Innovative Ads

I’ve been thinking a lot about advertising lately, particularly after all the attention one of my clients has received around this direct mail piece.

GREY Vancouver developed this portable record player from cardboard, which, when spun with a pencil, actually tells a story called “A town that found its sound.” Having tried my hand at it and learning that indeed, pencil and carboard can make sound, I’d call this nothing short of awesome.

Indeed, the online community agrees and has profiled the piece extensively, and considering that it was made on behalf of a sound studio, it has made some very strategic noise.

This got me thinking about how basic tools - say, a pencil and some cardboard - can have the most powerful advertising effects. 

Take Element Six Media, which took a fresh approach by stamping the name of its client - Fresh Energy - a green energy company, on the snow. It doesn’t get any fresher, or cleaner, than that.

Another idea I’ve been thinking about is the silent commercial, especially during SuperBowl. Think about it: how frustrating is it when advertisements burst your ear drums during breaks, both simulaneously annoying you and causing you to act - by changing or muting the channel. Perhaps they get your attention, but it’s a resentful and annoyed attention. What’s really refreshing is the idea of capturing attention the opposite way - with silence. PepsiCo did this with a commercial for EnAble that appealed to the deaf community in 2008, which made no sound at all. I’d like to see - not hear - more commercials.

I think the parallel amongst these innovative ads is they represent a strategic disruption of the senses in a welcome and interesting way. For these ads, the medium indeed becomes the message, and as a consumer, I’m far more likely to absorb it when the message is packaged so innovatively.