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Our Fave Five

Thoughts -

It’s time for the next instalment of our Fave Five series, where we shine a spotlight on the creative work that has caught our eyes (and ears) recently.

We asked the Agent team to share the work that has grabbed their attention this month. From creative campaigns and billboard displays, to the brands poking fun at bad advertising, it’s been a busy month!

Here are our Fave Five.

1. The Good Organisation’s #seethingsdifferently campaign.

Making an impact doesn’t always have to come in the form of loud advertisements and skyscraper billboards. Sometimes, making an impact can be achieved through the combination of simple, strategic product placement and a powerful message.

The Good Organisation’s #seethingsdifferently campaign used creativity in words, format and placement to drive awareness and enhance the effective voice and representation of homeless people in the UK.

While the campaign launched in 2019, it has recently circulated on LinkedIn. The project adopted creative approaches that directly challenged the public’s misconceptions about homelessness by championing community engagement and participation.

We love everything about this campaign. As marketers we play such a vital role in awakening the minds of our target audiences and doing it whilst creating a meaningful social impact is really the cherry on the top.

To read more about the campaign, visit the Good Organisation’s website here.

2. Magnum x On The Beach in Piccadilly Gardens.

This one gave the whole team a laugh.

Ice cream brand Magnum suffered some heavy criticism after placing an ad in Manchester’s notable green space that read, “The only thing that can make lying on Piccadilly Gardens even better”, with a very large image of a Magnum ice cream.

Inevitably, this sparked ridicule as anyone who lives in the North West – or has been to Manchester – knows Piccadilly Gardens is unlikely to be in anyone’s top 100, or 1,000, places to sit back, relax and take in the sun while enjoying an ice cream.

So, to add fuel to the fire and capitalise on the moment, holiday expert On the Beach chose to strategically position its own mobile outdoor ad that poked fun at the mocked campaign – a technique known in industry as competitive advertising. The ad read, “Even better than lying on Piccadilly Gardens (ice cream optional)”, with a picture of a man sunbathing in a pool while floating on an inflatable.

Whether they’re making a discreet pass, or simply throwing blatant shade, competitive advertising is a common tactic used by many brands in the industry and truthfully, we love to see it.

3. Time to Change beermats.

Another marketing campaign that has been doing the internet rounds recently dates back to 2018 and comes from former Mental Health campaign Time to Change.

The campaign rose to social media fame after photos of beer mats with messages about men’s mental health printed on them were shared on Twitter by a local who praised the find.

The coasters were part of the company’s ‘Be in your Mate’s Corner’ campaign which aimed to reach men in places they felt most comfortable, and encourage them to open up about their feelings and start discussions about their mental wellbeing.

Having run a similar project for suicide prevention charity, James’ Place, we’re big advocates for taking a more creative approach to awareness campaigns and focusing on clever placement to directly reach the intended audience.

4. Life and Death animation by DeeKay Kwon.

A name familiar to most within the digital art space is DeeKay Kwon, and for good reason. He has set records for the prices his work has sold for, not to mention the calibre of collectors who boast about owning his work.

He recently gained prominence once again after breaking his previously recorded all-time high for a 1/1 sale, when his piece ‘Life and Death’ sold for $1 million.

In the 30 second animation, the audience follows the life journey of a boy through ‘stages’ set by the artist. In stage one, we see the character young and carefree, before venturing into the later stages in life where we witness him experience love, heartbreak, relocation, and other experiences we’ll all likely encounter on our own paths.

The detailed animation invites audience along on a journey of life before completing the circle with the character’s emotional death.

You can watch the full animation here.

5. Tesco’s ‘Together this Ramadan’ digital billboard.

Tesco’s Ramadan campaign has been the talk of the town in the marketing world recently, primarily because it’s the first time the supermarket name has marked the holy occasion with a significant advertising push.

Launching its digital billboards at the start of the month in line with the beginning of Ramadan, the campaign centres around Iftar, the evening meal that signifies the end of the daily fast.

The billboards, found in cities with higher Muslim populations including Brent, Birmingham and Bradford, feature a collection of empty plates during the day, which begin to fill up with food as the sun sets in real-time to signify Iftar. The changing image is accompanied by the campaign’s slogan ‘Together this Ramadan’, along with an explanatory line, ‘in honour of everyone fasting, these plates only fill up as the sun goes down’.

The billboards are all positioned eastwards, in line with the setting sun to emphasise the significance of nightfall for Iftar. The campaign runs for three hours before dusk, with no other ads running alongside, which was deliberately planned by the team’s creative team.

Watch the billboard display, here.

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