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- [00:01]
Fergus O'Carroll
Welcome to OnStrategy Showcase. I'm Fergus O'Carroll in Chicago. We just had our last live show of the year in Chicago. We just did it a couple of weeks ago and I'm really excited to have everybody listen to it now. We had a sold out crowd. I think we had about 260 people who came to the Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago. The local sponsors for us were hidive, which is a wonderful agency based here in in Chicago and Creative License, which is a talent and music licensing group here in Chicago that does an awful lot of work with HIDIVE and other agencies in the area. We thank them both for giving us a wonderful physical space and for helping us turn it into a winter wonderland. To do this holiday ad special, I also wanted to thank our national, well actually more of our live tour which is more international. Our live tour sponsors which are wark, warc, warc also Tracksuit, the affordable brand tracking system for modern day brands and our great friends at the EFFIES for being sponsors of this tour. We're really excited to have these guys on board. They're terrific organizations and I hope that you will support them in the same way that they are supporting us. So what did we do? We had this holiday ad special, we recorded it live and we played basically holiday spots.
- [01:35]
Joe Neo
And you're going to hear more about.
- [01:36]
Fergus O'Carroll
This as we go through this. I'm not going to explain too much in advance, it's pretty self evident. The only thing that I think is really important and I suppose you got to do it afterwards, not beforehand, but I suppose it doesn't really matter but you've got to see the work because experiencing all of these holiday ads from various years, particularly with a focus on the UK and the us, it's really important to see them. I try to give you little introductions to each of the spots to just give you a sense of what you're listening to, but I'm not sure how much justice they'll actually do to the work. So if you get a chance, listen, go to the spots, you can go to our website@onstrategyshowcase.com and you can see all of the creative work and you can also listen to the show all on our website if you're listening on a podcast platform. I hope those descriptions help you. Maybe you can later go onto the website and listen or watch some of the work and there may be many of you who are familiar with these spots and so you'll already get the. At least you'll get the experience as best you can get in this format. So we had all these folks come out to Chicago. It was brilliant to meet everybody. It was fun. We cried, literally. We laughed. It was a lot of energy in the room. And I want to thank our panelists, which you'll hear about in a second, and our sponsors and everybody who was involved in it. Thank you to the Chicago community for coming out in full support. So here is our holiday ad special live from downtown Chicago. We recorded it just a few weeks ago, which I think was December 5th, and I had a great time. We're going to do this again. This is going to become an annual event, and we'll figure out how to do it and where we'll do it each year. Maybe it'll stay here in Chicago. Not real sure yet, but it'll become an annual event that we'll do because it was so much fun. Anyway, enjoy and happy holidays.
- [03:42]
Joe Neo
By the way, welcome to On Strategy Showcase. I'm Fergus O'Carroll in Chicago. I want to introduce a former neighbor of mine and the chief strategy officer at HiDive, it's Joe Neo.
- [04:02]
Andrew Tindall
Thank you.
- [04:06]
Joe Neo
Now, talk about taking the time to come here. Andrew Tindall came here from London just for this event. Let's go. All right. Pretty amazing. And he is the SVB of partnerships at System One, and we're really excited to have him. Sam Seskow is the head of strategy at Leo Burnett here in Chicago. Jesus. And she's very popular. Very popular. And so great to have her here. And Chad. Chad Browdy is the Chief Brody. Thank you. Is the chief creative officer and co founder of HiDive. That's fair. So what are we going to do tonight? We usually do sort of thick planning, case studies and thick planning topics, and it can be a little too much for a holiday month. So we said, let's just completely chill out. So we're going to be doing nothing but Christmas ads, holiday ads, and the way we structured this because there's so many of them, we approached System One and Andrew and said, number one, can you come over here? And then number two, can you tell us how all of these ads in the UK and the US Are testing and help us understand which are the best ones, which are the good ones. So they gave us a bunch of spots, and then I gave it to the panel and I said, well, okay, pick your top three. And they don't have to be on the list. They can actually be just spots you like. So we sent our favorite spots back to System One. They ran them through their system, gave us Ratings. So what we're going to do tonight is we're going to show the spots that each of us picked. We're going to talk about them and we're going to then talk about System 1's ratings. Now, listeners to the show know that I have a love hate relationship with ad testing. So. But I do think there is good things about ad testing and System One has been gracious to be here. They're not a sponsor. They are here because they're a friend of the show. But it is not an endorsement of System 1. I still have my problems with ad testing, but System One has always been open and those regular listeners will know that we've done shows where System One has come on with ipsos and we've debated all of this. Very productive. And so I'm thrilled to have this happen. So what we're going to do is we're going to just set the stage for what System One does in the context of writing the spots. So we're going to first play two spots. One is the top rated Christmas ad in, in the UK this year. Then we're going to follow it up with a top rated ad in the US and then Andrew is just going to walk us through how they do it. Just, you got to see the sense. So you'll get a sense of what the ratings are like for each of these spots and how they derive Those ratings. The UK's top spot. Are you familiar with Kevin the Carrot? By a show of hands, who knows? Kevin the Carrot. Oh, okay, that's good. That's pretty good.
- [07:17]
Sam Seskow
We've got some carrot.
- [07:18]
Joe Neo
It never runs here, right? No, wait, that's so Aldi. Of course we're familiar with Aldi. So Kevin the carrot. So we're going to, we're going to play that as the audio is up on this. So we'll. Should we play it and then use it?
- [07:33]
Chad Browdy
Let's watch the whole thing. It's a great ad.
- [07:35]
Joe Neo
Okay. And then. But it's going to play with your, with the tracker. Okay. So we're going to play it and then you'll see the tracker and then we'll come back and Andrew will talk about it. Here we go.
- [07:45]
Chad Browdy
On the darkest and coldest of Christmas.
- [07:48]
Joe Neo
Eves, the festive spirit had been stolen by thieves. The very last thing that Kevin expected, an impossible mission. Would he choose to accept it. My humbug friend's success at last. The Christmas spirit is a thing of the past. And all of a sudden the spirit was freed. Even the humbugs seemed to have Learned.
- [08:23]
Chad Browdy
Well done, K.E. you've cracked it. That Christmas is better when Goodwill is returned.
- [08:30]
Joe Neo
Okay, so that's the spot. What do you want to share about these ranges and how they lead to the rating?
- [08:37]
Chad Browdy
Sure. It's such a great, such a great strongly branded ad that this doesn't normally happen. You don't normally get such good fluency and brand recognition so quickly. So what we do with System One testing is we show a large crowd of nationally representative people within that market. So this is a UK ad, an ad, and we let them watch it like they would any other kind of advertising. And then we measure their branded emotional response, how they're feeling, how intensely and why. We then send them back and let them watch it again. And then that's where we get these kind of traces from. So in the second view and they're telling us how they're feeling and why and at what point they recognize what the brand was for.
- [09:15]
Joe Neo
And it's all done.
- [09:16]
Chad Browdy
Virtually all done, yeah. Digitally? Yeah. No one's strapped into our office. We've turned that emotional and brand data into our metrics which explain and predict the creative potential of advertising, how hard the ad is going to make media spend work. So you can see here it's a 5.5.9. It's the highest scoring ad this season on our star rating. Our star rating predicts the long term effects. People often kind of judge advertising by what it's going to do that month, it's not true. Advertising leaves lasting effects that last for years. So our star rating kind of tries to capture and predict that effect, the long term. Basically how positive it leaves viewers feeling and not negative or neutral. Advertising can't be boring. And then our spike rating also looks at the ability of an ad to capture in market demand doing that long and the short of it. If anyone's kind of worships at the altar of Les Burnette and Peter Field. The long and short of it. So we've got a spike and star. And then we've also got the important fluency rating. Does anyone know what ad that brand is for? You know, that's what was so great about this ad. You know, it's for Aldi straight away because Kevin the Carrot is now famous, you know, a celebrity. I can't believe you guys all know him. You know, Aldi did not put him over here, but you all know he's a global celebrity now.
- [10:36]
Joe Neo
Here's the US top spot. And so this one is the AI Run. This is the AI spot.
- [10:43]
Chad Browdy
Yeah. Somewhat controversial, I think.
- [10:45]
Joe Neo
Yeah, somewhat. As I said to somebody today, everybody must have forgotten that those polar bears weren't real years ago to think that this is an original use of AI Right, so here's the spot. People are already crying back there. Definitely AI okay, so that was the top one in the US and then the score for that, if I can get it to click right here, we'll see if we can make it happen. 5.9. Andrew?
- [11:37]
Chad Browdy
Yeah, if my team can make sure I make it back to my hotel and I don't get kind of beaten up by any local production businesses because the top sports AI I'm a bit tired because every news outlet has wanted to talk about this and this score. The top line is consumers either didn't know or didn't care it was AI and that's kind of how I think we should be, you know, judging advertising for the eyes of the consumer. And they love it. But what's also important is that with this code course. But why is it so. Why is it so, you know, why do we think it's so effective? It's because of 30 years of human creativity. You know, AI didn't come up with this. It's just a new version of a 30 year running idea. Again, consistency. I will bore everyone with consistency.
- [12:25]
Joe Neo
Okay, you got it. So let's now go and we'll talk through the ones that are our favorite. And what we're going to do here is we're first going to, we're going to start with Chad and what we're going to do is we're going to have him introduce the spot, we'll talk a little bit about it, then I'm going to ask him to guess how it rated with the consumers and then we're going to expose how it was rated. And at the end of all of this, we're going to add up all of our scores and see who wins by the end of the night.
- [12:53]
Chad Browdy
I hope we're all still friends by the night.
- [12:54]
Joe Neo
I hope we are. Yeah.
- [12:55]
Sam Seskow
I don't know.
- [12:56]
Chad Browdy
Again, it's the consumer's point of view. Nothing to do with me.
- [12:58]
Joe Neo
We're going to start with our third spot for Chad and we're going to go around. So, Chad, you want to tell us a little bit about fuzzy feelings and what you liked about it?
- [13:07]
F
Yeah, it's. I don't know, I think for me, instead of like unpacking it and explaining why you love a spot and the craft, what kind of elicits an emotional response. And I remember seeing that and just feeling you know, warm and fuzzy ironically. And I think it's just a lovely spot. The execution of it is incredible. And it's just when you, you know, when you sent the email out of some of the favorite spots, for some reason this one popped in my head right away and I think that was telling in its own right. So yeah, it's really a great spot.
- [13:43]
Fergus O'Carroll
So this spot tells a story of an office worker and her grumpy boss. To kind of cope with the frustrations of working with him during the day, she's actually making a stop film using her iPhone at night. And it takes her boss and places him as a character in the movie. And she subjects him to a number of unfortunate accidents. He falls into an icy river, he electrifies himself putting up Christmas lights and he gets hit by a snowplow. But one day her boss gives her a festive gift and she starts to think of him differently. Her tone shifts to understanding and kindness and the scenes in her movie begin to change. The spot closes as she sits beside him in the company cafeteria and they start a conversation for what we're led to believe is the very first time. The soundtrack is Isn't it a Pity By George Harrison. Here's a short clip from that. What is a four minute sp.
- [15:00]
Joe Neo
Isn't it a pity.
- [15:06]
Chad Browdy
Now?
- [15:07]
Joe Neo
Isn't it a shame.
- [15:11]
Fergus O'Carroll
Conceive.
- [15:22]
Joe Neo
How's it going?
- [15:29]
F
What's funny is I don't normally love five minute spots, but that one kept my attention. The one thing that really bothers me about that spot though is why didn't she quit her dead end job and become a stop motion filmmaker? And I can't get that pass. But that's why it's number three and not number one.
- [15:45]
Joe Neo
Yeah, yeah, it is interesting that there's a lot of, there's a lot of spots that are now becoming entertainment, not just ads. And we're going to see that tonight. A lot of three and four minute spots. They'll do cut downs of course, but they're great. I mean what I love about it is it's, it's not just a one off. It feels like it's part of a campaign. It's where the product is contextually right for the spot. Because a lot of Christmas ads just feel like they're one offs. They're not even. It's hard to connect them to a product or a brand. This one is like perfectly integrated in with it.
- [16:19]
F
Yeah, that's what Apple has going for it. I mean all these shot on an iPhone type of ads. It's even before they come up with a concept. There's a cool idea there. And to incorporate storytelling with the Macs and the phones, it's just. It's pretty seamless.
- [16:34]
Joe Neo
What do you think it rated out of five? Out of six?
- [16:38]
Fergus O'Carroll
Yeah.
- [16:38]
Chad Browdy
One to five.
- [16:39]
Joe Neo
One to five.
- [16:40]
F
The AI spot was five nine. So I don't know. Ten. No, I'm kidding. I'm going to give this one four nine.
- [16:48]
Joe Neo
A four nine. Okay, here we go. Here's how it rated a 2.2.
- [16:53]
F
There you go.
- [16:54]
Joe Neo
I know consumers don't know what the.
- [16:56]
Fergus O'Carroll
Hell they're talking about, Andrew.
- [16:59]
Chad Browdy
This is a set industry, a group of creatives and party booing the consumer.
- [17:05]
Joe Neo
You gotta get out of here.
- [17:06]
F
But Andrew, tell me this. So when it tests well, it tests well through a creative lens, it's a perfect science. When it tests poorly, it's bullshit. Right.
- [17:17]
Chad Browdy
So I've had the pleasure of watching these a lot for and trying to work out kind of something smart to say on HP spots. That guy was too convincingly miserable. So like if you look at the top three associations still, it's loneliness at the end. They just didn't leave quite enough time to. Then, you know, where's the joy? At the end was my. So half the consumers were still left feeling like something was. Something wasn't quite right because that guy was too good. Like he was too lonely.
- [17:48]
F
You're not gonna like my second spot.
- [17:53]
Joe Neo
All right, we are going to go to Joe for the next spot. And Joe, this is JD Sports 2024. Do you want me to play it? You want to talk a little bit about it before we talk about it?
- [18:04]
Andrew Tindall
I mean, JD Sports Fashion is.
- [18:07]
Joe Neo
Are you. Is that mic. Maybe be a little closer so you can pull it toward you.
- [18:10]
Andrew Tindall
Pull it towards me. Okay. So JD Sports Fashion is a retailer. I think if you ever wonder what I look like on the weekends, this is. What these guys wear is track suits. That's me on a regular Saturday. I think they do a really good job of putting a mirror to the. To the customer. We usually bristle with that. But they do it in a very authentic documentary verite type of way. It's really interesting. So I bet it will not test very well. But I do think there's two audiences here. There's us and then there's consumers. I think maybe we would like it more.
- [18:43]
Joe Neo
Yeah. So this ran in the uk, did not run in the US I wasn't even familiar with JD Sports as a brand, but the spot feels really wonderful.
- [18:53]
Fergus O'Carroll
This spot celebrates the importance of everyday family and friends and the bonds and rituals that connect them. The camera takes us on a journey across working class London. As we enter into the lives of different groups of people, it highlights the joy of spending time with loved ones. However you define that during the holiday.
- [19:13]
Joe Neo
Season, this is not four minutes. So it's.
- [19:17]
Chad Browdy
Are you guys good?
- [19:18]
Joe Neo
Hey, let me in, man.
- [19:19]
Chad Browdy
Come through, man. Come through.
- [19:21]
Joe Neo
What are you doing in my seat? Yeah, you took time into the hotel. What are you laughing at? Why stop wait to work. Now you behave. Okay, so love that. So it's, it's. The idea of family is not only the traditional family, it's not even the family. It's a much broader circle. Right.
- [19:53]
Andrew Tindall
And everybody holidays differently, but you know, we still share the same sentiment and emotions with our family. So it's like a portrait of, as you were saying, it's like a pretty accurate portrait of London life. So I can't really attest to that, but I believe you.
- [20:08]
Chad Browdy
The worst part about November is I always start crying at ads in front of customers and it's just not a great look. It makes me miss home. It's a reflection of what London is very much like if you're kind of, you know.
- [20:19]
Joe Neo
Well, if you're slightly younger and it's not really Christmassy.
- [20:22]
Chad Browdy
No, no, no, it's not, no. Very distinctive. I mean, it's by uncommon. You can actually, you can tell if anyone's seen uncommons of a work. It feels very uncommon. Another ad I keep crying out is the Quaker Oats ad. Has anyone seen that? I don't know why I keep watching it. I keep crying. Great ad. Yeah. And you can tell it's in common. It's a great piece of work.
- [20:44]
Joe Neo
Yeah, it's good stuff. So what do you, Joe, what do you think it rated a three and a half. Okay. You're pretty close. Actually. It rated at 3.0. That went down from earlier. No, wait, that didn't. No, it didn't. Yeah. So it's a beautiful spot. And for us in the US side, we don't recognize many of the influencers and people in the influencer community that are throughout this entire spot. So if you're in the uk, it feels even bigger than what it feels for us here. So good spot, right?
- [21:21]
Chad Browdy
It's good to level set as well. So, you know, we test every ad that goes in UK and US TV with real people. 85% of those ads go 1 and 2 star and the average is around 2ish. So when we're in holiday season, we're picking our best spots and we talk about fives all the time. You know, three might not look like it's, you know, it's still in the top 20% of work globally. So, yeah, it's good to level, but it's good to level Sam.
- [21:47]
Joe Neo
Yeah. Okay, Sam. So this is Sam's number three spot. It's different.
- [21:54]
Sam Seskow
It's quite different. We've seen some real tearjerkers here. And I may have seen actual tears in the audience just now when Fuzzy Feelings played. I picked this because it's funny. It just makes me laugh. There's this absurd situation where through the power of Cranberries, this boring get together is transformed and they find themselves bopping along in a cranberry bog. And it doesn't make any sense, but it makes me laugh. And that's why I picked it.
- [22:29]
Fergus O'Carroll
We open inside the home of a woman who's hosting a holiday party. It's very low key. Only a handful of people are in the room. Then our cranberry ambassador appears, suggesting the addition of cranberry juice to a holiday cocktail. All of a sudd. The room is filled almost waist high with cranberries. And the entire vibe and energy in the room dramatically changes. The tagline appears at the end. Just add crayon.
- [22:59]
Joe Neo
Here it is. Come on, everyone who wants to dance? Just add crayon. Just add crayon. Mix it in. The bold taste of ocean spray cranberry juice cocktail dials up. Anybody Ice me? So again, it's not Christmassy. It's just feels right for Christmas time. It's not about that. Right?
- [23:37]
Sam Seskow
I mean, cranberries are somewhat Christmassy. Thanksgiving, I guess, holiday season. I don't know. I feel like we all pulled out Christmas trees really early. So this year.
- [23:48]
F
So those creameries are frosted.
- [23:50]
Sam Seskow
Yeah.
- [23:51]
Joe Neo
See, Frosting grand. Working in a.
- [23:52]
Sam Seskow
It's a holiday party.
- [23:53]
Joe Neo
So this is. This is the agency's called Orchard. Orchard Creative in New York City.
- [23:59]
Sam Seskow
That's right.
- [24:00]
Joe Neo
And they also did the Atzi's Where's Waldo spot this year. And this is actually the former chief Creative Officer of Droga5, David Kolbitz. I hope. I'm probably butchering that. And then the planner used to work at Leo Burnett in Detroit and went on to Goodbye and went on to Barton Graff and others. Her name is Laura. Janice.
- [24:23]
Sam Seskow
Janess.
- [24:24]
Joe Neo
Yeah, Janess.
- [24:25]
Sam Seskow
I think it's Janess.
- [24:25]
Joe Neo
I suck at getting. I just do not get names right on the show. Last week I called you Tyndale, so I apologize for that too.
- [24:32]
Chad Browdy
I hold it against you.
- [24:33]
Joe Neo
I appreciate it, man. So what do you, what do you think it actually scored or rated at?
- [24:38]
Sam Seskow
I'm gonna say three.
- [24:40]
Joe Neo
Okay, let me just look at this before I. You're actually pretty good. 3.1.
- [24:45]
Sam Seskow
Does that put me in the lead for now. Not competitive.
- [24:52]
Joe Neo
This is good. This is good. So far.
- [24:54]
Chad Browdy
It's incredibly fluent as well. You know, good brand recognition. So this is actually my. You're not supposed to have favorites, but this is my favorite US Christmas ad, actually, because it's a start of what you call a fluent device. The just add crayon is like a brand owned asset that adds drama and it takes a few years to wear in. So I'd expect if you stick at this in a few years time, it'll be five star. So these fluent devices need time to wear in. And so I think this is a really strong start. Also, that Farmer character, and they were using him for like 10 years. Johnny or something.
- [25:27]
Joe Neo
He's always been waiting in cranberry, right?
- [25:29]
Chad Browdy
Yeah, yeah. Really, really strong idea. I love it.
- [25:32]
Joe Neo
Okay, so this is, this is the number three spot for me. This one I love. And you know, one of the things that I always hoped for tonight is that we would have boxes of Kleenex throughout the room because you need a sponsor. It is. Yeah. Right. Because like you, I literally will not so much on this one, but the ones we'll see later, I will like just sit and just get choked up repeatedly at this. And my kids will say to me, you never cry, dad. Well, you don't see me crying. I'm actually crying in front of my computer. But I think, I hope that people will cry. You can raise your hand if you start crying, but this one is. This one is going. This is a great spot from Adam and Eve ddb. It's just Richard Brim and Martin Beverly and the whole crew now. They used to do all of the John Lewis work and they did it for 15 years. And they've been on the show talking about all of those spots and it's brilliant stuff. A great team. They lost the business a couple of years ago to Saatchi and Saatchi in London. So all the new work is coming out of Saatchi the last two years, I think. But Disney called and loved the John Lewis work and so they actually produced this spot and it's led to a whole bunch of it. This is a relationship with Disney, not just a spot for. For the holidays and not just for Disney plus, but there's a whole body of work coming out of this. And I was talking to Martin Beverly this week and he said that they've had 78 million organic views in the first week. It was the top five most watched on Disney plus. So this is where advertising is migrating over to being entertainment. If you go on Disney plus, this was the top four in between Home Alone and Santa Claus, where people watch this clip. So it's more than advertising. And this is also the home of Lesbinet for your advertising effectiveness gurus.
- [27:31]
Fergus O'Carroll
This is a four minute film that tells the story of an unlikely friendship between a young boy and a digitally animated octopus. They originally meet each other while the boy is swimming underwater in the ocean. They create a bond and we see them as they experience different everyday things together. It ends on Christmas Eve with the boy and the octopus agreeing that the octopus should go with Santa Claus to continue his adventures around the world. The overarching message is the power of unexpected friendships and the sense of magic at the holidays.
- [28:50]
Joe Neo
Pretty amazing, right? Yeah. So this, I think this spot, it has the very same spirit. A spirit as the John Lewis work. Some of the stuff we'll see later this evening has that same spirit, but it's a different director. The director was.
- [29:08]
F
That's Taika, right?
- [29:09]
Joe Neo
That's right. That's Taika from New Zealand. Okay, so I know what it rated. Just shout out what you think that rated on a scale of 1 to 6. Okay. In the fives.
- [29:22]
Chad Browdy
In the fives, yeah.
- [29:24]
Joe Neo
Okay. It's a 5.1.
- [29:31]
Chad Browdy
In the UK it's 5.9 as well. It's really. It's great.
- [29:34]
Joe Neo
Globally.
- [29:34]
Chad Browdy
It works globally, yeah.
- [29:36]
Joe Neo
Really beautiful spot. So, okay, so let's go around to our number twos. We'll go back to Chad and Al. We'll talk about Chad's number two, which is Poston.
- [29:49]
F
One of our creatives showed me this a few years ago and it stuck with me and just buckle up. It's a darker version of what we just saw.
- [30:02]
Joe Neo
Okay, so here it is. This is Make Christmas Great Again, which, you know. Jesus. It's from Norway. The client is the Norwegian Post office and the agency is Pol. I'm not sure what it is. I've checked them out today, but they do great work and they've done great spots before this, which we'll talk about in a second. In the same campaign, in this spot.
- [30:27]
Fergus O'Carroll
From the Norwegian Postal Service, Santa is portrayed as an angry white man who's partial to Twitter rants in all caps. He also wears a red baseball cap with the caption Make Christmas great again. Santa's beef in the spot is that he's been made obsolete by the spectacular efficiency of Norway's postal service. He now feels out of date and unloved, fuming on social media and pouring his heart out to an elf psychiatrist. In the spots finale, he receives a delivery of a handful of letters from children. And we sense redemption may be around the corner.
- [31:07]
Joe Neo
Make Christmas great again.
- [31:10]
Chad Browdy
I. I felt my conflict.
- [31:14]
Joe Neo
You tottered Gil.
- [31:36]
F
I'll have the reindeer. Come on.
- [31:39]
Chad Browdy
That is so rogue. That is such a rogue.
- [31:43]
Joe Neo
So they did a different spot in 2019 about the postal worker. And they did a different look at the biblical story of the birth of Jesus. And so they did a different version of the virgin birth. So it showed a postal worker back in those days arriving at Mary's house. And this is a twinkle in the eye. And then nine months later, Jesus is born. So they did that spot which is like really, really good.
- [32:13]
F
I don't know.
- [32:14]
Joe Neo
Little heavy hands.
- [32:16]
F
It was well done. Obviously, you know, it doesn't give you the warm fuzzies like the warm fuzzy one did, but it's. I don't know, I just, I thought it was really. Just executed beautifully is for what it was. And it kind of stayed with me and I don't know it. You know, I think we could watch a thousand tearjerkers around the holiday season, but this one just felt went the other way in that dark humor way that stood out.
- [32:40]
Joe Neo
Right. So what do we think? What do you think it actually rated Norwegians.
- [32:45]
Chad Browdy
We tested it in Norway.
- [32:46]
Joe Neo
Oh, really?
- [32:47]
Chad Browdy
Yeah.
- [32:47]
Joe Neo
Oh, is this the result for. For Norway only?
- [32:51]
F
I don't know Norwegians, but I'm gonna go 1.5.
- [32:58]
Joe Neo
Uriah. Wrong. Let's go 4.1.
- [33:04]
F
I'd have Norwegian. Here we come.
- [33:06]
Joe Neo
Yes. Norway.
- [33:08]
Chad Browdy
My favorite was a few years ago where there was a man that had a spot to celebrate 50 years since you could marry. Same sex marriage in Norway. And there was a spot where a man fell asleep and then woke up and Santa was there. And then they fell in love over a two minute spot. It is so, so out there.
- [33:24]
F
But yeah, it's actually fascinating. It's got a 4:1 because I bet you in the States this would be sub two easy.
- [33:30]
Joe Neo
Yeah.
- [33:31]
F
If warm fuzzy feeling was a two two.
- [33:33]
Sam Seskow
Yeah.
- [33:33]
F
What's.
- [33:34]
Chad Browdy
I mean, I think they must have quite a unique sense of humor. Clearly. Yeah. I think I might want to live in Norway.
- [33:41]
F
I know.
- [33:42]
Sam Seskow
And have the rain gear.
- [33:44]
Joe Neo
So. Andrew, that does not reflect us viewers.
- [33:47]
Chad Browdy
No. I've tested all these with weather meant to be launching. So.
- [33:50]
Joe Neo
Okay. Okay.
- [33:51]
Fergus O'Carroll
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- [36:30]
Joe Neo
All right, Joe is up next. So this is Joe's number two. It is the long wait. John Lewis 2011 Joe, what do you say about it?
- [36:41]
Andrew Tindall
If an ad can feel like a gift, this is it. I think this really kind of sets the bar so we just watch it.
- [36:51]
Joe Neo
So one thing I'd say about this from the brand perspective. I think this is true to say, but the vast majority of John Lewis spend is at Christmastime. So they blitz at Christmastime. It is something that UK consumers used to look out for and so they spent most of their money there. And so it was able to effectively build that brand for year round just off of the impact that. And people waited on this like it was the premiere of another movie. Everybody was like it was a countdown to that new John Lewis spot. And this one I think was in the. Somewhere in the middle of them. This is, I think is second most highly rated one. But I bring that up only because. Yeah, second most. Sorry to scream. Sorry, we'll edit that out.
- [37:40]
Chad Browdy
So you mentioned Disney. The Disney ad gets lots of views on Disney plus at one point and John Lewis is so popular they put it on Sky. So like NBC in the UK as programming and like millions of people would tune in to watch the John Lewis ad on tv. People would choose to watch this stuff. And you're right as well, it's because it's such big, bold, commercial brand building stuff. They felt the effects throughout the year, but used all that attention at Christmas to really build their brand.
- [38:08]
Joe Neo
Yeah. And this is directed by Dougal Wilson.
- [38:11]
F
Google. Yeah.
- [38:12]
Joe Neo
And brilliant. And the proposition for this brand is the home of thoughtful gift giving. The home of thoughtful gift giving. So you'll see that play out here.
- [38:24]
Fergus O'Carroll
In this spot we meet a young boy who cannot wait for each day of December to pass so that the big day itself will arrive every December day. He fidgets, he rushes through everything and can't wait to fall asleep each night. So he'll be one day closer. Finally, Christmas morning arrives and we discover that the boy wasn't excited because he wanted gifts for himself, but because he was so excited to give a gift to his parents.
- [38:57]
Joe Neo
Take out the tissue boxes. Good times for a change See the lock eyes had could make a good man turn bad so so please, please, please let me get what I want Lord knows it would be the first time. Wow.
- [39:46]
Andrew Tindall
That feels like a five.
- [39:53]
Joe Neo
So this is part of the beauty of great spots. They sort of subvert your expectation at the very end. Twist or a sad spot turns into a joy. It just sort of fucks with your mind a little bit.
- [40:07]
Chad Browdy
Yeah.
- [40:07]
Andrew Tindall
There's a power in the, in the music that you see in the, in the John Lewis ads. I think they've. There's actually on Spotify there's a playlist dedicated to music of John Lewis ads. So that culture alone around the advertising is really fascinating. It kind of belongs to Christmas and I think that's kind of where you. You would want to be. So it's really, really different.
- [40:30]
Joe Neo
So what do you think it rated?
- [40:32]
Andrew Tindall
5.
- [40:33]
Joe Neo
5. Okay, this surprises me. 4.7.
- [40:38]
Chad Browdy
So with this, we actually retested every John Lewis ad a few weeks ago to kind of see how they land today. I think when this originally launched it was a 5, which softened a little bit. I mean, advertising is like consumed within the context and John Lewis owns the Christmas context. So, yeah, no surprise. We're going to see a few John Lewis ads today.
- [41:03]
F
Do you see better scores for Christmas or holiday ads that are a little bit longer?
- [41:09]
Chad Browdy
No. Generally if you want to do an ad longer than 20 seconds, it's kind of taken the dip.
- [41:16]
F
Yeah. I was about to say that's like I spot goes.
- [41:19]
Chad Browdy
Right. Yeah. Consumers don't care about advertising. You've got to have. You've got to have incredibly right, what I would call a right brained ad storytelling character. A sense of place, you know, dialogue, human emotion to kind of hold attention for anything longer than.
- [41:35]
Joe Neo
Yeah, but you look at the Volvo at that one. I went on TikTok for Volvo. I think it was on TikTok or Instagram. It was like four or five minutes long. And it's brilliant because it's. It went to watch it. Right, okay. So that was 4.7. Great spot. So the next is Samantha's. Sam's number two.
- [41:54]
Chad Browdy
Also. That was 2011. That is so old. Yeah. Right.
- [41:59]
Joe Neo
And of course when you retest it, you're retesting amongst people who've already probably seen it. There's a sense.
- [42:03]
Chad Browdy
Yeah. I'm enjoying how the fact that I imagine that was the first time some people in the room had seen it and hearing the gasps and stuff. That's great. Everyone in the UK advertising industry lives off this stuff. You know, it's like playing in the background in the pub, like in. So, yeah, I enjoy actually seeing where people see.
- [42:21]
Joe Neo
And that's a good point to bring up because in the us, our big time for showcasing great ads is what we hope are going to be great ads is a Super bowl in the uk. It's Christmas. They own. They own Christmas.
- [42:33]
F
It's like the trends are. I feel like in the US they're coming a little bit with Amazon more.
- [42:38]
Joe Neo
Yeah, that's right.
- [42:38]
F
Yeah. It's kind of exciting.
- [42:40]
Joe Neo
Yeah. Done by lucky generals in the UK. So the next one is Sam's number two. It is ironically Amazon from 2022. Tell us about this one.
- [42:53]
Sam Seskow
It's just a beautiful story of a dad who goes out of his way to create a special experience for his daughter. Courtesy of Amazon. And yeah, I'll speak more about it after we see it.
- [43:13]
Fergus O'Carroll
This spot features a father and a young daughter. The daughter has an unexplained connection to a snow globe. She carries it everywhere, she sleeps with it, she takes it to school, she takes it to the dentist, and even has a place set for it at the dinner table. Seeing this fascination, the father is inspired to surprise her by creating a very special real world snow globe using their backyard greenhouse, some items borrowed from neighbors, and one or two things bought from Amazon. At the end, the tagline comes up. Joy is made.
- [44:20]
Joe Neo
Pretty wild. Yeah, wonderful.
- [44:23]
Sam Seskow
I just love. I think for those of us who have children, we know sometimes they get so attached to an object, whether it's a toy or in this case, a snow globe. And to capture that insight and tell this beautiful story of how he recreates it in the greenhouse, I also think it's just so clever that Amazon, which is probably, you know, really a symbol of instant gratification, is just a small part of creating this experience. And I think the line Joy is made with the emphasis on he is actually, you know, actively making something for his daughter is really clever.
- [45:10]
Joe Neo
So for me, when I looked at this, I was a little bit confused when I first saw this spot. So for me, I was like, what does the globe represent? Where is the partner? Where's the mother? Is this about loss? The mother has passed away and she's the globe and he's trying to bring her back to reality. There's a lot of different ways of interpreting. There's a heartbreak, but also it's incredibly heartwarming. And I haven't been able to find anything. All they've written about is, is that joy can be made with the help of others is how Amazon talked about it. That was. That's lucky. Generals out of London. What do you think it rated?
- [45:52]
Sam Seskow
I'm going to be bold and say it was a five.
- [45:54]
Joe Neo
Okay. What do you guys think it rated us 4.9.
- [46:01]
Chad Browdy
I heard someone at the five bawling her eyes out. She won't tear it. She's struggling to pull it together. I heard a three. Really?
- [46:13]
Joe Neo
This one actually rated as, oh, I didn't want to show that. But here a 5.9.
- [46:21]
Chad Browdy
So 5.9. This is actually one of the strongest ads Amazon's ever made. Like off the charts insane across all metrics. What I think is special about Is at the start. The dark dad's a bit of an ass. Like, you don't like the dad at the start. And he wins you over throughout. And I think there's something about good storytelling, advertising. That wins you over throughout. There's this great spot by VCCP for Cadbury called the Garage. Where a guy comes up to the window to pay for fuel. And he seems like a bit of a creep.
- [46:55]
Joe Neo
Gas station here.
- [46:56]
Chad Browdy
The gas gas station. Yeah. Yeah. Seems like a bit of a creeper. He's like, yeah, I'll pay for fuel. And. And I'll buy you a bow of chocolate. Love. It turns out it's a dad. And he kind of turns it from creep to a very beautiful moment. I think there's something of that going in there. Right. He's a bit of an ass. But then you actually. You then feel for the dad at the end. I think it's quite bold for someone to do.
- [47:14]
F
Yeah. It's like when Santa chooses to eat his reindeer. And then later decides to wish the person Merry Christmas. It's like, same thing.
- [47:23]
Chad Browdy
Yeah. Transformation.
- [47:24]
Sam Seskow
Same. Same, but different.
- [47:25]
F
Yeah, same thing.
- [47:28]
Joe Neo
Wonderful spot. Anyway, so this is my number two. And this one constantly gets me choked up. And I'm talking about it now because it won't get me choked up now. But I know that my girls have seen me choked up to this. And I think what it does. Just like what Joe mentioned with John Lewis. You can't underrate the power of a music track in a spot. It's more, many times more important. And also, most of these spots don't have a narrative. There isn't a script for most of them. The music is playing such a critical role for it. So this is one by Kohl's department store from 2014. Which is very uncharacteristic of Coles. They haven't done anything like this since. I was looking at the guest list for tonight. And I saw that there's a lot of people from Kohl here tonight. And I was thinking, oh, shit, the Coles people are here. But I missed the ERs at the end. But this is a beautiful spot. It's from Peterson, Miller Hooks in Minneapolis. They did all the Target work. They've actually shut down now. But this is called Holiday Magic.
- [48:40]
Fergus O'Carroll
We open on a wilderness highway in the wintertime. Snow covers the ground. A father is taking his teenage son on the trek he and his father made years before. His teenage. Teenage son shows no interest in talking or listening as they drive. Preferring instead to listen to music on his headphones. When they arrive and walk through the snow covered trees into a clearing, the boy sees what appears to be one of Santa's elves feeding straw to a group of real life reindeers. The boy's eyes widen as one of the massive reindeers approaches and stops right in front of him.
- [49:20]
Joe Neo
Him.
- [49:21]
Fergus O'Carroll
Then turns and flies away as the music builds and the boy's belief in magic returns.
- [49:34]
Joe Neo
So your mom and I thought you might like this.
- [49:41]
Chad Browdy
My dad brought me out here when.
- [49:49]
Joe Neo
Anyway.
- [50:29]
Fergus O'Carroll
All right.
- [50:30]
Joe Neo
It's not like a John Lewis spot. There's nobody crying here except me.
- [50:34]
F
It's a great ending. The way the dad turns his back. It was a great touch there.
- [50:40]
Joe Neo
Yeah. What I loved about this is it's sort of. Most parents understand this when their kid comes from a certain age. The kid is not finding the joy in the same things. So this is the father who's obviously brought his son back to a place where his father brought him, as evidenced by that old station wagon, which looks like it's from the 70s. He's obviously come home and trying to rekindle those joys with his son. I love that. And again, the role of music. So I know what it rated. What do you think it rated? 5 or more or less than 5. Like any good room full of planners, there's absolutely no agreement. 5.6.
- [51:30]
Chad Browdy
This is one of the 5.6. It's one of the highest scoring US Christmas ads. It's insanely. Yeah. Yeah.
- [51:39]
Joe Neo
All right. So that was. That was my one.
- [51:42]
Chad Browdy
And again, it's 214. Why?
- [51:45]
Joe Neo
Why?
- [51:45]
Chad Browdy
Do you remember this one?
- [51:46]
Joe Neo
Say again?
- [51:47]
Chad Browdy
10 years old.
- [51:48]
Joe Neo
Oh, I'll never forget this one. I don't know what's so wonderful about it. Simple. And it is. Is something everybody can relate to.
- [51:57]
Chad Browdy
Yeah.
- [51:58]
Joe Neo
It's kind of a generic statement.
- [51:59]
Chad Browdy
There's discourse in the room, Fergus.
- [52:01]
Sam Seskow
Yeah.
- [52:03]
Joe Neo
Or at least they're talking to each other. That's good. Okay, we only have 10 minutes left, so we gotta hustle through this last one. So these are the number ones. So we're gonna go back to our number one spot. So we'll start again with Chad. And this is from BBDO, New York 2006. Is this particular spot okay.
- [52:24]
F
I didn't know how long it's been running. Look, I didn't. I don't think I did this in order of my favorite ads. When you asked me, I did that wrong. But I love the longevity of this, that they run this every single year. I felt like I saw this spot when I was way younger. But I think it's 15 seconds and they've been doing it forever. And I think it's cool to just kind of have a spot and run it year after year after year.
- [52:45]
Joe Neo
So they still run this version of it today?
- [52:48]
F
I think so, yeah.
- [52:49]
Joe Neo
Yeah, it seems all right. It's M&M's.
- [52:54]
Fergus O'Carroll
So we open here inside the home of the Eminem's characters. Late one Christmas Eve, the characters are walking through the house on their way to the Christmas tree. As they enter the room, they're surprised to see Santa Claus and he's equally surprised to see them. So you think Santa will like these red and green MMs?
- [53:19]
Andrew Tindall
I don't know.
- [53:19]
Chad Browdy
I never met the guy. He does exist.
- [53:23]
Joe Neo
They do exist.
- [53:27]
F
Santa 15 too.
- [53:31]
Joe Neo
Full story 15.
- [53:32]
Sam Seskow
Yeah.
- [53:33]
Joe Neo
So it's got recurring characters, a lot of humor, playful magic of Christmas. Right. This is what makes that whole thing work, which is what so many people are talking about. There is reoccurring characters, which I'm a little worried about because I worry everybody's going to doing reoccurring characters and then it's going to become generic. But we watch. We've talked about this.
- [53:50]
F
We watch the same Christmas movies every single year.
- [53:52]
Joe Neo
That's right.
- [53:53]
F
You know, and I think advertising kind of could take a page from that.
- [53:55]
Joe Neo
Yeah. I think once a year.
- [53:57]
Chad Browdy
It's one of the main differences between UK and US holiday work. UK has got a lot of reoccurring characters and it works like. People really love familiarity, so.
- [54:09]
Andrew Tindall
Yeah, consistency.
- [54:11]
Joe Neo
Yeah, yeah, great consistency. Joe has got the bug.
- [54:15]
Chad Browdy
We're gonna be friends.
- [54:18]
Andrew Tindall
Catching on.
- [54:19]
Joe Neo
Okay, Joe, this is your one. This is Bubbles from Guess what.
- [54:25]
Chad Browdy
Oh, guess what? Oh, yeah.
- [54:27]
Joe Neo
Did we not do that?
- [54:27]
F
We have like 10 minutes. Four.
- [54:30]
Joe Neo
Oh, sorry. Excuse me. Sorry about that.
- [54:32]
Sam Seskow
Oh, it's going to be higher.
- [54:34]
Joe Neo
5 points.
- [54:36]
F
15 seconds. Too old school.
- [54:38]
Andrew Tindall
That's pretty hard working.
- [54:39]
Chad Browdy
Efficient and effective.
- [54:41]
Joe Neo
All right, so the next one is Joe. This is his number, his top spot. It's Bubbles. It's Deutsch Telekom from Muw Sai in Slovakia.
- [54:53]
Andrew Tindall
This is similar to the post and it's kind of a darkness to it. But I think what I love about it, there's a little bit of social commentary you can applaud. Brands that didn't know how to read the room, you know, And I think this one did that. It was responding to what the world was feeling a couple months ago in November. So I think it's European, but I think it definitely has a different awareness to it. That's really cool.
- [55:16]
Joe Neo
Yeah, really strong. And this Ran in Germany, Slovakia, and one other country in Eastern Europe.
- [55:22]
Fergus O'Carroll
We open on two young girls playing on the street in the snow in what appears to be a small village. We soon see that a glass wall separates them. The girls want to play together, but their parents and other villagers pull them back from the glass and stare at each girl very judgmentally. We soon see that each is in fact trapped in their own separate snow globe bubble. The girls eventually decide to break the glass that keeps them apart. The tagline comes on screen. Connections begin when barriers break.
- [56:25]
Chad Browdy
Friendship is born.
- [56:27]
F
T Mobile. That's so funny.
- [56:36]
Joe Neo
Yeah, it's great.
- [56:41]
Chad Browdy
I was going to say.
- [56:43]
F
So someone, Someone shot that and then shopped it around for brands to.
- [56:46]
Joe Neo
Yeah, yeah. So the. So that sense of polarization, living in our own bubbles, not connecting with people, not understanding that people, when you bring them together, share more in common, I think is the underlying message. But it's beautifully done.
- [57:06]
F
Yeah, that's really wonderful.
- [57:07]
Chad Browdy
It's terrifying.
- [57:08]
Joe Neo
No, no, but it's terrifying. Well, it's, It's. Yeah, maybe it is the implications. Terrible.
- [57:15]
Andrew Tindall
But that feels like a 4.2, Fergus.
- [57:17]
Joe Neo
Okay, you think it's a 4.2. Okay, ready here. Speaking of having your bubble burst.
- [57:29]
Andrew Tindall
How wrong.
- [57:30]
Joe Neo
This is just wrong. I mean it. Well, it's this. This is an example of maybe too serious a topic.
- [57:35]
Andrew Tindall
Yeah.
- [57:36]
Joe Neo
At a time of year. It's not that it's not enjoyed, it's just being judged.
- [57:42]
Chad Browdy
Also, you know, that's a 2.5 with German viewers. You know, this is very close to home. You know, imagine viewing it for a German culture context. You know, it's probably for a different episode.
- [57:55]
Joe Neo
Yeah, yeah, I hear you. Yeah. But I think those issues of nationalism are pan European. They're across the US And I think that it connects. It should run maybe T Mobile or run it here next year. Okay. What's that?
- [58:14]
Chad Browdy
Yeah, Donald Fairzon. Is that Braff? Indifferent.
- [58:16]
Joe Neo
Yeah.
- [58:17]
F
Okay, go ahead. No, no, no.
- [58:20]
Joe Neo
Okay, so we have, we have the number one from Samantha. This is from Apple 2013, TBWA Media Arts Lab in Los Angeles. I feel like I'm at an award show and I'm announcing the gold effort. This one's called Misunderstood. Why did you pick it?
- [58:41]
Sam Seskow
I mean, it is a really a product demonstration dressed up as a holiday ad. But it is a beautiful insight about what happens in the teen years where there's a lot of figurative and literal closing of doors. And here's this level story of this boy who seems sucked into his phone, but really is using it to document his family gathering and ends up surprising everybody with the gorgeous sort of home movie and memories that he's created for them.
- [59:13]
Fergus O'Carroll
The ad is about a teenage boy who seems more interested in his iPhone than his family. Get together at Christmas time. As the family has fun together and goes about their activity. The boy seems to be very distant. The viewer is led to believe that the boy is ignoring them. But the story takes a turn when the boy connects his phone to the TV and plays what he has been creating all along, which is a film that features all of them and the heartwarming moments they have been spending together. This is misunderstood.
- [59:55]
Joe Neo
They're here. Grandpa.
- [59:57]
Andrew Tindall
Grandpa.
- [60:02]
Chad Browdy
Merry Christmas.
- [60:08]
Joe Neo
From now on our troubles will be out of sight Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.
- [60:31]
Chad Browdy
And have your.
- [60:33]
Joe Neo
Spell A merry little Christmas we all.
- [60:46]
Sam Seskow
Needed a good cry, right?
- [60:48]
Andrew Tindall
It's beautiful.
- [60:49]
Joe Neo
Yeah, that's good.
- [60:51]
Sam Seskow
You know, it's funny, I actually wondered after picking this if they would ever make an ad like that today. Because I think there's so much conversation around the, you know, screen time of children, etc. And I'm not sure you'd make this ad today.
- [61:08]
F
Might be better now.
- [61:09]
Joe Neo
Yeah, there's something, too. It might actually be the positive side of it.
- [61:13]
Chad Browdy
Yeah.
- [61:14]
Joe Neo
It's a fair point though, for sure. What do you think it rated?
- [61:19]
Sam Seskow
I mean, I see Kate crying in the front row, so I'm going to say 5.3.
- [61:26]
Joe Neo
Okay. 4.0.
- [61:31]
Chad Browdy
So 4 is really good. The only issue is, you know, it's called misunderstood, and 35% of people misunderstood what brand it was for. Yeah. Because it's just. It's.
- [61:46]
Joe Neo
But isn't that the job of frequency to actually. They can end up getting it. It's true.
- [61:50]
Chad Browdy
But if you actually. If you didn't. If you weren't primed, it was Apple. It's only the Apple logo at the very end that actually makes it an Apple ad. If you cut that last five seconds out, it's. You won't be. You won't be able to sell it.
- [62:01]
F
And does that have ticket. Does that influence the score? Brand recommendation call.
- [62:05]
Chad Browdy
So that's the fluency score on the far right. Yes.
- [62:07]
F
But does that influence the overall, like, star rating?
- [62:11]
Chad Browdy
No, star rating is based on overall emotional. Yeah. Yeah. So you've got to get kind of. Got it.
- [62:18]
Joe Neo
Okay. So my number one spot is Monty the Penguin from John Lewis. Again. This is like the Coles one.
- [62:30]
Chad Browdy
It just got a few Monty fans in the Coles.
- [62:34]
Joe Neo
So there's a lot to Monty, which we'll talk about these Ads aren't just pieces of film that run out. A lot of the best ones for John Lewis have expanded into plush toys, into accessories and product lines that have come out of the spots. So Monty the Penguin became this massively, positively selling, sold out the little versions of Monty the stuffed animals. So it's smart that it can be extended around Christmas time, but these are sort of Christmas only spots.
- [63:10]
Fergus O'Carroll
In this spot, we meet a young boy named Sam and his penguin, Monty. Both of them love to play together. They watch movies, play in the park, build things together, dress the Christmas tree. But Sam starts to notice that Monty the Penguin seems distracted. He wants something more. He wants to be loved. So Sam goes about giving Monty the companion he's longed for. On Christmas morning, Monty wakes to find his companion penguin under the family tree. And this is where the real spirit of a child's imagination reveals itself. Monty was never a real penguin.
- [63:59]
Joe Neo
Come in. All my little plans and schemes Lost like some forgotten dream Seems like all I really was doing Was waiting for you Just like little girls and Bon playing with the little toys.
- [64:41]
Andrew Tindall
Seems like.
- [64:42]
Joe Neo
All we really were doing Was waiting for love don't need to be alone don't need to be alone it's real love it's for you it's real love It's Jesus. God. 5.9.
- [65:59]
Chad Browdy
Yeah, this is the. She's honestly, that makes me tear up so bad. That's she's gonna have. This is their second highest scoring actually, so there's a second decimal point behind it. The only ever highest scoring one was Buster the dog where he jumps from the trampoline. That's an incredible piece of work though, isn't it? Jesus.
- [66:19]
Joe Neo
Yeah, it's amazing. So the idea we had them on the show and to talk about this for weeks, they would go down the pub, the bar and brainstorm. And Rick Brim, the creative director, was at home and he noticed that his daughter was playing with this stuffed animal. And that whole thing inspired this entire spot. And it was really about Monty's desire to be loved.
- [66:44]
Chad Browdy
Have we seen the one this year? Have we all seen that one? It's a story about them two sisters. There's a lot of people on headlines and people rumbling on social media complaining that it's just about it has female characters in it and how can males possibly connect to an ad just with female characters? Basically, like the Daily Mail has picked this story up. Anyone knows the Daily Mail is. And one it makes me laugh because, you know, we've all connected with ads about a boy and his penguin. And 2. I think it's just a really important lesson. And so the one this year is one of the highest scoring ads in the past five years from John Lewis. It's the best in five years, according to our testing. I think a testament to. You don't have to put everyone in ads. It's about showing genuine relationships between, you know, either two sisters or a boy and his pet penguin.
- [67:34]
Joe Neo
And then the turn at the end when you realize it's just stuffed animals. I know one's really big imagination of a child. It's just phenomenal.
- [67:41]
Chad Browdy
Yeah. Yeah.
- [67:42]
Joe Neo
So that was the. What are we gonna do now? I've got one more I wanna show you. I wanted to. I love this sort of grand finale spot because it is actually giving you a completely different twist on gift. This is an amazing spot. There's a series of spots that ran for Harvey Nichols. And the spot's called Sorry, I Spent it on Myself. And we will finish with this one.
- [68:08]
Fergus O'Carroll
So the camera takes us into the homes of various families on Christmas morning as they're all sitting around opening gifts. And what we're seeing here is that the gift receiver is very surprised to actually receive the gift that they're getting because it's so simple and basic. But it is in essence, testing that saying that people always say to people, which is. It's really the thought that counts. So the gift giver is shown to have bought something luxurious for themselves and indulgent for themselves. And the camera will cut into what that particular item is for each of the gift givers while they're handing these very simplistic gifts to their members of their family. So this is. It's. It's fantastic. It is. Sorry, I Spent it on myself. Gift collection from Harvey Nichols.
- [69:11]
Joe Neo
Well wrapped in your. Yeah.
- [69:13]
Chad Browdy
Nice decoration.
- [69:23]
Joe Neo
Elastic bands. Elastic bands from Harvey Nichols. Dad. Sorry, I spend it on myself.
- [69:28]
Chad Browdy
Gift collection.
- [69:29]
Joe Neo
Yes. That's. That's what the range is called.
- [69:32]
Chad Browdy
Elastic band gift set.
- [69:35]
Joe Neo
Yeah, right. Two. Two. I got two. Oh. Oh. I do hope you haven't spent all your precious money on me. Naughty boy. Paper clips. Yeah. Harvey Nichols. Yeah, yeah, they're from Harvey Nichols, so.
- [70:02]
Andrew Tindall
Yeah, Harvey Nichols.
- [70:03]
Joe Neo
I think anyone's ever got you anything from Harvey Nichols. Wow.
- [70:17]
F
Toothpicks.
- [70:22]
Joe Neo
Love toothpicks. What is it?
- [70:36]
Chad Browdy
It's a sink plug.
- [70:49]
Joe Neo
A little something for them, a bigger something for you. I love that spot. So let's talk about who won tonight when we add up all of our scores. Joe had a 10.2 to all three that were added together. Sam had a 13.0. Woop woop. Chad had a 12.0 and I had a 16.6.
- [71:19]
Chad Browdy
She did.
- [71:21]
Joe Neo
Wait, you're. I didn't pick my own ones, guys. I gave everybody the same chance, changed.
- [71:26]
Chad Browdy
Them five times for me.
- [71:28]
Sam Seskow
You're so busted.
- [71:30]
Chad Browdy
What I will say is some of my favorite research from 2012 by Baron Sharp. He showed a load of ads to marketers and asked them to pick whether they were effective or not outgrowing sales. Turns out marketers can select a high performing ad around 51% of the time. So marketers are about as good at flipping a coin when it comes to choosing ads. So were you intuition. And these guys are awesome. There was like two ads that weren't above the average. So Byron should have had you all in his research.
- [72:03]
Joe Neo
Next time he's on, we'll have a conversation.
- [72:06]
Andrew Tindall
So we do know what we're doing.
- [72:08]
Joe Neo
Maybe so. One thing, I used to work at an agency called the Martin Agency a number of years ago. And I remember going into the broadcast department and then sitting in the room with all the library. At the time it was three quarter inch tapes and just sitting there and thinking to myself, holy shit, the people that I'm surrounded by in this building did that. And we do that. We influence that, we shape that, we sharpen that. That's what we do. And for my kids here, this is what dad is involved in, stuff like this. This is the magic of what we do and, and the impact that it can have on people and how they feel about brands is incredible. So we need to not forget that this is about the outputs. We're more involved in the inputs of strategists. But it's incredible to see this work all come together. So with that said, that is our show for the night. It only rated a 2.3, which is pretty crazy.
- [73:15]
Chad Browdy
No, the second association is selfish.
- [73:19]
Joe Neo
Yeah. So thank you all for coming out tonight. Thank you, Chicago. Wish everybody happy holidays and a merry Christmas. Keep listening to the show, talk about it with your friends and we will see everybody on the next episode.
- [73:35]
F
Thank you. Thanks for having us.
- [73:39]
Joe Neo
Thank you, panel.