If you want to create an ad as wonderfully sentimental and magical as this Morrison's tv spot you need to do three things:
1. Embrace your emotions
Reject functional and rational messaging, and embrace the right brained world of emotion. Force yourself to see the world from the viewers perspective; their humanity, aspirations, frailties, and joyful moments. Resist the urge to make it mainstream or superficial (and write that in your brief).
2. Remember it's not about you, its about me!
Make the viewer (customer/audience) your only priority. That's right, tell a story only they will care about. Realise that capturing their mind and their heart is all you need to do. This is not the time for selling, for price promotions, for store front shots or gratuitous branding.
3. Believe, be fearless and stay the course
For a story this magical, you have to trust your agency, the creatives and the director. When they talk about making it feel authentic and spontaneous...just let them do their thing. When they ask for the 'slow mo' camera for the flour scene just say yes. When you ask to make the logo bigger in the end frame, listen and agree when they say no and push back.
One last thing
Whatever you do, don't give in to internal pressure to make changes (stay strong in that tough meeting when the ad is being torn to pieces). Don't cave to demands to make it more like competitor 'X', or add in more facts like competitor 'Y'. Only marketers and agencies with true belief in their art will take calculated risks like this, and customers will reward them with their minds, hearts and money.
The rather nonsensical title of this post is to inspire you by highlighting the creative heights that celebrity laden brand videos now deliver....
Old Spice's Muscle Music
6M views as at Sept 1st 2012: Youtube/Vimeo - official pages only.
Stop Press: now at 9M as at 6th Jan 2013
Ford's Random Acts of Fusion
90K views (as at Sept. 1st 2012 on Youtube) - 5 videos in the series.
Stop Press: now at 1M as at 6th Jan 2013 (many, many more videos)
Its great to see Ford's passion for episodic scripted storytelling, self deprecating humour, and sharp casting (with Joel McHale, Kate Micucci and Ryan Seacrest).
The videos are truly 'laugh out loud' funny yet are doomed to obscurity unless you share this post/video link, and check out @FordFusion and their website.
Just don't ask for an ROI, what the budget was, or define the quality of their work by the number of views.....(and for the record no one at Ford asked me to write this, and my current car is from a Japanese brand)...
9.4.12 - Stop Press: So, if you have gotten this far you must believe that the strategy and metrics driving this campaign go far beyond 'viral video/youtube views'.
Dig deeper into Scott Monty's insights here, as its evident Fords goal is to become a lovemark.
1.6.13 - Stop Press: ...So I can't leave this campaign alone.
They've made the ubiquitous concept of a 'remix' a little more spice by adding Reggie Watts, plus given their Youtube page a revamp with some snazzy gadgets.
Seems as if Ford and Team Detroit have a budget to invest in scalable ideas.....and so should you...
I can't help but notice that the square is making a slow comeback, as the Microsoft
blog announced their new logo today. Despite a mix of cynicism, and support this instantly elegant logo evokes very few alternative brands, as only FLOR, Weber Shandwick and JCP come to mind. To prove my point even Square - the mobile payment brand uses rounded edges in their logo!
So, could a humble sharp edge be a case of simple, yet relevant differentiation? Will the geometrically 2D square edge become the 'new' round(ed) ? Might
Square, or Apple embrace straight lines.....? Is your brand a follower or a leader ? It's been said that once is chance, twice is coincidence, and third is enemy action a trend!
STOP PRESS: Microsoft's timing is impeccable! With the August 24th announcement of Apple's patent victory vs Samsung, perhaps brands will adopt the 2D square edge much quicker than envisioned.
Yes! tin foil (as we call it in the UK) or aluminum wrap ads can be emotive and memorable. This ad has been bugging me for a few days, because its simple storyline has a cinematic, dramatic air that leaves me expecting many more adventures from these characters. I love the sense of adventure and the fact they are trying to capture the audience's hearts and minds with a playful sense of wonder and fantasy.
Kudos to the folks at Reynolds (and Euro RSCG/Chicago) for focusing on the right-brain, for using imagination, for great storytelling, for championing inspiration. I hope they take an extreme journey on this whimsical 'magic' theme.....and steer clear of tired, obvious, and functional performance messaging.
Go crazy - create a cartoon, give the characters more stories, create kids books and continue to push the envelope. You are on to something, and I might just feel connected to your brand, an emotional territory that your competition dare not claim.
