Maisie Lloyd
I'm passionate about recording the world, but most of all driven by creativity and collaborative environments. My experience revolves around the production of digital content, pertaining to graphic design, writing copy, and video and audio content.
Ad campaigns are a marketing tool used to position brands or products to new and existing audiences. Ads are an effective way to promote products as there are a plethora of types of ads that marketers can use. Ads come in all forms, allowing brands to market their content in the most fitting manner for their customer personas. Some of the most used types of ads include print adverts, broadcasts (TV, radio, and podcasts), social media, display ads, guerilla and outdoor.
Why is advertising still so important?
Specific types of ads such as display or social media ads, allow brands also to gather data on clicks, leads and conversions. When brands are given insight through ads, they can then tailor the next campaign to meet the needs/behaviours of the audience.
A resonating campaign must attain one of the following qualities to be considered memorable: messaging, visuals, catchphrases, or slogans, or it may be informative. Some of the best ads are the ones we reminisce about years after they were aired, published, or launched.
Which campaigns have resonated strongly with audiences?
Considering the lasting impacts that ads can have, we have gathered some of the most iconic British and American ad campaigns to discuss the success and impact they had.
Viral Smile – Smile, 2022
The horror film Smile was released in September of 2022 and grossed $13,144,628 in the UK alone. Their approach saw models and actors placed within crowds at three baseball games in the US. The actors adorning luminous yellow ‘Smile’ t-shirts, positioned tactfully in the line of the camera to help promote the film’s release.
What was particularly effective for this campaign was the crowd’s participation in reporting their sightings on social media accounts. This made the campaign go viral on Twitter, which propelled the overall success of the film.
“Snoop Dogg” – Just Eat
Just Eats innovative ad campaign featuring Snoop Dogg, proves that jingles are one of the many ways ads can have a lasting impression. The campaign has gained notoriety for having a catchy jingle. it goes to show finding the right talent to collaborate with can really help improve a brand’s reputation.
Snoop Dogg in particular has a considerable following with currently 87 million followers on Instagram alone. His social media presence seemed to help create conversation and traction around the Just Eats brand. The catchy jingle is possibly one of the most effective marketing tactics, forging connections between pop culture and the food and drink industry. Utilising influence to push the service ultimately makes it so easy to recognise and sing along with.
Like a Girl – Always
Like a Girl can be defined as a campaign with high societal impact, statistically proven to have psychologically disrupted the norm of the time. The belief was that a woman is less capable of physical activities in comparison to a man. The campaign now allows us to reflect upon the changing perceptions of the time and how conversations are starting to change.
The Campaign made waves, shifting the perspective on what it means to do something ‘like a girl’. The campaign’s ability to raise awareness, and shift the conversation and perspective is a clear indication of the impact it had.
Knitted by Nanas – Shreddies
The Shreddies Knitted by Nana’s campaign is a fondly reminisce upon the campaign. The campaign spanned multiple years and featured multiple iterations of adverts.
The psychology of airing times is particularly interesting in this campaign as it proved to be done effectively. The airing time couldn’t have been better as it was aired over the early hours of the morning, a method used to encourage sales and subliminally position Shreddies as the perfect choice.
Cog – Honda
Cog by Honda allowed product marketing to shift into a new realm of creativity, proving ads that incorporate visuals and some forms of narrative are ones to remember. Cog’s narrative is simple, as each component of the car journey to the whole Honda Civic, enticing the audience to watch as each element takes its place.
This reimagined way of advertising a car, allowed audiences to invest time into the ad before fully understanding what was being promoted. At the point of the reveal in the advert, there’s a lot to have taken in, creating food for thought for audiences.
Dumb Ways to Die – Melbourne Metro
Similarly, to the Just Eats campaign, Dumb Ways to Die will always be recognised by the masses for its catchy jingle. Its playful nature makes it both endearing and silly, the lyrics are kept simple and that’s what makes it such an earworm!
The campaign was an absolute success for Melbourne Metro. It helped raise awareness of staying safe with a reported 21% decrease in incidents. International spectators still felt the impact of the campaign, from a different perspective as seeing the Dumb Ways to Die campaign as a brand. It demonstrates the entity this campaign became. Multiple games, millions of views, followers, and the most shared video of 2012.
FCK – KFC
KFC’s responsive campaign set the tone for how brands respond to moments of pressure and criticism. The witty campaign’s play on words was a really effective way to position the brand, appearing to be honest and self-aware. Their ability to quickly respond to the chicken shortage scandal in such an effective way proved to be an asset to the brand and the marketing industry as a whole.
Similarly to Smile, the campaign was a major hit on social platforms and allowed space for the brand’s customer base to have an open dialogue with customer services and other customers. Connecting the brand with the customers in such a way allowed for trust to be maintained as well as their overall reputation.
Our key takeaways
From visuals, plots and jingles, every campaign has left some sort of impression on our lives. Each campaign has its own way of embedding into our memory, each approach to the differing campaigns demonstrates the creativity and unique methods for selling products and services.
What is clear, is a successful campaign is not as simple as one size fits all. It does however prove that no matter how simple or extravagant a campaign is, it’s the bones of the campaign that counts. It’s the messaging, imagery and audio elements that linger in our minds. If there’s anything modern campaigns can take influence from, it’s the creative approach to a campaign. Evaluating the goals of a campaign and finding the best way to position ads to new and existing audiences.
References
47 Marketing. (2020, January 23). Knitted by Nana’s campaign development for Nestle Cereals | 47 Marketing. https://47marketing.co.uk/case-studies/nestle-cereals/
Analysis of Shreddies Marketing campaign. (2014, April 22). Zak Reino’s Business Blog. https://zakreinobuisness.wordpress.com/analysis-of-shreddies-marketing-campaign/
Brownsell, A. (2019, June 7). KFC: A very fcking clever campaign. Campaign. https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/kfc-fcking-clever-campaign/1498912#:~:text=According%20to%20data%20from%20YouGov,7%25%20before%20the%20problems%20began
Brophy, A. (2018, June 27). Ad of the month – KFC. YouGov. https://yougov.co.uk/consumer/articles/21080-ad-month-kfc
COG: The most influential advert ever? | Honda Engine Room. (n.d.). https://www.honda.co.uk/engineroom/cog/
Dumb Ways to Die. (2012, November 15). Dumb ways to die [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJNR2EpS0jw
Fra. (2011, October 13). Honda – The story of Cog. This Is Not ADVERTISING. https://thisisnotadvertising.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/honda-the-story-of-cog/
Honda Motor Company. (2003, April 6). The Cog. [Advertisement] YouTube. https://youtu.be/Z57kGB-mI54?si=F8sYYoSwGPKJd9Ef
Insight & Strategy: #LikeAGirl. (n.d.). Contagious. https://www.contagious.com/news-and-views/insight-strategy-likeagirl
Just Eat. (2020, July 27). Did Somebody Say – Just Eat ft. Snoop Dogg (Official Video w/ subtitles) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFPEedHvHqs
Just Eat | Just Eat | Just Eat ft. Snoop Dogg. (n.d.). https://caples.org/2021-winners-results/?id=237&cat=Traditional%20media#:~:text=In%20the%20first%203%20days,to%20someone%20in%20their%20DMs
Louissteven. (2016, February 24). Dumb ways to die. Dumb Ways to Die. https://dumbwaystodiecasestudy.wordpress.com/#:~:text=The%20campaign%20was%20wildly%20successful,(Brand%20News%2C%202013)
Made Global case study – Just Eat – Advertising Association. (2021, August 25). Advertising Association. https://adassoc.org.uk/our-work/made-global-case-study-just-eat/
Moreau, E. (2023, September 18). Dumb Ways to Die — The effectiveness of a serious game. Medium. https://emiliemoreau.medium.com/the-effectiveness-of-a-serious-game-dumb-ways-to-die-78fb778cdb15
MOSAIC. (2018, May 3). Always #LikeAGirl [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxrPeFKtUwQ
Nestlé. (2007) Knitted by Nannas. [Advertisement]
Our epic battle #LikeAGirl. (n.d.). https://www.always.co.uk/en-gb/about-us/campaigns-and-initiatives/our-epic-battle-like-a-girl/
Smile (2022) – IMDB. (n.d.). IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15474916/reviews
Smile – viral marketing (2022) The Shorty Awards. Available at: https://shortyawards.com/15th/smile-viral-marketing
Trayner, D. (2018, February 23). KFC apologises over chicken shortage with cheeky ad – and Twitter LOVES it. . . The Sun. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5649831/kfc-advert-chicken-shortage-apology-twitter/
UKAEG. (2022, September 28). Snoop Dogg in ‘Did Somebody Just Say’ x Just Eat Takeaway | UKAEG. https://ukaeg.com/case-study/snoop-dogg-in-did-somebody-just-say-x-just-eat-takeaway/
