Episode 168 - Top 2024 Ads Reviewed LIVE at MADFest - Yorkshire Tea vs Relate vs Apple
We've had some amazing ads picked for us by Contagious so far this year and we’ve asked marketing leaders to review the top 3 live on stage at MADFest 2024.
Hannah Bourne (Marketing Director for Children’s Books at Penguin Random House), Paul Porter (Senior Planner at Specsavers Creative), and Tash Beecher (Creative Director at Syneos Health) cast their votes in this episode hosted by Amy Wright (Global Head of Creative Strategy at Automated Creative).
See which ad got chosen among Yorkshire Tea's Pack Yer Bags, Relate's Hornicultural Society and Apple's 2030 Status | Mother Nature.
Episode 168 - Top 2024 Ads Reviewed LIVE at MADFest - Yorkshire Tea vs Relate vs Apple
Transcript
This is automatically generated, so it’s not 100% accurate.
Amy Wright 00:07
My name is Amy Wright and I am the Head of Global Strategy at Automated Creative. Advertisers Watching Ads is a weekly panel show where we get people from all across the globe to talk about different ads, different pieces of content. And it's just a way to chat about the work, get a little bit closer to it. We have our final top ten across this year, and so you very lucky people, and our fantastic panel today are going to be talking about some of our top entrants. So without further ado, that's me chatting then. Let’s meet our lovely panel!
Hannah Bourne 00:36
Hi, I'm... I'm Hannah. I'm the Marketing Director for Penguin Random House Children's Books.
Paul Porter 00:41
Hi, I am Paul. I'm a Senior Planner at Specsavers.
Tash Beecher 00:45
Hi, everyone. I'm Tash Beecher. I'm a Creative Director at Syneos Health. My pronouns are she/her.
Amy Wright 00:51
So without further ado, let's get on to ad number one. So next up on our list is number two. And on to our last piece of content. This is from absolute ad giants, so it’s Apple... That is our three ads. We have Yorkshire Tea. We have Relate, and we have Apple. What was your kind of initial impressions of the ads? Did you have an immediate firm favourite or were they quite balanced? Because this is the best of the best.
Paul Porter 03:42
The Yorkshire Tea ad feels like it's got a very clear kind of piece of comms that you could see how it would be sort of edited into different kind of, you know, cut outs, TV, etc., etc... I think that the Relate ad isn't really an ad, it's an experiential thing, which is like... But both of them, I think, have very good strategies behind them where, you know, Yorkshire Tea ad tapped into an insight about tea lovers and not being able to get a good cup of tea on holiday and the Relate ad obviously taps into the sexual promiscuity of over sixty-five year olds, whereas I think that the Apple ad feels like it is serving a very different purpose which is it is effectively a dramatization of a sustainability report but done in a very interesting, compelling way. I think they're all very good. I suppose my personal favourite would probably be the Yorkshire Tea one, just as a bit of comms. I think it's, I think it's just fun, isn't it? And that, you know, it feels part of their brand, feels like what they do. They do, they do, do advertising really well. And I just think it's, it carries that on for a what feels like a younger audience.
Hannah Bourne 04:47
For me, I think probably the Yorkshire Tea does come out slightly ahead. You know, British people and tea... We're weird about it. You've got a favourite brand already. That other isn't going to convert. So instead of trying to make themselves something else, they've landed purely back in their own brand identity and then made this amazing piece of content in a completely authentic way that's actually hilarious. Terrible earworm. I mean, the Relate thing is just amazing. It feels like it's been an issue that's been around for a million years, and I love that they were like, “Here's the number one thing they like to do, which is, by the way, it's sex. No one likes to think about it. Here's the second thing they like to do. It's your garden. We're just going to like, connect those two things together.”
Amy Wright 05:21
Yeah.
Hannah Bourne 05:22
And I also think, you know, I really loved about it was like, sex is so frickin awkward. We are not in a sex positive society. No one likes talking about it. No one likes their grandparents doing it, and they found a really fantastic way to do it. And I think for me, the Apple one, it's like a masterclass in attempting to control the narrative. It was, of course, like a dramatization of a sustainability report, but it was also like, “No one's reading these anyway, let's find a way to make this... Give everyone who's already like an Apple loyalist a little bump." So then, they won't feel so nervous about the fact that Tim Cook’s staring down Mother Nature, which he is.
Tash Beecher 05:57
I think initially the Yorkshire Tea one did stand out to me, but I think once I kind of got halfway through, I started to get a little bit bored, if I'm honest. You can kind of tell that it's kind of taking inspiration creatively from the kind of DIY zine culture. And I love that about it. I love that it's fun. I love the kind of lo-fi energy that it has, but at the same time, it almost feels a little bit too polished for me, when I'm kind of consuming it, absorbing all the messages. It's kind of... it's lacking a little bit of edge. So for me, it means that the Relate one actually stands out a little bit more because the craft element of that and the way that they've used humour and taken both of those insights about, you know, what are the two things that people in this age group love to do the most? I think that's genius.
Amy Wright 06:46
Apple... I have mixed feelings on because I think it depends on the lens that you view it through. So it’s either a really creative example of a report... Or, potentially, the most terrible example of greenwashing that I think I've ever seen so I'm kind of standing between divides. So the first two, so Yorkshire Tea and Relate are both creative agencies. Apple is actually an in-house effort, which is quite interesting. What do you think it says about this kind of... I don’t wanna call it divide. Divide gives out the wrong word but the difference between internal studios and agency studios?
Tash Beecher 06:55
Yeah.
Paul Porter 07:18
The classic example of an in-house agency is like the Pepsi Kendall Jenner ad where it went really wrong, right? It was like them talking about themselves to themselves. And I guess you can sort of see that in the Apple ad, which is them talking about what they're doing great. I mean, what they say is quite compelling, if it's true. You know, so they're probably not saying a lot of stuff as well. So I guess you can sort of see within that, that idea that they are just talking to themselves and sort of giving themselves a pat on the back.
Amy Wright 07:48
Have any of you had any other thoughts on the Apple piece in particular?
Hannah Bourne 07:51
It is giving an Apple lover a justification not to be concerned about the environment. That's like, for me, that's the, that is the only message, really. It's like, a kind of like, so you love Apple products but you've got eco-anxiety... Don’t worry, we're doing some stuff. Yeah, this is what it feels like. I don't think it's converting anyone.
Tash Beecher 08:10
Yeah, I think it's a wonderful self-indulgent piece of content that doesn't really lean too hard on its subjective. It’s kind of, it's, you know, brilliantly cast, brilliantly written, first and foremost, the script and then the way that they've managed to get, you know, Octavia Spencer, like, genius to do that, and the sound design is phenomenal. But... is it a good piece of marketing? You know?
Amy Wright 08:39
So in AWA fashion, the panel and myself are going to give each ad a mark out of five... So if we kick off with Yorkshire Tea, if we give that a rating out of five...
Tash Beecher 08:52
I'm going to say four.
Amy Wright 08:53
Yeah, I'm going to go three.
Paul Porter 08:56
I’ll go four as well. Actually, what you said convinced me. Yeah. Yeah.
Amy Wright 09:00
Hannah?
Hannah Bourne 09:01
Yeah. So four.
Amy Wright 09:02
Okay... Two, Relate.
Paul Porter 09:04
Four and a half... Four and a half...
Hannah Bourne 09:06
I think it's a five.
Amy Wright 09:08
I’m also going to go five. I think it stunning all around and the media placement is just, excellent. And then Apple...
Tash Beecher 09:13
Three and a half.
Hannah Bourne 09:16
I want to say two.
Amy Wright 09:20
Scathing for Hannah. Amazing.
Hannah Bourne 09:22
Sorry.
Amy Wright 09:23
So I feel like we're pretty drawn actually between Relate and Yorkshire Tea. Higher high is for Relate so congratulations to any of the team on that and then Yorkshire seems to be the good middle ground for us and Apple is really a... Thank you to our amazing panel! Let’s give them a round of applause.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Listen to our ‘Shiny New Object’ Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and Soundcloud.