Episode 180 - Visit Faroe Islands Ad Reviewed by Unilever, Mom XP Lab and Three UK
A global problem, a Faroese solution: the self-driving car rental created by Visit Faroe Islands, guaranteed to take visitors to unique places so they don’t end up with the same holiday photos as everyone else.
This ad chosen for us by Contagious starts from a very real insight, but does it deliver an interesting enough experience? And is the promise too ambitious for what you get on the ground?
It’s certainly got us talking about going to the Faroe Islands, thanks to a quirky experience powered by Google Maps. Watch our latest episode to see what our guests Adrian O’Brien (General Manager Europe Wellbeing Collective at Unilever), Anna Ivanko (Founder of Mom XP Lab), Tom Fenwick-Smith (Creative Direction & Strategy Social Lead at VodafoneThree) and Pete Markey (Former CMO of Boots UK & ISBA President) thought about it. Are you headed there for your next holiday?
Episode 180 - Visit Faroe Islands Ad Reviewed by Unilever, Mom XP Lab and Three UK
Transcript
This is automatically generated, so it’s not 100% accurate.
Tom Ollerton 0:00
Hello and welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. This is a weekly show where brands watch other brands’ ads and discuss what's good and bad about them.
Anna Ivanko 0:08
Well, I think they had the nicest car rental experience ever.
Tom Fenwick-Smith 0:11
This is a genuine kind of problem, which they're trying to solve with the technology, which I really like.
Pete Markey 0:17
Is the reality as good as the promise? That’s the worry.
Adrian O'Brien 0:19
As soon as I'd seen it, I Googled it and then found out how much it costs to fly to the Faroe Islands.
Tom Ollerton 0:29
My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of Automated Creative, the creative effectiveness adtech platform. So before we see this week's tourism ad, I think you’d call it. Let's meet this week's guests.
Adrian O'Brien 0:40
Hi, I'm Adrian O'Brien. I’m the European General Manager for the Wellbeing Collective at Unilever.
Anna Ivanko 0:45
Hi I'm Anna Ivanko. I'm the founder of Mom XP Lab.
Tom Fenwick-Smith 0:49
I'm Tom Fenwick-Smith. I'm currently Senior Creative at Generation which is Three’s in-house agency.
Pete Markey 0:55
So I'm Pete Markey. I was the CMO of Boots until about a month ago for over four years, and I’m the current President of ISBA.
Tom Ollerton 1:39
On a scale of 1 to 5, how amazing is this ad? One, two, three...
Tom Ollerton 1:39
We've got a three, and a three, and a two. Gosh! Well, there you have it. Right! I'm really conflicted about this bit of work. Who wants to take a punt on what's actually going on? Tom, do you want to have a run at this?
Tom Fenwick-Smith 1:43
The thing I find really interesting about this bit of work is this is a problem of their own making that they're trying to solve. How I know about the Faroe Islands in general was because their previous campaign, where they had Sheep Street View, and it was to encourage Google to use their technology to map out the whole of the Faroe Islands. They put cameras on sheep and it was brilliant. It was like a really interesting campaign. It got loads of reach. It was like quite an innovation. And obviously a partnership with Google really flourished and as a result, the Faroe Islands was put on the map. Loads of people started going there, but they all went to the same place, so they kind of hadn't built the infrastructure enough for the tourists. This feels like an attempt to do that. And what I love about campaigns like this is places which are hard to get to or have very bad signal, often create great test cases for mobile phone companies or for technology companies to be able to bring connection. What I like about this is this is a genuine kind of problem, which they're trying to solve with the technology, which I really like.
Pete Markey 3:59
As an idea, it's fun. It feels original and fresh. It felt clever as an idea, and it felt like the antithesis of sort of overly formulated package holidays. And I think you'll definitely come away with lots of stories and lots of memories. Felt very variable, viral, very shareable, which I liked as well.
Tom Ollerton 4:13
I think what really confuses me about this is the Faroe Islands, right? Like what’s their budget going to be? They're not going to have like, let's build some self-driving cars and set up this kind of mad infrastructure. I think there's something else going on here. Tom, you... When you talk about Google in Sheep, Sheep View, this feels like a B2B type integration. Like this isn't the story. The Faroe Islands didn't go, “Let's shell out on some cars.”
Adrian O'Brien 4:36
When you delve into it a bit, it's not self-driving cars, it's just a satnav. And if you think about it, actually what it is is just a guidebook of less visited places. They've got like three vehicles, so the substance behind it is pretty limited. The insight is a fantastic one in terms of, yes, you don't want your Instagram to look like everybody else's. And there is if you're going to go to the Faroe Islands, you know, which is quite an obscure place anyway, then already you're probably excited about the idea of going off the beaten track. So I think this idea resonates. The actual activity is probably quite a bit more limited than the concept sort of suggests, and in the spirit of being Advertisers Watching Ads, I thought the ad was really boring. The first 30 seconds I was like, “Yeah, okay, this is a really interesting concept.” And then we had another minute of slightly gratuitous hillsides. I think they could have made this much more interesting by telling human stories of where I went, the people I met, the experiences I had. But a minute of just hillsides felt like it missed an opportunity to really tell different stories.
Anna Ivanko 5:42
Well, I think they had the nicest car rental experience ever. Like if you rent a car in the US, if you try to go to like a Hertz desk at the airport, they will never sit you down. You will be standing in line with like a hundred people who are trying to get a car. This was so nice. You sit down with a nice gentleman. I thought that was quite nice. It was a really interesting start of like, oh yeah, I don't want to get the same pictures as everybody else. But then kind of like this storytelling slowly faded out and we didn't see, okay, what are those other pictures that you could get if you take this car?
Tom Ollerton 6:17
Is that a real problem? Whose holidays are ruined by having the same pictures? Isn't that the point?
Tom Fenwick-Smith 7:18
I went to Iceland, which isn't, you know, it's not a million miles away from the Faroe Islands experience. And I was thinking it was a bit like this. You go to these amazing places which are, you know, the geysers and the waterfalls and your expectation is they'll be quite secluded nature in places. Maybe that's my naivete, but you do turn up and there's a lot busses of people coming in and they're super, super busy. Like, I love this insight and I kind of love where it comes from and the connection to the Instagram generation. So I do think it's like a genuine problem. For me, I quite like the wilderness in the wild, so when I go to these places, I kind of want the solitude that comes with it or the feels as described by a location such as the Faroe Islands or Iceland, or any of those kind of places where you can feel like you can get into the wild a little bit.
Pete Markey 7:14
I think the promise there, though, isn't it, is that you can have a bit of a mix and have the holiday you want. I didn't feel it was sort of going... You can't have, those main things you'd want to go and see. It felt like, but we'll also take you to these other places. It’s getting us talking, isn't it, about the Faroe Islands? Something where you can get off the beaten track and do the pictures you want, and then you’re gonna go, “Ohh, that's quite an interesting holiday.” The film doesn't quite capture all that is the worry. We're filling the gaps in for it, but the fact it’s got us talking and has the promise of something, all that, I think is interesting. So the film, for me, it’s working on that sort of tease level to get us talking.
Adrian O'Brien 7:36
As soon as I've seen it, I Googled it and then found out how much it costs to fly to the Faroe Islands. So straight away they've got me interested in finding out more, which is, I guess, part of the point of it.
Tom Ollerton 7:47
Yes, it's got us talking about it. Yes, it's on this show, but it's with the ginormous backing of Google. It's not specific to the Faroe Islands. You could do this in Iceland. You could have done it for, I don't know, like the Galapagos Islands. Yes, it's got us talking about it, but Google has dumped a physical infrastructure and put up loads of money for a sexy video and all that stuff.
Pete Markey 8:06
But does that... Does that matter, Tom? I think a bit of like we know that, but does the average punter know that and do they care? And actually it’s very smart. Smart as a marketer, if you go, I’ll piggyback on someone else's budget to create this film, I'm like, freaking A! That's brilliant. My worry is more about, and my only problem, is the reality as good as the promise? That's the worry. But I think to get someone else to craft something with you. Amazing.
Tom Ollerton 8:23
Pete, that was such a CMO answer.
Pete Markey 8:27
We love a freebie. Love a freebie.
Anna Ivanko 8:29
What happens if the car loses connectivity? Like, are you stuck somewhere? On the island? You can't just drive back?
Adrian O'Brien 8:37
It feels like there's an insight here about wanting to discover and have bespoke experiences and try new things and being an adventurer, and it feels like there's a tech solution that probably doesn't solve that. But they've put the two together and it ends up with us having a conversation about visiting the Faroe Islands. So I guess they all win in that situation.
Tom Fenwick-Smith 8:58
These remote island locations are a really good opportunity for storytelling, and I think Google have really understood that when it comes to Faroe Islands, you know, I think the sheep approach and having Google Street View told from all these different perspectives through connectivity previously was such a, such a home run hit. I think it's the UGC element that I really want to see is to like, I'd really love to see the real experience off the back end of the glossy ad.
Pete Markey 9:21
What's the next thing? Because this size with this film, if it doesn't go further, is just a bit of a stunt and it got us talking, but I think particularly when you get someone like Google to pay for it, is you want hopefully that relationship to extend to give you a lot more content, a lot more impact.
Tom Ollerton 9:33
Would you sign off this campaign in its current form? One, two, three. And then next question is the Faroe Islands in your holiday consideration set?
Tom Fenwick-Smith 9:45
Definitely.
Tom Ollerton 9:46
Brilliant. Guys, thank you so much for your time.
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