High Five: Not Your Average Performance Ads
Full-time Dad, direct report to Ana Vidigal, meat addict, guitar player by heart and 20 years making a living in advertising. I've seen and done some stuff in China, LATAM and Europe, but settled in New York because, you know, it's NY-f***ing-City. I'm also partner and chief creative officer at Rise New York & Partners. These are my top five #not-your-performance-ads that perform nonetheless...
Mercedes-Benz - 'Magic Body Control: Chicken'
Agency: Jung von Matt x Neckar
Production: BigFish Berlin
Post: Candy Mountain
I think it's pretty amazing that you can use a chicken to show off a car feature, let alone a Mercedes-Benz. Not a performance ad, but this little TVC skyrocketed online with over two million views, 220k Facebook shares, and 6,000 tweets in less than four days. It has 24,909,335 views on YouTube to date.
Volkswagen - 'Darth Vader 2011 Super Bowl'
Agency: Deutsch LA
Production: Park Pictures
Post: Lucasfilm
I know, another car ad. But this one is strong with force. The instant icon broke through the big game's bubble and became the most shared Super Bowl ad ever and the highest-performance Volkswagen ad of all time. I should know. I was at BBDO in China when this ad first came out. I was working for Volkswagen then, just not on this one...damn, that was close!
Volkswagen - 'People's Car Project'
Agency: Proximity BBDO China
Production: WeAreFlink x Pixomondo x Stink Films x North Kingdom
Post: WeAreFlink x Pixomondo x Stink Films
Music: Supreme Music Hamburg
You must be thinking, 'This guy loves car brands!' Well, you're not wrong, but that's not why this one is on this list. This one is personal. The 'People's Car Project' was not only the work that broke out my international career 10 years ago, but the work that helped Volkswagen become top-of-mind in China again. It was considered by some the largest brand program ever put together for a car brand ever. 3.1 million people in China collaborated to create a car with Volkswagen's engineers and designers. Volkswagen rose to the number one car brand on Chinese social media in just 10 weeks.
Samsung - 'Do What You Can't: Ostrich'
Agency: Leo Burnett Chicago
Production Company: MJZ
Director: Matthijs Van Heijningen
Post: MPC / The Mill
Editorial: WORK Editorial
Another bird that can't fly. Bear with me - this is good. In the middle of soulless ads and fake campaigns during the 2017's edition of a glamorous advertising festival in the French Riviera, shines a light of hope. With the mighty creative platform '#DoWhatYouCant', Leo Burnett did what no-one could. With a simple yet genius idea and a masterfully-crafted execution, they slowly brought back to life a brand that, for most, could never beat Apple.
Nike - 'Find Your Greatness'
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy
Production: Park Pictures
Sound: Lime Studios
I mean, we should teach this at ad school: how to drive $506 million in revenue growth by celebrating greatness no-one sees? Well, Nike did it again. The fact that the campaign platform 'Find Your Greatness' goes with 'Just Do It' so delights me. It proves that creativity can be strategic, clever, full of soul, and guess what? Perform.
