The Cartier Premium Brand image shines every Christmas, and 2016 is no exception. After multiple appearances over the last few years, their iconic Snow Leopard returns once more for another bout of festive cheer.
Creatively it’s a wonderful ad that relies almost exclusively on visual style – the colours exploding onto the screen and illuminating darkened cityscapes across New York and Paris. For those planning a digital strategy on mobile, the ad’s 40-second run time is appropriately brief and punchy, telling the story quickly and with creative flare. Further to this, the ad’s visuals and reliance on light over sound makes it perfect for mobile formats, where audio playback isn’t always guaranteed. A native placement or even a rich media ad where the user engages with the unit to ‘brighten up’ a darkened area may well work nicely in the run up to the festive season.
It doesn’t seem 12 months since we were first introduced to the old man on the moon, who won the hearts of millions in another ad coup from John Lewis. Once again, the winter season has dished out its annual dose of festive cheer, hoping to win audiences across platforms with recurring content and humorous, affectionate characters. We run down some of this year’s favourites.
1) Sainsbury’s – Christmas Is A Time for Sharing
Sainsbury’s have always gone big with their Christmas ads – going so far as to recreate the Christmas Day football match a couple of years ago. This time around, the big budgets have seen a wonderfully cheesy, animated feature with the waxy vocals of State-side sweetheart James Corden. It’s a nice, simple ad that has a family friendly appeal – catchy tunes and wonderfully animated visuals. The animated element is particularly interesting – giving the character a versatile, recognisable face that can be consistently seen across devices, it’ll be exciting to watch Sainsbury’s roll out their digital, especially mobile, content over the coming weeks.
2) Aldi – Kevin the Carrot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCZrWFrRgbQ
Maintaining the animated vibe is Aldi’s festive offering, a slightly dark yet humorous saga about Kevin the lowly carrot, as he traverses the treacherous table of food in search of salvation. Kevin is an empathetic, recognisable everyman (everycarrot?) and we all ‘root’ for him – even in his less than ideal state by the end of the ad spot. Again, a central protagonist is a perfect way to unify brand coherency across platforms. Aldi could also create a quick, interactive mobile game to help Kevin make his way across the perilous platter – an easy way to bring the content to multiple devices?
3) Burberry – The Tale of Thomas Burberry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D5IZtDCS5c
And now for something completely different. A premium creative starring Domnhall Gleason, Lily James, Sienna Millerand Dominic West, this ad clocks in at over 200 seconds of garment making fun, crossing decades and continents, in a bid to discover just how impressive the Burberry inception was. It’s a magnificent story, one that almost cries out to be turned into a feature. In terms of cross-platform advertising, an ideal world would see the visuals, the stars, all reappearing on multiple formats – intriguing audiences and guiding them to a place where they can watch the full ad. Not as festive as the rest, but a stellar creative nonetheless.
4) Waitrose – #HomeForChristmas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtKYdG9r0Pk
Similar, in some ways, to John Lewis’s Snowman ad from a few years ago, Waitrose brings a heartwarming tale of love conquering distance and danger. It’s generally emotive and exciting, not needing audio to let audiences realise what’s going on and how high the stakes can be.
The creative itself is an amazing testament to visual arts (it’s hard to tell just how much of the bird is actually CGI) and a rousing overall compliment to John Lewis’s offering.
5) Boots Christmas – The Gift of Beauty
Boots have also succeeded in creating an ad that works without audio. It starts with a basic premise, half a million women in the UK have to work on Christmas day. From there, the ad becomes a rousing, heartwarming piece, relying on visual storytelling to drive home an often-forgotten message. Well worth a watch.
6) John Lewis – Buster the Boxer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr6lr_VRsEo
And so we get to the usual champion of the Christmas season – the one to beat, the benchmark. And while John Lewis didn’t jump over the moon this year around, the delightful little story of Buster has already amassed a grand 17m views on YouTube, with tie in digital campaigns (and Buster toys) rounding out the experience.
John Lewis went one step further, pushing into the VR space with a 360 trampoline experience – a nice step forward for the brand in a period when any niche can separate you from the rest of the market.
IAB Video Conference London is right around the corner, and we at LoopMe thought we’d pick out 3 things we’re especially excited to watch. Got your own favourites? Let us know and we can have a chat!
Turning journalism into VR
11:25 – 11:45: Francesca Panetta, Special Projects, The Guardian
Video is not what it used to be – particularly with the development of 3D tech, VR, or even AR. This is a period of inexorable growth and discovery, and companies like The Guardian, keen to maintain their reputation as champions of the cutting edge, wish to be at the forefront. As such, the success of the news platform’s 6×9 project has spurred on the creation of a full VR suite, partnering with Google to create content. With Google’s new Daydream headset imminent, the talk could not be timelier. Francesca Panetta, who heads up the project, will explore what seem to be the most exciting elements VR has to offer, and what may need further work over the coming years.
Thinking Differently: Barclays UK Video Journey
13:00 – 13:20: Helen Rothwell, Marketing & Comms Manager, Barclays
Barclays is a brand that has done video right – consistently engaging with consumers on TV, print and digital with a recognisable brand image and setting. Focussing here on the digital aspect of Barclays advertising, Helen Rothwell explores how important it is that digital video campaigns don’t seek simply to imitate TV with their ideas and creatives. Instead, as Barclays have done, the key is for brands to forge their own creative niches based on the incredibly different context that digital offers – be that either on desktop or, even more excitingly given the recent news regarding ad spend and device use, on mobile.
What is Premium Video Anyway?
15:30 – 15:50: Tim Lawrence, Digital Planning Director, MediaCom
Many advertisers have started harnessing the power of video, in both captivating audiences and delivering exciting messages to consumers. But where does one draw the line when it comes to ‘premium’? How do advertisers deliver a premium experience in a digital landscape that is changing so rapidly?
Read the full agenda for the Video Conference here.
Video is the most impactful advertising format. Combined with the power of mobile it can be the most effective tool in a marketers arsenal.
Yet 40% of US customers haven’t gone on to make a purchase following a mobile video ad.
Join LoopMe & our expert speakers to discover how to enhance your mobile video campaigns, from using data to drive users into store, to creating exceptional video creative.
Covering:
Understanding Success
Putting Results into Mobile Video
Taking Users from View to Store
The Secret to Creative Perfection
Benjamin Bring
Vice President, Mobile Media Director, Ansible
Ben has been in media for 10+ years and works within the full-service mobile marketing agency, Ansible (a division of IPG), specializing in delivering a full range of mobile solutions.
James O’Neill VP Interactive Marketing, Assembly
James is VP Interactive Marketing at Assembly, providing brands with innovative media solutions. Assembly have worked with a variety of notable names including the likes of Perdue, PING, Expedia, E*Trade & Truth Initiative.
Cathy Muldowney
Director of Agency & Strategic Partnerships, Factual
Cathy has over eight years of experience in digital advertising, mostly in the mobile and location spaces. Before joining Factual, Cathy was Director of Brand Partnerships at Foursquare.
Emery Wells
CEO / Co-Founder
Frame.io Emery has over 14 years of digital creative experience, going on to found Frame.io in 2014. Providing a space for creative and client collaboration, the company recently won a 2016 Apple Design Award.
Scott Shulman VP North America Sales, LoopMe
Scott joined LoopMe from RocketFuel, where he helped to take the company from start-up through to IPO, managing a team of 30 sellers and contributing $160 million of the company’s global revenue.
Michael Tuminello
Senior Director Product Solutions, Innovid
Michael Tuminello is Director of Product at Innovid, managing the advanced TV & video creative product line. He was previously responsible for rich media and creative at Mediamind (now Sizmek).
Time & Date: 8.15 am – 11am Tuesday, November 29th
Retail has seen a huge shift over the last decade, with digital sales and sites now standing shoulder to shoulder with brick and mortar stores. Macy’s new Thanksgiving ad, ‘Old Friends’ is the perfect reflection of this trend – no matter if you’re in the center of New York or at home, you can always get some Macy’s love. Retail, particularly e- and m-commerce, has transcended geography, to the extent that users can purchase at the touch of a button, no matter where they are. All that retailers like Macy’s have to do is identify these users and make sure the appropriate message is delivered, on the right device.
And Macy’s message could not be more appropriate. The recurring image of the giant Santa Clause – inflatable, interactive and inviting is a solid centrepiece for the 60 second piece. As a longer video, it’s perfect for a skippable native, interstitial or interscroller format on mobile devices, with the eye-catching central figure of Santa grabbing user attention.
Macy’s have done well to jump the gun and get this Santa image out before traditional Christmas marketing starts – it’ll be relevant for the next two months in terms of advertising content.
Finally of course, the ad is heartwarming – showing the brand’s longevity to be a part of users’ lives for decades. It’s an easy message and a powerful one – one that resonates no matter where its placed.
Cossette’s newest video, Sick Kids, achieves what many video advertisers aim for – creating an engaging narrative in a matter of seconds. With theaverage user attention span now less than 8 seconds, hooking users as soon as the video begins will always be a smart move.
This video was clearly built with a mobile audience in mind, while the soundtrack is high-octane, it is remarkable how effective the ad can be without sound – it is the figures themselves that instantly tell the story. With a huge quantity of users viewing ads with sound-off (as high as 85% on Facebook) this is vital in telling the story. The short cuts full of information – never spending too long on one particular individual and telling a myriad of stories going on ensures the ad maintains audience interest over the course of the ad.
In the context of mobile this is a gripping ad easily transferable to a variety of formats, particularly with the bold, easily legible text. In a campaign all about raising awareness for younger individuals being treated in hospital, there is a powerful message that can be understood no matter where it’s consumed.
Watch the ad below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78mNZeDaMtk