May’s highlights.
It’s that time of the month again, when I round up the top creative campaigns that I have seen.
All of this month's executions are brilliant in their own rights, but when you look at them as a collection they also reveal a really important creative construct- the power of being contextually relevant.
To me, contextual relevance can be broken down into two things- situational and environmental.
Environmental is more to do with location. This is largely achieved with clever media placements that tap into a universally assumed understanding of what to expect to see in a current environment. Sometimes these are at odds with what you would expect to see, other times they reinforce the message.
Situational is more a reflection of what is going on at a societal level. What is collective tone, the undercurrent of conversation and creating a campaign that reflects this.
Being contextually relevant is a really effective creative tool as it allows for a deeper level of storytelling. It creates inherent sharebility as it taps into what people are talking about in their day to day lives.
Women’s aid.
On the surface, this looks like a usual fashion page, something that you would expect to see in a glossy Women’s magazine.
But when you read the item credits it takes a very different turn.
"Jacket- by model’s partner
Trousers- by model’s partner
Make up- by model’s partner
Inadequacies- by model’s partner
Desperation- by model’s partner
Fear- by model’s partner"
Suddenly this is no longer a typical fashion shot, but a powerful insight by Women's Aid into the depths of coercive control.
2. Butterkist
This campaign made me both laugh and share.
Butterkist popcorn weighed in on the unfolding drama of the #WagathaChristie trial with a courtroom spoof that says what everyone has been thinking.
Although I have not seen it, I’ve heard that the brand also ran the image via an ad in the metro that appeared alongside the daily trial write-up.
3. GymShark
“Some weights are harder to spot than others”.
The theme for Mental Health Awareness month was loneliness. And this campaign from Gymshark beautifully and subtly reflects the theme and encourages people to open up and have conversations about their mental health during mental health awareness week.
4. Mothers in Advertising
$876k for a hand cream.
I’ve not missed a decimal point it’s not $8.76 but Eight Hundred and Seventy-Six thousand dollars.
The first Sunday in May was mothers day in Australia, the country I lived in when I became a Mum, and to celebrate the company MIA launched a very expensive hand cream.
Why? Because $876,000 is the average cost of motherhood in Australia, when you combine lost earnings and super. Ouch.
The brand behind the initiative is MIA (mothers in advertising), a recently formed industry network that aims to tackle the underrepresentation of mothers in the advertising industry, drive discussion around the reasons behind this and ultimately create change.
Shocking and depressing stat, but a very clever way of getting the conversation started.
5. Random House
“Because powerful words can never be extinguished”
These 6 words sent shivers down my spine.
In a bold move to protest book bans and censorship in American schools, author Margaret Atwood has created a special edition unburnable copy of her novel The Handmaid’s Tale- a book that has been marred with controversy in 1985.
The book will be auctioned at Sotheby's in New York on June 7, with all proceeds going to PEN America.
I would love to hear of any great examples that you have of brand campaigns that have done this really well.