time. I loved the last part of ‘do you have a minute?’ and a hint of their relationship being set in the right direction. Storytelling at its best. The reason why advertising is so powerful in telling emotive stories in 30-seconds.
The tactical ads, on the other hand, focus on a specific use case and a corresponding solution from Uber: XL cars for large storage, event unexpected tantrums from your dog and so on.
The team could have taken the lazy way out by taking a ‘key visual’ from the theme ads and plastered it on outdoor (which seems to be the common practice from FMCG brands in India). Instead the brevity of the outdoor medium and the context depending on the location is exploited to the hilt. A strategically placed message at the parking lot of a super market, one near an outdoor runner’s spot – is just common sense advertising at its best.
Agency: Mother
Apple: match cut magic
Many presentations and websites of design agencies use this quote from Steve Jobs: ‘Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works’. But who is better placed to use that quote than Apple themselves? And what better way to demonstrate it in use than by showing how it is put in practice by Apple itself? A new film uses the match-cut technique brilliantly to transition from one ‘shape’ to another across the Apple ecosystem of product & services to demonstrate their use and benefit. A simple, visually engaging film which goes a long way in brightening the halo around Apple products.
Skip: could’ve have skipped it
Skip is the brand name of an online delivery service in Canada. Skip to the good part. What can we bring to your door? is their claim on the website. A new film uses actor Seth Rogen (fresh from the success of The Studio on Apple TV) in a situation where he and his friends are ‘imagining’ movie ideas. In each of those ideas, they realise that the protagonist could have ‘skipped that’ driving home the point that everything can be delivered by Skip. An ad with great strategy, creative idea and execution. Loved it.
Agency: Courage, Canada
Selleys Liquid Nails: try yanking stuff from the billboard
Back in the 1980s, ad agency FCO Univas stuck an actual car on to a billboard for Araldite, an adhesive brand. This was to ‘prove’ the strength of the brand. What’s more they followed it up with adding one more (actual) car on top of it and later pulled them all off leaving behind the line, ‘How did they pull it off?’ Imagine this kind of work in today’s digital world. This would have been all the rage on Instagram.
Australian brand Selleys did something similar recently by sticking objects – not just random stuff of no value but expensive, big stuff – like a kayak, an arcade machine and a 2.8-metre marlin to a billboard. The challenge? If you can take it, it’s yours. Brilliant demo.
Agency: Howatson+Company
Uber: Can’t do that if you’re driving
As I said before, Uber and Uber Eats don’t seem to be sticking to one universal message across the globe. They are running different themes in Europe and US. For Uber Eats, ‘This but not that’, When you’ve done enough, Uber Eats’ and ‘you’d go to any lengths to get the membership benefits’. For Uber too, they are tweaking the reason-why to choose the brand depending on the geography.
In Australia, they are running campaign based on this idea: ‘Can’t do that if you’re driving’. One of the reasons for cab hire is to avoid the frustration of city driving. This idea plays well into that sentiment without taking the problem-solution approach. The ‘stuff’ you can do in the backseat without the worry of driving (such as dozing off, playing air drums) makes it interesting.
Agency: Special Group
Apple at Work: cringe or effective?
The many blogs dedicated to news from the Apple world are often the places to find the most strident criticism of the brand, from Apple fans. In the past, they have been critical of the long-format film to promote ‘Apple at Work’ calling it a cringe-fest for the over-the-top acting and theatrics. That tenor continues in the latest edition of The Underdogs with the team selling their ‘sustainable bags’ placed in a situation which pokes fun at Windows PCs anchored on the ‘Blue Screen of Death’ (based on an actual event – the outage caused by a faulty update to the CrowdStrike Falcon security software in July 2024).
KFC: missing tooth
It’s fun when brands don’t mind toying with their own powerful brand assets. They are not paranoid about being playful and have confidence in their own brand. In time with hockey season in Canada, KFC had their famous colonel represented with a couple of teeth missing in their billboards.
Agency: Courage
Which one was your favourite? Do comment in.
