Marketing Inspiration #35.3: Advertisers Watching Ads
Your weekly dose of data-driven marketing insights
Marketing Inspiration on Advertisers Watching Ads - our show where brands watch other brands’ ads and discuss what they liked - and often, what they didn’t! - in partnership with Contagious.
Using children for marketing campaigns can result in either a feel-good clip about parenthood or our role in shaping the next generation, or in absolute mockery of them (sometimes!). Here are three ads that approach childhood in very different ways.
“What is important is to be relevant to the local community. And I think this is the bit that I'm missing, you know, complete and straightforward declaration that this specific initiative belongs to a bigger picture.” - Chiara Fracassi, Senior Marketing Director Italy, Amplifon
Walmart’s initiative of having incarcerated dads be able to read bedtime stories to their kids was a heartwarming ad we reviewed many episodes ago. It made an impact but it was focused on a very local project in Chicago, so naturally, the question is: does this go any further? What else are Walmart doing and how are they relevant locally, in other places? A difficult conversation, particularly in light of the brand’s questionable impact on communities.
“I think that, you know, the humour meant that they had creative licence to go in that direction… I find it very funny. It reflected my reality, which is that I've kids who often don't want to eat stuff, and it's, you know, it's a pain, you want them to eat something but they don't want to eat.” - Johnny Winn, Head of Advertising, Virgin Media O2
Parents everywhere can relate to how tough it can be to get your children to eat vegetables. Wholly Veggie, in their “Haha the Kids Just Ate Vegetables” ad, leans into that and effectively pokes fun of kids. Our guests remarked that this ad was a combination of TikTok trends all in one, with the brand’s own song in, too. A lesson on taking a risk on an otherwise “boring product.”
“We keep knocking around this idea of user-generated content… But I do think we have a tendency to kind of navel gaze and assume that everyone's going to be as passionate as we are. And perhaps that's slightly what's happened here, too. There's a danger of kind of drinking your own Kool-Aid a bit and you're very excited about your product and your services and expect that other people will be too.” - Laura McNally, Marketing Director, Auto Trader UK
The Kid Currency concept that DoorDash tried to launch with their ad for Mother’s Day was not a hit with our expert audience. What was the target audience really? How much engagement did it create? And does it make sense in the context of what the brand is all about? Have a look and share your thoughts:
Many thanks to all of our guests:
Lee Ping (Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Oppo Europe), Chiara Fracassi (Senior Marketing Director Italy at Amplifon), Ed Wilson (Retail & eCommerce Partnerships Manager at TikTok UK), Hannah Mirza (Founder & CEO of The Responsible Marketing Agency), Johnny Winn (Head of Advertising at Virgin Media O2), Laura McNally (Marketing Director at Auto Trader UK) and Conor Byrne (Host of the Podcast “That’s What I Call Marketing”).
Do you want to share your thoughts about these ads or suggest a new one for us to debate? Email us on hello@automatedcreative.net.