10 Creative Marketing Ad Campaigns You Have To Watch
It’s the age of video, but not every day do you come across really good videos that you don’t mind watching over and over again. There are some really good ones in the form of heart-warming wedding proposals, inspirational and mind-boggling new discoveries. To add to that, we have everyone’s favorite: creative marketing advertisement campaigns, sometimes known as guerrilla marketing.
This type of marketing is almost always out of the comfort zone, usually has a cause worth fighting for, and pretty much delivers results in terms of conversions and brand exposure. Because what’s the good of an ad campaign if it doesn’t put the product in the spotlight, right?
Recommended Reading: 60 Creative Public Awareness Ads That Makes You Think
These 10 creative marketing ad campaigns (arranged in no particular order) that you are about to watch are quite unique. They will put a smile on your face, a tear in your eye, or make you say “That’s a really smart idea.” Enjoy watching and don’t forget to share this with a friend who needs some inspiration in their life.
1. S-Oil – Here Balloons
Don’t you hate looking for parking without those automated LED systems that tell you where there are available slots? Well, in an open space, you can actually use balloons instead. Check out how S-Oil does it with Here Balloons.
The idea is to tie a simple balloon in the middle of a parking spot. When a car parks in the spot, it will pull the balloon down as it parks over the balloon string. Similarly, when the car exits the lot, the balloon will float freely in the air, visible from afar for the next parking-seeking driver.
The idea is simple, effective, and allows drivers to associate this oil-saving practice with the company behind the idea, S-Oil.
2. Volkswagen – Fast lane
After a long day, all we want to do is relax. We leave the office to relax, get on the subway to relax, and get off it. But wait a minute, what’s this? A Fast Lane?
Volkswagen invites you to take the fast lane, which is way faster than the stairs and even the escalator. Commuters who want to take the plunge get to slide down the red slide built right next to the staircase and briefly live life on the fast lane, becoming the envy of those who took the escalator instead.
Have you ever seen so many smiles in the subway? Yeah, that means it works!
3. E-mart – Sunny Sale Campaign
Competition in the household shopping department is a big business, and in South Korea, QR codes have been used in the subways to help shoppers shop while en route to work. However, E-mart faces a different problem: a low number of shoppers during the lunch hour, from 12 pm to 1 pm. Their solution is a 3D QR code activated by the ‘noon’ sun.
As the sun is at its highest peak near 12 pm to 1 pm, the shadow cast by the model produces a working QR code that can be scanned by smartphones.
The code gives shoppers access to special shopping coupons under the Sunny Sale campaign and raised E-mart membership by nearly 60%. The Sunny Sale Campaign went on to win multiple awards, such as the London International Awards and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
4. Volvo – Suspensions & Speedbumps
If you live in a country where your streets are populated with speed bumps, having a good suspension system for your car will help ensure a smoother ride.
In this particular example, at the entrance of car dealerships, a softer, air-filled version of the regular speed bump is installed. Drivers who expect things to get bumpy are surprised to not feel the expected rise and fall. They are then greeted with a strategically placed sign promoting the use of Volvo’s suspension system.
Car buyers associate the smooth ride across the fake speed bump with a feeling of a smooth ride made possible by the suspension system. Interest in the system has risen, and the idea has spread from the United Arab Emirates to car dealerships across the Middle East.
5. Coca-Cola – Small World Machines
If you haven’t seen Coca-Cola’s marketing techniques with their vending machines, then you are going to be treated to one of their many amazing ad campaigns. This one is the Small World Machine campaign, where Coca-Cola unites their fans in India and Pakistan for brief moments of fun and a good time.
By setting up camera feeds connected in real-time and a touchscreen vending machine that spews out instructions, friends in Lahore, Pakistan, and New Delhi, India connect with gestures, waves, and dance — in exchange for free Coke.
I bet participants took away more than a thirst-quenching drink from that exercise. It’s a small world after all.
6. Samsung – “Stare Down” the S4 For 1 Hr
The Samsung Galaxy S4 has a unique feature that detects when you are looking at it, which is how they are able to pause videos when you look away. This campaign has turned this feature into a staring contest. The rules are simple: stare at the S4 at this booth in the Zurich railroad station for one hour and win your very own S4.
However, it won’t be easy. Police dogs, arguing couples, stunt motorcycles, and other distractions (including a hot dog vendor on fire!) will try to make you look away. It’s frustrating, but also incredibly entertaining to watch from the sidelines.
Witness the crowd cheering on the winner as they reach the one-hour deadline and claim their prize, all while trying not to go blind from the intense staring.
7. Delites – How Far Will You Go?
Would you push a button 5000 times just to get a free pack of Delites? Fantastic Delites has proof that there will be hardcore fans who would go to extremes to get their favorite snacks.
The machine is set up in Adelaide, Australia, presenting Delite-o-maniacs with the chance to get free packs of the snack. From carpal-tunnel-inducing button pushing to feet-flaunting dances, fans strut their stuff to get their hands on the prize. Most of them even look like they have won first prize in a tournament.
There’s nothing like a good exercise before munching down on awesome snacks.
8. Dove – Evolution
While most of us would know about the recent beauty sketch campaign made by Dove, where women were asked to describe themselves to a forensic sketch artist, only to realize how little they think of their physical looks, Dove made an earlier attempt to reflect a woman’s true beauty in a much earlier campaign.
“Evolution” is a clip that is a little over one minute long. It shows the amount of work that goes into getting a model ready for billboard fame. The video fast-forwards through the makeup, photoshoot, and Photoshopping to arrive at the final product, which is a totally different look from the original model’s raw beauty.
The message is powerful and clear, clarified at the end of the clip in only eight words: “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted.”
9. Ministry of Justice – Interactive Billboard Against Aggression
In the Netherlands, public service employees are often victims of aggression on the streets. The Ministry of Justice has decided to raise public awareness of what passers-by can do if they witness a fight unfolding before their very eyes – except it wasn’t real.
A previously recorded act of aggression against ambulance drivers and paramedics is superimposed on a large screen, which is a real-time recording of the street. Passers-by watch themselves on the screen, just a few feet away from the recorded fight, and are stunned by what they see. They are given four steps to take, including calling the authorities, when facing a real-life situation in the future.
Nothing like being put on the spot to make us realize that we can do more than just take photos to share on our social networks later on.
10. ThaiHealth – Best Anti-Smoking Campaign Ever
We saved the best for last. This one requires little to no cost but has long-lasting effects that could probably help save a life. A boy and a girl individually approach smoking adults to borrow a light, both with a cigarette in their hand. All the adults are approached in the middle of a smoking session.
Rather than giving the asking child a light, the adults lecture the child actors on the effects smoking has on their health, the diseases smoking causes, their looks, and their lives.
“So why are you smoking?” the children ask before leaving them a written reminder bearing the number to a helpline to quit smoking. Almost every smoker was reported to have thrown away their cigarette, and there was a rise in phone enquiries to the helpline.