On social media, celebrities in 2020 don’t have much more to offer you than the occasional solemn video about how “we’re all in this together,” filmed from the socially distant comfort of their 200-room mansions. But what if they could offer benefits that were a bit more practical? In Geico’s campaign launched this summer, expanded…
Like a true nature’s child, Flo was born to be wild. Or something.
Progressive’s iconic ad character, played by Stephanie Courtney, revs up the va-va-vroom in this tongue-in-cheek motorcycle-themed print campaign created by Arnold Worldwide with Buffalo Art Co. and custom bike builder Chase Stopnik. (The work marks another departure for Flo from her familiar white-and-blue aproned commercial appearances, following her ectoplasmic turn in spots touting the insurer’s sponsorship of the Ghostbusters reboot.)
Now, Flo goes the sexy/rebel biker-chick route—which, of course, yields some high-octane kitsch, as she poses on custom-built “Chrome Thrones” made from motorcycle parts designed to represent different rigs.
A high-tech house proves to be far from a “smart home” when two burglars arrive in “Welcome,” the latest amusing spot from Tribal DDB in Amsterdam for insurance company Centraal Beheer. The long-running comic campaign is tagged “Just call Apeldoorn,” the Dutch city where the client is located.
This minute-long ad is more subtle than previous installments like “Speedboat” and “Self-Driving Car,” which relied heavily on slapstick and noisy effects to deliver the message. Still, one key theme—technophobia—is carried over from past work, and once again viewers are promised a nasty future shock if we don’t take proper precautions (like buying insurance from Centraal Beheer).
The humor is pleasantly subdued, and the perfectly paced build-up leaves us slightly off balance until the satisfying payoff (not payout, however, unless you have Centraal Beheer).
You’ve gotta love those final scenes, with a cocksure, sweaty Silicon Valley-type hyping his home-control gizmo in a packed auditorium. Good luck with that IPO, Einstein!
It’s best to go slow, even on YouTube.
BBDO Russia uses the YouTube interface brilliantly for the video below, which purports to show dash-cam footage of a fatal accident. (Such videos are popular on YouTube in Russia.) But in fact, the 10-minute film shows nothing of the kind—just one car passing another.
However, if you fast-forward through the video by moving your cursor along the timeline (as viewers of this kind of material often do, searching for the accident), the preview thumbnails do depict a head-on collision with a truck. Thus, those who “speed” through the film experience an accident, while those who don’t speed do not. (The thumbnails also lead to the message “Don’t Rush” from the advertiser, insurance company Intouch.)
Clever as hell. Try it for yourself below.
Nationwide decided to use one of its two Super Bowl ad slots tonight to highlight the lethal potential of preventable child accidents. The result wasn’t exactly festive fare.
Here’s a pretty accurate cross-section of Twitter’s response, which you probably experienced first-hand when the ad came up during the game’s first half.
“We’re Nationwide Insurance! EVERYONE DIES. Enjoy the game! Nationwide.”
— Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) February 2, 2015
My 10 yo daughter: “I don’t think Nationwide is on my side”
— Nole Chick (@nolechick94) February 2, 2015
Nationwide: We’re not saying your kid is gonna die, but you better buy our insurance
— Matt Roller (@rolldiggity) February 2, 2015
“Look how amazing kids can be.” – Microsoft “Unless they die.” – Nationwide
— Zach Harper (@talkhoops) February 2, 2015
The second I see a kid in one of these commercials I immediately assume they’re going to die. Thanks, Nationwide! #SuperBowl
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) February 2, 2015
Nationwide says “Enjoy the Halftime Show!” pic.twitter.com/VGesJZBWlN
— Dan O’Donnell (@DanODradio) February 2, 2015
A parade. Children, laughing. Two teenagers on a first date. Sorry, but the world actually perished in a senseless nuclear war. Nationwide.
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) February 2, 2015
Thanks to that Nationwide commercial this will be the last bath my little dude ever takes. pic.twitter.com/ivFpXXFRcN
— Gary Parrish (@GaryParrishCBS) February 2, 2015
McDonald’s: Your payment is to call your mom and tell her you love her. Nationwide: Your mom is dead.
— Eli Langer (@EliLanger) February 2, 2015
No one in the Nationwide advertising meeting put up their hand and went, “Let’s sleep on this?”
— Dan Graziano (@DanGrazianoESPN) February 2, 2015
State Farm has been running the “Magic Jingle” advertising campaign for a while, in which customers are able to summon their agents out of thin air in times of crisis by singing the famous jingle: “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.”
What’s been left unspoken—until now—is how weird the scene must be back in the State Farm offices, with agents constantly disappearing while chatting with colleagues.
This new spot from Translation looks at the campaign from the latter angle, comically checking in on disappearing agents in State Farm offices across the country. The spot was directed by Roman Coppola, with longtime David Fincher cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth handling DP duties.
“There really are endless jokes to make and directions to explore with the concept of teleportation,” Translation creative director Nick Sonderup tells AdFreak.
“We knew the spot worked because there were just so many ways to execute it. On the surface, the idea that a State Farm agent will be there no matter when you need them is only one part of the story. When you consider what those agents might be in the middle of when you sing the jingle, and they’re summoned to your side—that’s when it clicked and we knew things could get really fun.”
“It’s also a response to the way the ‘Magic Jingle’ campaign has become part of culture,” adds Patty Morris, State Farm marketing director of brand content. (Indeed, just look at all the “Magic Jingle” parodies on Vine.)
“We’ve seen so many terrific user-generated parodies and creative ways of approaching the idea. We took the opportunity to re-think it ourselves, and the result was a completely fresh piece of creative that stays true to our original strategy.”
CREDITS
Brand/Client: State Farm
Campaign Title: State Farm Magic Jingle
Spot Title: “Magic Jingle Disappearing Agents”
First Air Date: 1/10/15
Agency: Translation
Founder & CEO: Steve Stoute
Chief Creative Officer: John Norman
Creative Director: Nick Sonderup
Creative Director: Andy Grant
Art Director: Allison Bulow
Copywriter: Jameson Rossi
Partner, Strategy: John McBride
Director of Content Production: Miriam Franklin
Director of Business Management: Thalia Tsouros
VP Account Director: Susanna Swartley
Account Supervisor: Sara Daino
Assistant Account Executive: Jake Thorndike
Producer: Andy Murillo
Junior Producer: Kristen Cooler
Production: The Directors Bureau
Director: Roman Coppola
DP: Jeff Cronenweth
Managing Director/Executive Producer: Lisa Margulis
Executive Producer/Head of Production: Elizabeth Minzes
Producer: Mary Livingston
Editorial Company: Rock Paper Scissors NY
Editor: Carlos Arias
Assistant Editor: Alexandra Debricon
Post Executive Producer: Eve Kornblum
Post Producer: Lisa Barnable
VFX Company: The Mill
VFX Artist: Gavin Wellsman, Jeff Butler
VFX Executive Producer: Boo Wong
VFX Producer: Colin Moneymaker
Audio Post: Heard City
Mixer: Keith Reynaud, Mike Vitacco
Executive Producer: Gloria Pitagorsky
Producer: Sasha Awn
Sound Design: Henryboy
Sound Designer: Bill Chesley
Executive Producer: Kate Gibson
Original Music: Beacon Street
Composers: Andrew Feltenstein and John Nau
Executive Producers: Adrea Lavezzoli and Leslie Dilullo
Media: OMD
State Farm Marketing Director, Brand Content: Patty Morris
State Farm Advertising Manager: Troy Johnson
State Farm Marketing Analyst, Mass Media Brand Content: Christine Williams
State Farm Marketing Analyst, Mass Media Brand Content: Jeff Greeneberg
This lunatic British ad admits dealing with life insurance can be “a bit of a nightmare.” How much of a nightmare? It feels like having your nice bubble bath interrupted by a screaming pig-faced beast who sprays you with tap water and beans you with you own rubber ducky.
Frankly, the anti-bubble-bath sentiment expressed by that thing is offensive to me. Don’t bath-shame, ugly.
Fortunately, the beast has some kind of heart attack or asthmatic seizure, and—well, just watch for yourself. I haven’t exactly worked out the details, which is OK, because I don’t think the agency who made this hurt themselves thinking about them, either.
Credits below.
CREDITS
Client: Beagle Street
Managing Director: Matthew Gledhill
Agency: The Corner London
Creative Director: Tom Ewart
Copywriter: Robert Amstell
Art Director: Matthew Lancod
Planning Director: Neil Hourston
Planner: Ollie Gilmore
Business Director: Fleur Andrews
Account Director: Tenzin Pooch
Agency Producer: Daisy Mellors
Assistant Producer: Lauren Gray
Media Company: MEC
Production Company: Colonel Blimp
Director: David Wilson
Production Company Producer: Sam Levene
Editor: Max Windows at Stitch
Post prod Producer: Fi Kilroe
Post-production House: Finish
Audio post-production: Sam Ashwell at 750mph
MetLife asks people on the street who they live for in this campaign designed to give life insurance a human dimension.
The answers are pretty much what you’d expect. People live for their spouses, parents and significant others—for their kids, grandkids, siblings and, in one case, an adorable bulldog named Huey.
Two longer YouTube clips anchor the #WhoILiveFor campaign and present many diverse people, while shorter edits break out individual stories. A guitar player named Heath ad-libs a soundtrack/jingle that runs through the longest video, which is a nice touch.
Gustavo, a young Hispanic guy, delivers the sweetest moment when he talks about his boyfriend, Fernando, who “helped me come out of the closet.” There’s also social outreach, with consumers encouraged to share their stories, though there’s no traditional media buy.
MetLife’s goal is “to try to get people to think about insurance in a different way,” Richard Hong, the company’s svp, global brand and marketing, told the New York Times. Most folks “think about life insurance as a death benefit, [but] people really buy life insurance for the other people in their lives. We wanted to flip the lens on this, make it a positive.”
Crispin Porter + Bogusky created the work, which coincides with National Life Insurance Month. (Party at my place tonight. BYOB—Bring your own broker!)
The effort’s somewhat similar to the Cannes Grand Prix-winning campaign from funeral insurance company Dela, in which real people thank those closest to them while they still can. Both campaigns expose the human core at the heart of what’s often perceived as a bureaucratic, faceless (and some might say evil) industry.
Dela’s emotionally intense viral films are mini-masterpieces that really get under you skin. That said, I admire the way MetLife lets people simply tell their stories, rather than staging lavish productions designed to go viral. By putting a premium on spontaneity, MetLife delivers a subtly profound payoff.
Life in Thailand is pretty meaningful, judging by the heartrending commercials the country produces. Companies like TrueMove and Thai Life Insurance have been rolling out masterful long-form spots about the deeper meaning of existence for several years. And now, the latter returns with a lovely little story about the power of music.
The spot is about a boy who’s bullied, at first, for his clumsy attempts at playing guitar. As usual with these things, it’s best not to reveal too much about the plot beforehand. So, watch below—and shield your watery eyes from co-workers. Agency: Ogilvy & Mather.
Some aspects of the techno-utopian fantasy are especially worth skewering, and Dutch insurer Centraal Beheer does a pretty nice number on one of them: the self-driving car.
The brand has a knack for making disaster funny by casting some obnoxious stereotype as fictional villain. A couple of years back, it was a moron in a red Speedo doing circus tricks with his speedboat wheel. Now, in a new ad, it’s a self-important ass reading the paper in the backseat of a Volkswagen that’s being driven by a computer.
The commercial does bear a resemblance to Liberty Mutual’s 2012 spot about human error, but adds another layer to the slapstick joke, and keeps it au courant by blaming the escalating fiasco on the disbelief of spectators distracted by the driverless VW. That premise is a stretch, but it’s definitely good for a chuckle.
Now, if only the computer chauffeur would take its passenger into the ocean, or maybe just into a shipping container bound for a remote island inhabited entirely by robots.
CREDITS
Client: Centraal Beheer Achmea
Agency: DDB & Tribal Worldwide, Amsterdam
Production Company: Passion Raw
Director: Owen Trevor
DP: Tim Hudson
Producer: Dan Scott-Croxford, Kwok Yau
Editor: Guy Savin
Grading : Brian Krijgsman
Online: Ton Habraken, Stephen Pepper, Jeroen van Berkel
Soundstudio: Rens Pluym, Wessel-Jan van Zijderveld
Music: Massive Music
Sure, we could listen to pundits or statisticians to try to predict the outcome of the World Cup final on Sunday. They’ve got suits and numbers. But what they don’t have is a black cat.
Why listen to logic when there’s a feline (named Lucky, natch) who can—and will—tell you who will lose the World Cup. At least, that’s what Leo Burnett and Lapiz have cooked up for Allstate’s interactive World Cup campaign. Let’s not forget that Allstate is a fan of mayhem, and black cats, of course, are well-known harbingers of bad luck.
If you tweet the hashtag #EnviaMalaSuerte (translation: “Send bad luck”) with the name of the team you’d prefer to lose, some cat food will drop into that team’s bowl. On Sunday, before the game, during a live YouTube broadcast, Lucky will get to choose between the Argentina and Germany bowls. Whichever bowl Lucky chooses to nosh at—well, that team will not win the World Cup. Allegedly.
It’s a silly (and cute) campaign. Rooting for sports teams can bring out some odd behavior, so why not play with people’s fan rituals?
One of the lovably misguided characters from “Dumb Ways to Die” sold both his kidneys on the Internet. Now, the client behind the beloved campaign has made a similarly greedy deal with the devil.
Through a licensing deal, Metro Trains has sold the creative product pretty much wholesale to Empire Life Insurance Co., which is cutting its own ads from it. Three 30-second spots posted online play snippets from the original musical cartoon, before a female voice pipes in and says: “What’s the dumbest way of all to die? Having no life insurance.” Empire has also done some digital ads with the characters and plans “a robust merchandise program … for multiple territories worldwide,” according to the Globe and Mail.
Ugh.
Talk about dumb. As the Ethical Adman points out, it just seems lazy and greedy—plus, the viral potential of the work has already been tapped worldwide, so what’s the point? On the eve of the 2014 Cannes Lions festival, it’s also a depressing slap in the face to the ad business to see the most decorated campaign in Cannes history bastardized like this—a PSA cynically turned into for-profit campaign.
You can understand Metro Trains wanting to make a buck off the work. But stick to making plush toys, not selling the whole cartoon to some huckster.
McCann, whose Melbourne office created “Dumb Ways to Die,” declined to comment on the Empire ads and referred inquiries to Metro Trains. We left messages with Metro and will update when we hear back.
They've done it again.
Thai Life Insurance has unveiled another masterful mini-film by Ogilvy & Mather Bangkok, the latest in a string of tear-jerking, wait-to-watch-it-at-home-so-you-don't-openly-bawl-in-your-cubicle ads that make you think about what's important in life and why your own life is important.
"Unsung Hero," which clocks in at just over three minutes, will make you want to give of yourself to reap the rewards of the soul. It's not a charity campaign, but I'm off to give more to my favorite charity anyway.
If you want to keep on crying, have a look back at the company's 2011 ad, "Silence of Love."
Sports sponsorships rarely equate to more than some choice ad placement and logo saturation. But Allstate and its agency, Leo Burnett, are definitely making the most of the company's partnership with March Madness.
In a campaign called March Mayhem, the official NCAA tournament sponsor is trotting out its likably loathsome ad character to Twitter, Facebook and Vine, where he delights in the millions of brackets broken by unexpected wins like No. 10-seeded Stanford defeating No. 2 Kansas and 12th-seeded North Dakota State winning big over No. 5 Oklahoma.
Read more about the effort in our Q&A with Pam Hollander, Allstate's senior director of integrated marketing communications, and check out some of Mayhem's better Vine installments below.
Please note: Firefox seems to have trouble playing Vine embeds, so we recommend using Chrome, Safari or another browser.
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Progressive spokeswoman Flo sat out the Super Bowl—"We're not trying to make the noise even noisier," the company's CMO, Jeff Charney, said late last week—but she's all over the whole Facebook Look Back thing.
Below, check out Flo's "Look Back" video, which is apparently a parody, unless Facebook approved the unicorn image at the end instead of the Like sign. In fact, Flo's whole video is about unicorns, which she's been associated with ever since a 2010 ad, when she exclaimed that homeowners and auto insurance, bundled together, is like "unicorns and glitter."
There's also a Unicorns & Glitter tab on her Facebook page, where you can get more intimately acquainted with all things Flo.
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Esurance is doing a fun little stunt tonight that should get some attention.
The online insurance company has bought the first commercial slot after the the final whistle of the Super Bowl. The company says that cost $1.5 million less than running an in-game execution—and it's using the ad to announce a Twitter sweepstakes in which it will give that money away to a lucky viewer who tweets the hashtag #EsuranceSave30.
To keep as many viewers' attention from drifting as possible, Esurance has gotten The Office star John Krasinski, its voiceover talent since 2012, to appear on camera for the first time in this spot, created by Leo Burnett.
After the ad airs, you will have 36 hours to tweet #EsuranceSave30 for a chance to win. Krasinski will unveil the winner on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday.
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State Farm's neighborhood-destroying alien robot is back after a successful run in 2011's "Chaos in Your Town" campaign from DDB, and this time it's coming right for you.
Using the GPS in your smartphone, a new iAd from State Farm lets you create a custom video of the robot stomping around your current location. As you can see in the video below, the resulting Chaos clip uses Google Streetview images instead of real-time augmented reality, so it's not quite as dramatic as it theoretically could be. But for something that's created through an ad rather than an app, it's a pretty impressive demonstration of what mobile ads are capable of these days.
It's no surprise the insurer is bringing back "Chaos in Your Town," which racked up some pretty impressive numbers in terms of consumer engagement. After the jump, check out the interactive campaign's key stats provided by DDB.
In the first 10 weeks of the 2011 "Chaos in Your Town" effort, with a digital media spend around $700,000, the campaign:
• Garnered more than 900 blog mentions
• Saw more than 1 million user-generated films created
• Resulted in more than 200 million user-generated impressions
In the following 20 months, without any paid media support, the campaign went on to generate:
• More than 6 million additional user-generated videos, bringing the total to about 7 million films
• More than 800 million user-generated impressions
You can still make a State of Chaos video for yourself on the campaign microsite.
Chaos in Your Town Mobile iAd Credits:
Agency: DDB, Chicago
Chief Creative Officer: Ewan Patterson
Executive Creative Director: Joe Cianciotto
Group Creative Directors: Barry Burdiak, John Hayes
Creative Directors: Bob Davies, Matt Christiansen
Art Director: Megan Sheehan
Copywriter: Melissa McCarthy
Director of Digital Production: Paul Sundue
Executive Producer, Digital: Carly Ferguson
Executive Producer: Scott Kemper
Account Director: Gladys Jeffrey
Account Supervisor: Heidi Frank
Production Company: B-Reel
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L’artiste Mia Pearlman a réalisé ce magnifique ensemble sculptural appelé «Uplift». Ce travail de commande est presenté à Boston, à l’extérieur et à l’intérieur des locaux de Liberty Mutual Insurance. Des oeuvres d’une grande beauté à découvrir dans une vidéo dans la suite de l’article.
Two very different kinds of out-of-home advertising stunts have been gaining traction lately—first, the sudden appearance of a spectacular, oversized prop designed to delight passersby; and second, an intricately choreographed sequence of fake pandemonium designed to terrify them. Examples of the former: UKTV's giant Mr. Darcy emerging from the British pond, and the giant Games of Thrones dragon skull washed up on the British beach. (The British love this stuff.) Examples of the latter: TNT's dramatic stunt on a quiet town square, as well as its sequel.
Now, M&C Saatchi has combined the two approaches with a larger-than-life stunt in Milan, Italy. As part of a campaign for an insurance company, the agency built a giant prop of a submarine and made it look like it was emerging from the ground. A Smart car nearby appeared to have been damaged by the sub—a potent reminder that it's good to have insurance in case all-but-impossible events occur. Many agencies would have stopped here. But M&C Saatchi then staged an elaborate early-morning event at the scene—having actors dressed as sailors and scuba divers emerge from the submarine in a daze, and the driver of the car exit his car angry and confused. Fake hospital workers and emergency personnel even descended on the scene to treat the wounded.
Check out footage from the event below. Your move, TNT.
Via Design Boom.
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