When you step out of your home and enter a busy road or market, all you see is hoardings, banners, and cutouts. All they contain is ad campaigns by different companies. You might see them in the form of big letters or pictures printed on a large canvass or an LED panel broadcasting the videos of ad campaigns. Ad campaigns are used to attract the attention of onlookers, pedestrians, and even riders. These campaigns mainly contain cheesy, entertaining, and funny quotes, pictures, or videos that evoke spontaneous reactions. The same ad campaigns are altered for visual media like TV and the internet.
Designing an ad campaign requires a lot of research and study. The ad agencies go through a lot of brainstorming sessions before coming up with an ad campaign. An ad campaign should catch the attention of people in no time. It should also establish a connection between viewers and the product used in the ad campaign. These variables make ad campaigns the trickiest to execute but not an impossible task. You might remember several ad campaigns from your childhood and younger years. If you analyze them, you would realize why they had so much impact on your mind.
The year 2019 was a productive year for ad campaigns. Several companies ran ad campaigns that made international headlines. Due to the wide presence of social media, some ad campaigns went viral and created a buzz among internet users. Let’s see a few of the internet campaigns that grabbed people’s attention in the year 2019.
The Best Ad Campaigns of 2019
The penetration of social media has influenced the design of ad campaigns. Today, companies consider social media as a powerful tool to influence people than any other media. The ad campaigns are designed to suit the requirements of social media. It also becomes easy to track the effectiveness of an ad campaign on social media platforms. Whatever the reason, the ad campaign must be creative and strike the chords of the people’s psyche. Below are a few ad campaigns that created a buzz in 2019.
The Whopper Detour – Burger King.
The competition between burger giants McDonald’s and Burger King is well documented in the markets in terms of money and profits. Burger King went a step ahead and took the competition head-on by creating an ad campaign that trolled McDonald’s. The ad campaign is considered one of the best ad campaigns ever ran.
The campaign was called ‘The Whopper Detour’ and had a simple technique to engage consumers. The campaign offered the BK’s signature Whoppers at only one cent. But it came with a catch. The customers were required to order the Whoppers via the BK app from the nearest McDonald’s location.
From the outside, the campaign might look simple but a lot of research had gone into designing the campaign. The campaign took into account the locations of the McDonald’s joints before creating the ad campaign. The app was designed according to the campaign and the ad was released. The gamble paid off and nearly 1.5 million people downloaded the BK app. It also won several awards, including the Grand Prix award at the Direct Lions.
You can watch the ad here.
We All Win – Microsoft.
One way of touching people’s lives is by creating ad campaigns that involve people emotionally. These ad campaigns not only help a brand expand but also show that the company is also involved in social causes. Such ad campaigns also help in creating awareness about social issues like disabilities, environmental impacts, animal welfare, discrimination, mental health, etc.
Microsoft’s ‘We All Win’ ad campaign focuses on disabilities in children. McCann New York was the ad agency responsible for the creation of the ad campaign. The ad contains children playing video games using hardware exclusively designed for disabled children by Microsoft.
The ad campaign touched everyone and it instantly became viral on the internet. Microsoft’s intent to allow disabled children to play video games was well-received by people. The ad campaign won several awards, including Cannes Lion Grand Prix award for Brand Experience and Activation.
Watch the impactful ad here.
Probably (Not) the Best Beer in the World – Carlsberg.
We all know honesty is the best policy, but we all hesitate to practice it in life. And when it comes to business establishments, the policy is that you should do everything to sell a product. The competition is such that you have to bend every rule of honesty to reach the top. It is this reason people were taken aback when Carlsberg came up with an ad campaign saying they may not be the best beer in the world.
The ad campaign was a part of the companies revamping strategy. It displayed its product on social media and outdoors with a tagline ‘Probably not the Best Beer in the World’. The campaign was aimed at educating people about the company’s commitment to quality rather than quantity. It was a risky and harmful idea but the company knew that they were speaking with honesty. The ad campaign went viral on social media and it was even admired by competitors of Carlsberg.
The ad campaign helped the company to gain more than 10% of new consumers in Briton within a span of a few months.
Listen Like You Used To – Spotify.
We reminisce whenever we are alone or with friends and family. Nostalgia is part of our life and it includes several memories. Pictures, places, movies, and songs enhance the experience of nostalgia. When you see the elements of nostalgia in an ad campaign, you are certainly going to have a look at it. Spotify used nostalgia in one of its ad campaigns in the year 2019, gaining more customers.
The company put up several billboards and hoardings across cities containing a few words of past hit songs. It also printed the tag line ‘Listen Like You Used To’ in the billboards telling people that they haven’t forgotten to include their past. The campaign was also run on social media to reach more people. Consumers instantly connected with the lines of songs resulting in increased download of the app.
When you combine creativity with people’s nostalgia, it touches the emotional chords. The Spotify ‘Listen Like You Used To’ proves the same.
DNA Discounts – AeroMexico.
How about turning controversy into an opportunity to attract people’s attention. Most companies wouldn’t dare touch such topics lest they want to end up creating another controversy. AeroMexico had other ideas while creating their ad campaign about Mexico tourism. It added humor, information, and statistics into the ad campaign to create awareness about traveling to Mexico.
In the ad campaign, the company interviews a few people, asking them whether they want to travel to Mexico. All of them say no initially. When the company offers discounts depending on the percentage of Mexican DNA they carry, they start speculating. The idea sounds innovative, funny, and entertaining. In the end, all of them find some amount of Mexican DNA present in them due to the past immigration of people from Mexico. The company gives them discounts according to the percentage of Mexican DNA. Due to this reason, the campaign was called ‘DNA Discounts’.
The ad campaign was launched when there was a controversy going on due to restrictions imposed on the immigration of Mexican people. The campaign became immensely popular and turned controversy into an opportunity.
Watch this innovative ad here.
Donate Your Words – Cadbury.
When a social cause meets the ad campaign of a chocolate company, magic happens. That is exactly what Cadbury achieved when it collaborated with Age UK to help elderly people. The idea was to create awareness about elderly people who live alone without speaking a word for a whole week in the UK. It subtly requested people to take care of elderly people by donating words. The tag line ‘Donate Your Words’ became part of the campaign.
The ad campaign carried a bar of Cadbury chocolate without any words on it in the print media. The video included a few elderly people living alone without speaking to anyone. It informed people that 1.4 million elderly people are spending their last days in loneliness. Apart from asking people to donate words, the company itself donated 30p from the sale of each bar to Age UK. The ad created a buzz not only across the UK but also throughout the world.
Watch the incredible ad campaign here.
The Best Men Can Be – Gillette.
From ‘The Best a Man Can Get’ to ‘The Best Men Can Be’, Gillette has come a long way in creating an impactful ad campaign. The video ad showed how men get into all sorts of things while growing up and what they become when they grow up. It addressed issues like bullying, harassing, eve-teasing, and abusing that is prevalent in society.
The ad campaign appealed to men to change their way of thinking towards women by being bets versions of themselves. Within 48 hours of the launch of the campaign on YouTube, the video garnered four million views. Some considered the ad was anti-men and others praised the audacity to address the issue by a company that manufactures men’s products. In the end, the company achieved what set for – a discussion about men’s behavior.
Watch the unique ad here.
