Episode 75 - Canon Ad Reviewed by Mars and Weetabix
On this week’s Advertisers Watching Ads, we review the “Ready, set, quit” ad from Canon, chosen by our partners Contagious. Capturing the spirit of the times, the brand is trying to encourage content creators to move into freelancing and has launched a mentoring programme for a lucky few.
However, is this ad clear enough and does it target its audience in the best way? Is the insight enough to make a great ad and does the execution rise up to expectations?
Join us and our guests Heather Stuckey (Global Senior Director of Strategy and Transformation at Mars) and Gareth Turner (Head of Marketing at Weetabix) to see the ad and hear their thoughts on it.
Transcript
The following transcript is automatically generated so may not be 100% accurate, but will give you a good idea of what was discussed.
Tom Ollerton 0:06
Hello and welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of Automated Creative, and this is a weekly show where brands watch other brands' ads and have a chat about them. We are brought to you this week by Contagious. Go and check those guys out after the show. They helped choose the ad this week, so thank you guys for partnering with us. But before we get to this week's ad, let's meet this week's guests.
Heather Stuckey 0:29
Hi, I'm Heather Stuckey, and I am the Global Senior Director of Strategy and Transformation at Mars.
Gareth Turner 0:36
Hi, I'm Gareth Turner. I'm the Head of Marketing at Weetabix.
Tom Ollerton 0:40
What a panel. Fantastic. Right, let's get to the ad.
So, Gareth, what are we seeing here with this campaign?
Gareth Turner 1:28
Canon are encouraging people to get ready, set and quit their jobs and tap into this great resignation that's that's going on. And then when you've resigned from your job, they're encouraging to take up a content creator role and be mentored by this guy, Joey, who's I think, a Nordic photographer and filmmaker. So, encouraging people to give up their day job, and these four or five people will get a guaranteed assignment, the first paid assignment, combined with some mentoring from Joey.
Tom Ollerton 2:04
And so what? What's the deal? Everyone gets a paid assignment or just a small group of people?
Gareth Turner 2:10
I think just those four. I think...
Heather Stuckey 2:12
Yeah, it's like four.
Tom Ollerton 2:15
Alright. So it's a, it's a, it's a competition.
Yes, yes, yes.
Heather Stuckey 2:19
To enter into the contest, you have to send in your resignation letter so hundreds of people can, I guess, resign and then cross their fingers that they'll actually get selected.
Tom Ollerton 2:32
So Heather, what do you think of this ad when you first saw it?
Heather Stuckey 2:34
So I loved the insight. I thought it was a very, you know, it taps into what's happening out in the world. It's very... It's a very cool program. I don't think that the... Well, first of all, this isn't really an ad in a traditional sense. It's a video announcing the program. I don't think that it was communicated very well. There was a lot of additional research that I needed to do to actually understand what it was all about and how many people can sign up and everything, and there wasn't a call to action at the end. So it's kind of missing. It required the, the viewer to do more work than I think was necessary.
Tom Ollerton 3:14
Have they got this right? I mean, it sounds fantastic. You know, quit your job, get a lovely bit a kit, get some paid work, travel around, care free, not having to go to the office anymore, taking pictures of elks and stuff. Is this going to work for Canon?
Gareth Turner 3:28
Is going to work? No, it's not gonna work. My gut reaction when I like, when I saw it, "Yeah. I quite like this." I quite like the idea of it. I quite like... We're talking about it. I like the insight. It's a great insight right now, but the more I thought about it, the more out of love I fell with it. It was, I think the execution is... They say the it's it's pretty Attention-grabbing. I don't think the it's well-branded.
I don't think the understanding is there. There's no scale to this. I mean, you look at the numbers involved here, you know, we had to go searching for the detail of how to enter and what to do. But this Joey guy, he's got 100,000 Instagram followers. He's got 70,000 YouTube followers. I couldn't find any TV or any bigger media on that. Each post on these is getting 18,000 views. That's... It's not big enough to shift the dial in my, in my opinion. So the the thing that's lacking in this is any sense of multi-media scale that's going to shift the needle for Canon. And so will it be, will it work for Canon? No, I don't think it will. It's not to convince me to spend... You see how much these cameras are? Probably significantly older than the target market.
Heather Stuckey 4:43
This is probably more positioned to a younger audience that is, I would imagine, is just starting out and just kind of exploring different routes in terms of where they want their career to, to go. I think it said in the ad that independent content creator was one of the most searched job prospects of the year. So I do think that they are definitely on to something. Just the execution was could have been better.
Gareth Turner 5:13
I was thinking about the idea behind the ad. So that links in to that, that insight. So I was trying to... I was trying to say, what's the idea behind this ad? And I think the idea is... This is the camera that makes video so good you can give up your day job.
It could be the idea that sits behind it. But really? Really? Can you give up your day job? I'd like the idea. I like the idea that the camera could do that. I think the reviews that I read of the products would suggest that it's got a few challenges behind it. I think it some talk about overheating when you take video, which would be a fundamental problem with your day job, on the back of this camera and there are plenty of other cameras that could do that for you. So, I love, I love the idea. I just don't think they, they nailed the execution.
Heather Stuckey 6:04
I do think that Canon, I guess, is trying to get, again, like trying to get to that younger audience so that they, once they, once that audience gets, you know, has an interest in filmmakers and photography, then can grow their career with Canon.
Tom Ollerton 6:24
What would make this better?
Gareth Turner 6:25
Scale, introducing a different type of person, a younger audience to the Canon products, but for me, even though these countries are smaller than the UK in the US, I mean, the 100,000 followers just isn't enough to, for me to shift, shift the dial. The other thing I would do differently is improve the branding in those films. I don't, you know, I'm not talking about slapping a great big logo on the front, although that would help the branding in these films. There's very little branding at all. So I watched some of the reveal videos where Joey Skypes. I think he Skypes these people and he calls these people in video call, and they all looking very surprised when, when he tells them, they've won the place in his mentorship program, but there's no mention of the brand until right at the very end. Now, you can improve your branding by just talking about Canon is giving you this prize at that moment. I don't think that's going to fundamentally undermine the integrity of the project. I mean, I think there's a very clear transaction here that Canon funding this thing. It's, it's a clear transaction, but let's give them some branding on the back of it as well.
Tom Ollerton 7:34
Has Gareth completely misunderstood the TikTok generation and the, the promise of authenticity? Is whacking the logo in there gonna like poison this a bit? Or is he absolutely right? Why not? As he says, a transaction.
Heather Stuckey 7:49
No, I think in this case, the... Having more branding, it would be a positive because I do think it's giving, you know, ideally in terms of Canon's eyes, like giving some of these people an opportunity of a lifetime to really, you know, to connect with this influencer and to connect with, you know, to get all of their products for free. And if they're, if they're not happy in their current job or if they're not working anyway, it could be a great chance. So I think, I don't think branding would dilute the message. I do think just to add to Gareth's point that the whole proposition needs to be better explained because, you know, like we've been talking about it just... To make that ad better, you need to be very, you only have... It's a 45-second video, and it requires a lot of work on the consumers end to actually figure out. So you have to have, you already have to have somebody who is willing to do a little bit more research, which maybe that's what they wanted, but I would start with a URL and you know, kind of go from there. But, but yeah, I think that the having branding and just being very clear, I mean, you know, they shouldn't have even made, you know, this 45-second ad, they should have made like a series of TikTok videos, to your point, Tom, or something that, you know, just kind of tells the story a little bit better.
Tom Ollerton 9:21
Unfortunately, guys, we are at the end of the episode now, so I'm going to get you to vote for how good you think this ad is on a scale of one to five. One a count of three... One, two, three... A three and a three. There we have it. Heather, Gareth, thank you so much. We'll see you all next week.
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