As the Head of Social, my favorite ads do have a propensity to lean towards those with a good social strategy. With that in mind, here are two I like and one that I don’t.
Two Ads I Like
Carlton Draught – Big Ad
Now I know it might be a bit redundant to speak about an ad that was first released in 2005, however whenever someone asks me the question of what my favorite ad is, this will always be the answer.
In a time of television being one of the main focuses of advertising, this ad disrupted the industry by creating two separate choirs of people chanting about what a big ad it is, with a big budget doing a great job of breaking the fourth wall.
As they are running towards each other in a field to emulate someone drinking a nice cold Carlton draught. Not only was it contextually relevant at the time by imitating similar cinematic battles in similar terrains, it also had a social strategy behind it, before ‘social’ was even a thing.
My favorite part of this ad is the release structure, where Carlton Draught actually released the ad on the internet two weeks before it went to air. Within one day it had over 160,000 downloads (yes, back when downloads where a thing and not streams) and within that two week period had been seen by over one million viewers worldwide, before it even hit the TV. The virality of this release meant that Carlton Draught actually reduced its TV spend as to not overexpose the audience with it – a quality problem to have and a selling point for the world of social media before viral videos were a thing.
Post Malone for Bud Light
Moving onto something more recent, Post Malone’s involvement with Bud Light has been an ongoing relationship, so much so that he raps about it in his songs. Now I am going to caveat my opinion here by saying I don’t think that these are the most creative ads, and I certainly don’t love them, but there is plenty of things I like about them.
Most of all the way Post Malone integrated such an integral brand ambassador and influencer of its overarching brand to promote a product that is slightly off-kilter for them.
Posty Store
Posty Bar
For context, Bud Light had an ad placement for the 2020 Super Bowl that it was using to promote its new product range of ‘Bud Light Seltzer’ – Bud Light created two separate ads and had Post Malone post both versions to his 26 Million social followers and asked them to select which ad to promote by hashtagging either #PostyBar or #PostyStore
Whilst the story of the ads is reminiscent of the children’s movie ‘Inside Out’, it takes a comic spin on the drink selection, even so to have his characters inside his brain, imitating his face tattoos.
Ultimately #PostyStore won the spot to air during the Super Bowl, but only by .4% and garnered a true socially driven conversation, well before the Super Bowl aired.
One Ad I Don’t Like
KFC – Zinger Popcorn Box
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRriM-LPy24&feature=youtu.be
UPDATE: This ad has since been removed from YouTube
Now I hate to kick a brand whilst it is down however I think it would be remiss not to mention, the most recent KFC ad that has been running during the 2020 Big Bash League. Now whilst KFC is being slammed for the sexist nature of the ad my distaste for this ad goes beyond that, in the fact that it serves no purpose.
It is a series of random scenes thrown together with some catchy music at the end and girls dancing around whilst eating some KFC. Setting aside, the unnecessary sexualized nature of the ad, I don’t see the point from a branding perspective or a creative one.
