AdCorner #1: Movember Campaign Review
Updated: Jul 27, 2019
Adcorner Issue #1
Foreword: Welcome to The AdCorner!
The AdCorner brings you analysis and commentary by students and staff of the Marketing Faculty on the latest marketing campaigns. Inspired by Mumbrella’s ‘Campaign Review’, this series aims to inspire engagement with real world applications of textbook materials for students.
In the first instalment, we review the four ad campaigns competing for the best Movember advertisement. Youtube will announce the winner on September 26, based on view-through rate, average watch time, and organic view count. Read the thoughts of Winnie, David, Angela, and experienced marketing professional and USYD tutor Angela Baxter, and leave a comment or vote in the poll for your favourite!
A Brush With Death (Ogilvy Sydney)
Angela Baxtor (tutor)
Using humour for a dark topic is an engaging way to get the message across. Especially with a nice twist at the end that reiterates the point of Movember – mo’s mean more awareness, less deaths, and more holidays for the Angel of Death
Winnie Jiang (2nd Year)
This advertisement bored me to death, and if I was not forced to watch it’s entirety for this review I would have stopped watching 5 seconds in. There is no real attempt at engaging the audience, unlike the other videos, and as a result I believe it will suffer especially in the view-through element.
David Huang (2nd Year)
Whilst this advertisement had a decent narrative and attempted to create a story-line, it was too drawn out and made no effort to engage the audience early to ensure they stay for the entirety of the 3 minutes. Bounce rates on this will be relatively high due to the subtle reveal of the ad’s motivations near the end.
Angela (3rd Year)
Pros: 1. There’s a storyline to follow which is almost always a bonus, albeit the Game of Thrones detour was unnecessary 2. Some easy-going, cliche humour that keeps people interested 3. powerful call-to-actions towards the end, which are critical 4. Character is the closest representation to the target market out of the four videos 5. The video is wholistic, although the explanation about Movember is brief, there’s a strong link between “giving Death a holiday = preventing men from dying young” that keeps reminding us about the purpose of Movember.
Cons: Probably not very appealing to younger generations. The slap-stick visuals are great for comedy, but also appear lazy. The sound recording is terrible. Also, a question: how much did Game of Thrones pay to be included in this ad?
Doing Nothing, Does Something (The Monkeys)
Angela Baxter (tutor)
A clever focus on the slow growing mo to highlight the cause
Winnie Jiang (2nd Year)
My favourite of the four! It’s simple, engaging, and amusing, or maybe I’m just a huge sucker for David Attenborough-esque voices and mockumentaries. Also makes a pretty compelling case – stop men dying too young by not doing anything. If this doesn’t win, it would be because it is unable to sustain viewer interest throughout its entirety.
David Huang (2nd Year)
An overall profound message and concept. Its contextual in its mentioning of Sydney and the live exhibit. However though, it is still too long and sections of it can feel a little unnecessary and drawn-out. If this ad was half its length, it be twice as engaging and effective! Decent ad nonetheless.
Angela (3rd Year)
A poetic and artistic presentation that grabs your attention from the first second. The clip utilises mysterious and hopeful music that compliments the atmosphere of the clip perfectly. The performance art itself is a feat, which is a bonus. This agency understands the tone of the audience very well e.g. I was just thinking the word “amazing” when the voice echoed word “amazing”; the ironic humour when the “donation card” on Youtube pops up as the advertiser says “Scott does not want you to donate”.
The ad may be too subtle in hinting the purpose of Movember, and lacks a clear call-to-action. A lot of time is devoted to the performance art, and the viewer’s attention starts to drift away around the 1:18 mark.
Movember Presents Mo-dernism (Saatchi & Saatchi)
Angela Baxter (Tutor)
A fun way to put the spotlight on the mo, both visually and through the Mo-dernism line
Winnie Jiang (2nd Year)
If this one wins, it will be because it’s so bizarre people might just watch the whole thing. I’m not a big fan of engaging audiences this way, but I can appreciate the pun in the title.
David Huang (2nd Year)
This ad is innocuous, hilarious and is a great example of creating all round good quality, enjoyable content on a usually tough subject to promote. I am a big fan of using light hearted content in charity related advertisements but the key thing is to not stray from the message and throughout this ad the ‘moustache’ was very central. This one will win.
Angela (3rd Year)
The creators of this ad knows how to use cinematic forms very effectively. The music, lighting, characters, script, pacing, tone, recording-all of it is on-point and fantastic. The humour is slipped into at the exact moments we needed them.
However, the subject matter seemed much too ludicrous. It was too exaggerated, especially when the guy said he had three kids, and that the painting was the “proudest thing” he’d ever done. If the painting were amazing, the ad would have made more sense.
I did like how they explained the purpose of Movember. Again, on-point tone, music and filming. When the words “Grow a Mo…” came up though, it got hard to focus on the words again, because of the guy licking his lip in the background. I can’t really imagine anyone watching to the point where they start explaining the purpose of Movember, however, I can’t deny that the video features enough moustaches for viewers to infer the purpose themselves.
Man’s Best Friend for Men’s Health (With Collective)
Angela Baxter (tutor)
A dog with a mo draws you in, as does the lovely pauses as the viewer and the dog wait to see whether his owner will come home
Winnie Jiang (2nd Year)
Everyone knows dogs are the easiest way to attract attention, especially one with a moustache. Personally, if they had a cuter dog I would be more inclined to watch the whole ad (the Buzzfeed ad with an anxious dog as an example) but there is an emotive element to this one that is lacking in the others. For that reason, and the fact that dogs are the new black, I think this one will win.
David Huang (2nd Year)
This ad was confusing at the start but started to become quite emotional at the end for any dog lover (the majority of Australia!) and therefore I can see how this ad might work. It’s relatable but the highly emotional charity campaigns only scare and have been proven to not motivate, additionally, the ‘moustache’ action was not prominent enough.
Angela (3rd Year)
Pros: 1. The shocking opening attracts your attention 2. The primary emphasis was on mateship and the ad itself drums up a lot of humour. 3. There were mentions of moustaches throughout the film, which helped guide the viewer’s thoughts.
Cons: 1. Whilst the music and voice-acting were good, the emotional parts were lacking, possibly because there was no contrast between the before and after (the dog was almost always indoors and sad) I would have liked more interactions between dog & owner and witnessed the “mateship” they had. 2. The linkages to the Movember slogans need to be strengthened more.
Final verdict:
Who do you think will win?
Winnie: Man’s Best Friend for Men’s Health
David: Movember Presents Mo-dernism
Angela: Doing Nothing, Does Something (The Monkeys)
