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Video campaigns and Successful Ads of 2021-2022

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Every year advertising seems to get better and better. It’s incredible to see brands building on what worked in the past and making video an even more powerful tool. 

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Heinz Draw Ketchup

Heinz utilized a clever testimonial style video to showcase a product that's widely used among people. Being the king of the condiment world, they used this to their advantage. Having real people draw their brand in association with Ketchup, it's a very surefire way of showing their successful and well-loved condiment. By using this mass testimonial style video, they are essentially saying “if you don't use Heinz what are you doing, look at all of these people around the world who love it.”

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iPhone 13 

Surely you’ve dropped your iPhone (or smartphone), gotten it wet, or had it die at the worst time possible. We all have. It’s normal. By focusing on these moments and adding a little cheeky humour, audiences are comforted in relating to the “oh crap” situations. 

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Relatability is a strong advertising pillar and Apple’s usage reassures the audience that they get it, and they “hear you”. Even if you worry about breaking your phone, or getting it dirty, they got your back stating “Relax, It's iPhone.” 

It's smart. Other companies would have promoted the phone’s durability in a technical, overreaching video. Apple on the other hand is notorious for promoting individual aspects of a product separately, to really show the scope of what the phone can do over multiple advertisements and campaigns. Around the same time, Apple was promoting the iPhone 13 pro cameras, as well as its battery life. So, all of these elements from the same product were promoted differently. With this, they were able to creatively expand on their product functions, while also keeping the visuals and content fresh.

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Huggies

In 2021 the “Huggies: Welcome to the World” campaign consisted of exceptionally well produced brand videos. The style is quick paced and out of the usual for a Huggies commercial, touching parents around the world with the relatable pure crazy joy that comes with having a baby. Here’s how we broke this down. Huggies showcased cute babies, diverse in ethnicity and personality, keeping it real with jokes and recognizable situations, all while using infographics and jump cuts to keep attention. This 30 second ad stands out; It’s a cop-out for Baby brands to lean into the calm and slow side, but these quick and fun Huggies ads are a good way of setting them apart from the competition.

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Jif Peanut Butter

Do we even have to say anything? Mixed medium ads are exciting to watch. Using a mix of animation, VFX and graphics, the ad tells a story far beyond the traditional peanut butter ad. While this was just another ad on daytime TV, what's interesting is many people within the youtube comment section of the video mentioned that Jif should have saved it for the Super Bowl. The company obviously did a great job producing engaging and high quality content. It was so good, people assumed it would fit in a lineup alongside the other costly commercials. We think the key here is bringing in Ludacris and writing a story that commands the audience's attention. Though hiring celebrities isn’t really attainable for smaller brands, achieving this style of video is possible with the right team and creative collaboration.

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Inspired by Iceland - Icelandverse

A very clever response to Mark Zuckerberg’s viral Meta video “Metaverse,” this “Icelandverse” video is a direct parody and tongue-in-cheek commentary on the digital vs. Natural worlds. It’s successful as so many people are able to watch it and make connections between the two hilariously deadpan videos (although one was much more intentional than its predecessor). And even if you hadn't seen the metaverse video prior, the sheer absurdity of the content is interesting enough to keep people intrigued, while also being super sharable due to its humour. Inspired by Iceland is now on your radar because of this video, so who are they? What's their story? What do they do, and why are they parodying it? These questions are exactly what they were going for. Overall, it piques interest. This humorous parody approach helps with the video retention, shareability, and relevance.

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Legacy - Travelers Insurance

This ad presents itself as more of a short film than an ad. And that is such a good thing; it's a very unique and fresh way of showing off your brand. In only one minute, we see an entire plot unfold and the characters grow. It tugs at heartstrings and as an insurance company should, uses their product as the solution to the base of the conflict. This case study approach makes for a super clear understanding of what the product is, and how it can improve the quality of life for those who partake in it. Short, simple, and sweet, this ad gets its point across and prods at viewers' emotions to leave a lasting impression.

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Reddit - 5 Seconds

People love to solve a good mystery. During the 2021 Super Bowl, millions of audience members around the globe said “what was that?”, and fell right into Reddit's ingenious trap. You see, Super Bowl ad spaces are EXPENSIVE. And so Reddit, being the clever social media site it is, utilized the instinctual behaviours of audiences and set them up with a mystery worth solving. To anyone watching the Super Bowl, 5 seconds of what looks like an error message or a broadcast glitch would catch you off guard, and people took to social media to show off their weird experience. What they found instead was an official Reddit post on almost any platform they jumped to, and Reddit closed the case on their little prank. This got them major interaction and put them on millions of people's social media feeds. It was a gamble, but it actually worked. Read up about this particular ad here: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/08/how-reddit-made-its-super-bowl-commercial-in-less-than-a-week.html

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Tesco Ramadan

Tesco released this incredibly well thought out piece of art this past April, celebrating Ramadan and signifying the fast during the sunlit hours of the day by only having the plates on the billboard filled with food after sundown. This awesome representation of Iftar was a really amazing way to showcase its part in the community and its respect for the Muslim culture within it. By sharing the time lapse online, people around the world were able to appreciate the billboard installment. Helen Rhodes, the executive creative director, stated that “Our creative ambition was simple, to create work that is not only representative but also gave a voice to our Muslim creative industry.” Video advertising can run much deeper than surface level promotion, it gives creative opportunity to reach new lengths and create something meaningful, allowing your brand to show its values and impact.