As we’re hurtling towards the end of yet another year, we are reflecting in the office about what a year 2011 has been.
A year of massive events, economic disasters, natural chaos and celebrity deaths, by any account 2011 has certainly been turbulent.
From distressing news of earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan, the death of Steve Jobs, the world being rid of Osama Bin Laden and Gadhafi, to heart warming tales of love from our own monarchy, or the journey of Para-Olympians to London 2012, and the down right strange stories of tiger-blood drinking American TV stars, the year has been far from uneventful.
Mixed in with all this madness, has been developments within advertising, with brands investing more money and time than ever before into Internet ventures for alternative outlets. Social media undergone has drastic changes this year from the entrance of Google+ into the game, and the introduction of LinkedIn company pages opening up numerous possibilities for brave marketers of B2C companies and B2B businesses.
Here at Xposure, we thought we would embrace the time of year for countdown lists, and ‘best of the year’ tv shows and have looked through the internet whilst trawling through television channels to bring you Xposure’s top 9 adverts of 2011.
We have been well and truly spoilt this year with an abundance of adverts from the best (all in Xposure’s list) to the truly terrible (the Jarvis Cocker Eurostar advert!). Keep reading to see Xposure’s best advert of the year.
9. In at number nine, which is no mean feat, as we are a particularly discerning bunch, is the Old Spice men Isiah and Fabio.
Following some controversial news about the previous Old Spice man Isiah, Fabio was released to the public and to our screens by agency Wieden & Kennedy in July. Viewed by 26.3 million, Old Spice and their chosen agency, brilliant cracked the viral code, and used their new man to battle the previous Old Spice representative in over 200 short videos. They also utilised social media to allow Fabio to respond directly to viewer’s comments and tweets.
8. Number 8 is a personal favourite of mine, and one of the few milk adverts that I’ve seen without cows!
Cravendale also hired Wieden & Kennedy to create a truly terrifying but amazingly unique campaign, centering on the scary concept of cats growing opposable thumbs. The Aristocats crossed, with quite an intimidating gang, was hugely popular and is set to see a sequel next year with a campaign that fully utilizes the possibilities open to Cravendale through Facebook and Twitter.
7. Heading down the list we’ve got the Yeo-Valley advert produced by BBH.
Spending a cool £5million on the potentially risky campaign, which took over a full advert break during the most expensive time for television advertising; the X Factor on Saturday night! Using a group of young attractive farmers in a Take That style boy band, dancing around haystacks was a success which is guarantees to get you smiling each time, you see it.
6. Half way through the list and we’ve got Kelloggs, who worked with social media to create their “Share your breakfast” Campaign.
Encouraging the nation to share their breakfast, by offering 1 million free breakfasts for children in need in America throughout July, viewers of the advert were encouraged to send in photos of their bowls of Rice Crispies and other Kelloggs classics.
5. At number 5 we have one of the first advertising campaigns, brave enough to embrace the horror genre, scaring us into remembering their fantastic offers!
Phones 4 U and their agency Adam & Eve came under initial criticism for their horror-vertising campaign. Complaints came in, deeming the advert too scary for day-time TV, but following OFCOM investigations they were dismissed and the advert became a big success. Seen as boundary pushing, the advert became a mocking comment on brands pushing products so hard that they can seem borderline threatening!
4. I have to admit that I am slightly biased on this one due to a small obsession of mine.
At number four is the VW and Star Wars advert: The Force. Deutsch created a small child Darth Vader attempting to harness the power of the force on various everyday objects including his dog and the family car. Prior to the television premier during the Super bowl, the advert was released on the internet, racking up an impressive 14 million views leaving a buzz meaning that the massive investment of the Super bowl premier paid off.
3. TBWA London and Muller launched their £20million advert with the slogan “Wünderful Stuff”.
The advert which aired during the X Factor, used an abundance of well known kids TV characters from Yogi Bear to the Mr Men who stirred a little something wonderful, into the mundane. Moving far from the previous campaign, of children on swings and voice-overs from aging celebs, the advert literally represents the enjoyment of stirring in your fruit or crunch into the plain yoghurt on the other side of your Muller Corner!
2. Just beaten to the top spot is T Mobile’s advert playing on the Royal Wedding hysteria of April 2011.
One of the many brands to affiliate themselves with the Royal Wedding, Saatchi + Saatchi cemented T Mobile in the viewers minds by creating a spoof of an original YouTube upload called “JK Wedding Dance”. The original video, that was a YouTube sensation sparked off the wedding version, which launched in April and saw 28.4 million views.
1. At number one is an advert that never fails to make me well up, created for Google Chrome.
With the strapline “The web is what you make of it”, the premise of the advert is a father sending his new born daughter messages to an email address he has set up for her, throughout her life. A 21st century baby book shows the father uploading touching videos from milestones in his daughters life and putting them with personal messages.
Clearly a great year for advertisements, 2011 has even more great branding examples, but these are our favourites. Agree with us? If not, show us the adverts that have made the breaks in your favourite shows a little bit more bearable…