MUMBAI : Easter is the time when families come together to celebrate tradition, auspiciousness and love. It is also the time when brands, especially in the FMCG sector try and outdo each other and make the most of the lose purses that come with the festival. This means mega campaigns and millions of marketing dollars going into Ad Ex. Not to mention the extremely creative ways to bring out the flavour of the festival. Here are five Easter ads that every creative lover must check out this year.
Pokemon : Pokemon20 Super Bowl Commercial
Super bowl advertisements are epic. No doubt about it. But even so, why is a super bowl advertisement in this list? It’s because, to celebrate its twentieth anniversary, the popular anime series and gaming franchise Pokemon took viewers to the most elaborate and expensive Easter adventure of all time. Its scale can be imagined from the fact that the company bought the 30 sec ad slot in the game for $ 5 million!
But its jaw dropping price tag isn’t the only reason why it made the headlines and grabbed over 12 million eye balls online last January. To commemorate its 20 years of existence, the franchise chequered the 1 min long ad (whose shortened version ran at the Super bowl) with numerous Easter eggs, that is, Pokémon related hints – some obvious and some conspicuous. Just a few seconds in the video, any die hard Pokemon fan would jump with delight in having spotted the hints – right from Mew’s haphazardly drawn face on the car in the starting few shots to the Nidoking chess pieces.
Not only has the video been masterfully created by a Los Angeles based agency named Omelet, which banked on an epic idea that brought together all Pokémon fans, the decision to release the trailer two weeks before its actual launch sent social media into a frenzy and made the hunt even more exciting. If you haven’t found all the eggs yet, here, go catch ‘em all!
Co-Op Food: Eggsperiment
Not all great ads need a mastery of visual effects, great locations and million dollar spends in production costs. Some are simple, real and yet powerful. Just like Co-Op Food's ‘eggsperiment’ that was conceptualized and executed by Forever Beta. The eight films under this campaign transpired out of a social experiment to find ‘good eggs’ in the society.
In the ad, one sees a gullible looking man in a busy street of white collar workers. The man is seen walking from one person to another and asking if he could borrow their tie to work as it is his first day. While some shrug him off, many come forth to help the man. As soon as they give him the tie, a person dressed as an Easter chicken comes forth and greets them with an Easter egg (from Co-Op). The social experiment was highly well received and garnered lots of conversation around the brand and Easter on social media as well.
Cadbury: #EggsEverywhere; even in Loch Ness
Cadbury and Easter Eggs are synonymous with each other and each year the brand out does itself in its campaigns to maintain this status quo. This year, while Cadbury maintained its presence on television through several cute bunny ads that show the fluffy adorable being hiding eggs everywhere, the cherry on the cake was definitely the experiential stunt that tempted the fabled Loch Ness Monster in Scotland.
As part of the #EggsEverywhere campaign this Easter, Cadbury dropped three giant eggs into the famous Loch Ness in Scottish Highlands, and the slowly rising eggs gave the impression of the monster rising from beneath the water’s surface. It was a daring but extremely clever idea to bring the two highly popular myths – the Easter Egg and the Loch Ness Monster – together in a single campaign, and naturally gave the brand outstanding visibility throughout the Easter campaign season.
The initiative was handled and executed by Dentsu Aegis Network’s experiential marketing arm PsLive.
ASDA Stores: #GiantHen
It’s a war tank, It’s a dinosaur; No, it’s…a giant Chocó hen!
Remember that jaw dropping moment in the super monster movie where people look up and simply gape at the monster’s sheer gigantic size? Well, American supermarket chain Asda’s new Easter commercial starts just the same way with people craning their necks to look up at the giant chocolate hen that makes its way through the city, as traffic comes to a standstill and reporters wait around with their OB vans to break news about the hen.
The hen ceremoniously makes its way to the top of an Asda store where arrangements are made and anticipation is high. And then the hen lays an egg- a chocolate Easter egg! With its simple narrative, the ad definitely sets the mood for the festive occasion. VCCP, the creative agency behind the campaign couldn’t have had a more fitting song to go with the video – Tom Jones’ She’s a Lady!
M&S Foods: Adventure in ‘which came first?’
The eternal question of ‘which came first – the egg or the chicken’ has sparked many a debate, and yet somehow every time people argue about it with fresh enthusiasm. London based retail giant Marks and Spencer understands this well and plays on this in its latest TVC.
Launched on 17 March, the campaign was created by Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe Y&R or simply RKCR/Y&R. The commercial has M&S Foods inviting everyone to embark on an Easter adventure to find which came first and in turn take a chocolatey, sugary journey through its products-- a great way to introduce its collections for Easter. Smartly staying ambiguous on whether it is the egg or the chicken, the ad does a great job of drawing viewers in through high definition videos of cheeky chicks to fruit and nut delight.
The ad keeps one hooked until the end, if it is not for the answer, then it is for the mouth-watering visuals. The tag line -- ‘Chickens, eggs and everything Easter on M&S’— successfully brings the focus back to the egg, the chicken and the riddle, making viewers conscious of how they enjoyed getting lost in the adventure. After all, it’s always the hunt that keeps one going, not the result.
