A big part of working in advertising is knowing what’s going on in the world, specifically with other brands and their advertising campaigns.
We also enjoy a good end-of-year reflection, complete with wind chime sounds and water effects. This year brought us several notable campaigns, but out of respect for your time, we’re going to focus on our top 3 and discuss how your organization can glean important insights from them.
Canva: “Can You Make the Logo Bigger?”
Canva, every non-designer's favorite design tool, took to the streets of London this year with an outdoor campaign that played with the specs and formatting of billboards. The ‘Make the Logo Bigger’ campaign employed humor to promote the product’s features, like resizing, drag-and-drop, and notes.
What caught our attention was the way in which they played with the physical billboard space. They didn’t stay within the lines of the default specs. They were able to showcase their digital product by making it look interactive in real life.
This campaign challenges everybody in the advertising world to think outside the box, or outside the panel frame, as it were. It reminds us that normal is a starting point. To truly capture attention and raise brand awareness, we need to think big, think different.
Sometimes you have to make the logo smaller.
Coors: “Case of the Mondays”
Coors, the favorite beer among people sitting in boats or standing in driveways, came out with an ad campaign based on something that gives advertising folk nightmares: the dreaded typo.
Plastered (or digitally replicated) across advertising from outdoor to digital media, was the message “Mountain Cold Refershment.” For those with knowledge of the process to get that many ads into that many placements, it was clearly on purpose. That grand, collective oopsie would be impressive and near impossible.
The “error” was part of a campaign called “Case of the Mondays,” and included Super Bowl spots and a press release “explaining” the situation. What the campaign did was expertly showcase the brand’s personality and “chill vibes,” while grabbing attention in every corner of the internet. Coors was able to utilize a mix of paid and earned media thanks to the world’s love of pointing out typos (he says in fluent copywriter).
The takeaway? Take risks.
You’re allowed to spell something wrong or use “chill” in a press release. As long as you’re staying on-brand, the sky is the limit. Boring campaigns don’t spark conversations or tell stories. If you want your brand to be remembered, you need pizazz and flair. You need something that’s… well… refershing.
Akron Community Foundation: “Live Forever”
Okay, admittedly, we’re biased with this one, but we’re also insanely proud of the work. We sat down and challenged ourselves to pitch something bold. Can we use eternal life as a selling point? Can we use bold colors and large outdoor placements? Can we tie it all up with a pretty bow using digital advertising? The answer was yes.
Then the client matched our freak and also said yes.
This campaign shows that even a community foundation in a medium-sized market can go bold and big and suggest that people Live Forever. Attention-grabbing ideas aren’t reserved for million dollar budgets or brands with household names. Don’t just tell your story, shout it.
When we say we're a full-service marketing agency, this is what we're talking about. We tapped into every aspect of our team to do research, create customer personas, write an impactful headline, design bold visuals, strategize, plan, and place media, design and develop a website, analyze results, and communicate with the client. It was the whole team coming together to make something creative and effective.
Oh, and did we mention the MURAL?? THERE'S A MURAL! That's right, on the side of the Akron-Summit County Public Library, you can visit the Live Forever mural. Talk about going big.
Make Your Next Campaign Big
Coming up with big, impactful ideas is what our team does. We are branding experts and marketing strategists bursting at the seams with ideas that make an impact while staying true to your business objectives.
Reach out to us today and let’s take the first step toward creating your next favorite campaign of the year.