The last year has proven to be a notable one for brands and their commercials. Even though most of the time it’s leading up to the Super Bowl that companies start their ad campaigns around the country, last year was filled with some great ads from the very start.
Ford
One of the best brand commercials this year came from the automaker Ford, titled Night Swim. The gorgeous ad was pulled out of the playbook of beauty and fashion marketers, and showed a group of young people having fun in a body of water late at night. However, while the ad starts off with some beautiful shots, viewers are quickly surprised that the ad is created by a brand in the automotive industry, as the night swimmers are illuminated by the lights of a Ranger pickup truck by Ford. The main goal of the ad campaign was for the brand to highlight one of the key features of the new vehicle—its 800-mm wading depth.
Liberty Mutual
To indicate the arrival of a brand new film in the Spider-Man franchise, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Liberty Mutual brought the universe of the film to New York City. With the help of the agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners, the brand managed to install a newsstand in Manhattan called The Daily Bugle, which is a fictional newspaper in the cinematic universe of the film. That stand managed to distribute about 3000 limited-edition versions of the newspaper publication, which featured stories tied to the narrative of the film. The newspapers also featured ads for Liberty Mutual, showing how this insurance brand can help people protect themselves from villains who want to destroy the world, such as from those villains in the Marvel cinematic universe.
Volkswagen
Another automaker created a great ad campaign this year, with Volkswagen taking a full year to plan and create its own version of the popular Spotify Wrapped feature for Spotify users. The Spotify feature draws a lot of attention from users all over the world at the end of the year for its ability to collect and combine data and technology to help Spotify users look back on all the things they listened to in the last year. Volkswagen decided to create its own version of the feature, which started at the beginning of the year, with the brand adding electric-themed songs to its playlist on Spotify. This ended up with the brand creating its own version of Wrapped, which was designed to highlight the company’s focus on electric vehicles.
Helsinki Airport
Finally, in a brand new and modern approach to branding, the main airport operator in Finland, Finavia Corporation, worked on an outdoor campaign for the Helsinki Airport. Instead of naming airports after famous people, as is the long-held tradition around the world, this campaign allowed everyday passengers to put their own name on the marquee of the new main terminal of the airport. All it took was for passengers to input their name on the airport’s website, and in a few minutes they could take their picture by the sign and share it on social media with a branded hashtag.
