From the advertisements of the old days, painted over walls, to Print Ads in newspapers, and magazines, to modern day adverts that have taken several digital forms, advertising sure has come a long way.
But the core principles, and the appeal are still the same. With the recent advancements in technology, and access, it is a widely held belief that perhaps Print Media, and Print Media Campaigns will be a thing of the past.
People prefer to get their news on their phones, the billboards too now have transformed into massive screens that can display both stills, and videos. Also, the ads of the new era can be quickly uploaded, and wastage is rarely seen.
May be the volume of Print Ads (and Media) will decrease (further), however, it is impossible for print to go completely extinct. Truth be told, it is difficult to predict the future as accurately as we sometimes (unconsciously?) think we can.
Regardless of what Print Media’s fate will be in the future, businesses have come up with some really creative Print Ads in the past few years. Let us have a look at the most successful, and the most powerful print media campaigns of the last decade.
Best Print Ads of last decade
You probably know this one, and you were probably also among the millions of people who went shop-hunting to find a bottle with your name on it. Launched in 2011 in Australia, the “Share a Coke” campaign printed 150 of the commonest Australian names on millions of bottles.
The efforts of adding a personal touch to the bottles for the customers paid off well, and was adopted by CocaCola, with local innovations, across the globe.
Appeals –
Emotional:
- Personal appeal
- Social appeal
- Brand appeal
- Youth appeal
Rational: Scarcity appeal
Burger King on Fire
Burger King prides its flame-grilled technique. However, flame-grilling also comes with the high risks of fire-accidents. In fact, Burger King joints have suffered more fire incidents than any other brand of food-joints across the world!
In this campaign for the brand, DAVID Miami used images of real Burger King joints on fire with the tagline: “Flame grilled since 1954”. This demonstrates that even though their technique is flawed, and even dangerous at times, they are dedicated to serving their customers, flame grilled burger patties rather than fried.
Appeals –
Emotional:
- Brand Appeal
- Empathy Appeal
- Value Appeal: Okay, we just made that up. But there is something about this ad that conveys, “We know how we do, and what we do is dangerous, but it is against our brand’s values to serve our customers fried patties”. Hence, “value” appeal.
- Youth Appeal
Tide – Detergent Beats Fish!
Businesses have been using the audience’s sense of smell for selling their detergents since the ‘70s.
Smell is the sense that is most capable of triggering emotions, as the part of the brain that is responsible for smell (olfactory bulb) has a short circuit with the most primitive system in the brain (limbic system) that we have kept from our crustacean ancestors, which links emotions, and memories.
Hence, you jog back to that memory that happened in your childhood when you smell a particular smell. Tide has been using this sense of smell in its advertising for decades now, and this particular Ad is the best example for that.
A man peacefully sleeping in a crammed room that is cluttered with several objects, and stacks of fish caught from the sea. Don’t know about y’all, but my limbic brain is already triggered by the smell…that only exists in my memory.
And a clean, white shirt hangs on the wall, meant to show how fragrant the shirt is…perhaps hours after being washed by the detergent. There’s also a cat down there which is either supremely disciplined to not go nuts with the fish, or maybe it is confused by the smell from the shirt?
Appeals
Emotional:
- Humour Appeal
Rational:
- Pain Solution
- Contrast Appeal
Sea Shephard Conservation Society – Plastic Fish
There is enough plastic in the oceans to heap over the entire state of New York…and change. To make matters worse, the waves break the plastic into micro-pieces that the fish mistake for food. Ogilvy tries to shed light over the plight of the oceans in this campaign for the Sea Shephard Conservation Society.
If you haven’t got the hint, please cut down on your use of plastics, and try to ensure that your plastic wastes do not end up in the ocean. We’ll do our part too.
Appeals
Emotional:
- Fear Appeal
- Empathy Appeal
PNet – Moss
Ever felt stuck at a boring job, where making it to the end of the day felt like years? This campaign was created by Joe Public for PNet, South Africa – an online Job Portal.
Several people were shown stuck at their desks, trying to make it to the end of the day by various means, by killing time, with moulds, and moss growing on their skin, a hyperbole, to demonstrate how long they’d been stuck there.
Appeals:
Emotional:
- Personal
- Humour
Rational:
- Pain Solution
JBL – Block out the chaos
Our world is never at the brink of wars, and to make matters more “favourable” for world peace, we have a lot of supremely “intelligent” leaders who are really “careful” with their words.
And of course, like the people in their position should be, they don’t threaten other nuclear armed countries, led by fellow “intelligent” leaders, with nuclear war!
In reality though, all of the above is the other way round, and the world affairs at times are extremely anxiety-provoking.
So back when two of the most egotistical “leaders” with access to nuclear arms were having a battle of words, and making threats of nuclear war, and the tensions were really high, Cheil Worldwide, based in Hong Kong created this campaign for JBL.
The message was simple: “Block out the chaos”, hinting at their noise cancelling headphones, delivered with really creative graphics.
The two yell at each other each other with war on their minds, ready with their remote controls and bombs, with complete disregard to millions of lives that could have been lost to their egos.
While a commoner who is powerless against what could be, feels zen with his music through the headphones, formed by the negative space between the two faces.
Appeals –
- Personal Appeal
- Social Appeal
- Humour Appeal
- Youth Appeal
- Musical Appeal
Emotional:
- Pain-Solution
- Contrast Appeal
Pet-friendly Diwali
The festivities of Diwali in India are times for celebration with family and friends. Since the past century, the festival of lights has become a lot of fire, smoke, and noise as bursting crackers became a means of celebrations.
This practice is a torment to a lot of animals nationwide. Humans are the only species to have harnessed fire, but the rest of the animals (pets too) still fear fire (and loud noise). The Ad firm Yellow, used such images of pets wearing masks, and headphones to highlight the problem.
The letter “U” was missing to tell the reader that it’s up to “U” (all of us) to care for these animals.
Appeals
Emotional Appeal:
- Personal Appeal
- Social Appeal
- Fear Appeal
- Empathy Appeal
Rational Appeal:
- Pain-Solution
Duracell – Some Toys Never Die!
What’s creepier than a doll? – A doll that never runs out of battery. The Singapore agency, Grey, came up with this oh so creepy Print Ad Campaign that featured kids playing with new toys, while their old, and perhaps discarded, toys find their way back to the kid’s house!
The Duracell Ads did a good job at visually conveying the USP of the brand (batteries that last really long), and the dimly lit, borderline scary visuals drew a lot of attention.
Appeals –
Emotional:
- Humour Appeal
Neighbours – FedEx
FedEx is a world-renowned American shipping brand that runs operations globally.
DDB Brasil created this campaign for FedEx to advertise their quick international operations in a really simple, creative way. Many such inter-continental geographies were brought together in a neighbourhood through such images of people exchanging packages through windows.
Appeals –
Emotional Appeal:
- Personal Appeal
- Humour Appeal
McDonald’s – WiFries
McDonald’s has come out with so many creative Print Media Ads, that we could have dedicated blog posts just for creative McCampaigns.
McDonald has a very recognizable brand image. The two colours distinctly tell you who they belong to, and they do exploit this McFactor in their advertising, so much so that they do not even have to brand their adverts.
This one here was created for McDonald’s Mexico to advertise free WiFi at their joints, while subtly hinting at their world-renowned fries.
Appeals –
Emotional:
- Brand Appeal
FCK – KFC
A bit extreme action? Well, this one was a reaction. And you’d react the same way if you were a fried chicken brand that was out of chicken for a week! In February 2018, all KFC joints in UK faced a shut-down as they were completely out of chicken due to some problem with a new supply partner.
It was a huge crisis. Many people actually went out to their nearby joints to see this for themselves, and KFC saw this as a perfect opportunity for some PR.
With the help of Mother London, an Ad-agency they came up with this imagery. The empty bucket representing the crisis, and the changed order of letters in their brand that (almost) forms the exclamation we’re all so used to.
People could relate to the very human reaction to the FCK up. And when your audience can empathize with you, you have achieved a great deal as a marketer!
Brands always seem to go an extra mile to demonstrate how perfect they are at what they do, but when there are goof-ups, they then tend to take the defensive route rather than tendering an apology.
Here, KFC took to self-deprecating humour while apologising through newspaper prints, and displays on metro trains, which was really well received.
Appeals
Emotional:
- Social
- Humour
- Brand
Rational:
- Transparent
What are your favourite print advertisements of all time? Let us know in the comment section.
