Learning from the best ads is a common tactic among video marketers scanning the creative marketing landscape and looking to up their game. Here's a look at our pick of the most impressive video ads of 2023.
Apple Pay's humorous ad takes place in a supermarket checkout where shoppers have trouble paying with their cards. They keep failing despite store clerks' best attempts, which are often hilarious. Meanwhile, the shopper using Apple Pay checkouts in seconds and leaves, amused.
The ad drives home the message that paying the 'Apple way' is seamless. Those who've had to endure the experience of inserting their cards into the reader a few times before being able to make payments will especially connect to this ad.
#2 Tinder - One Night Stand, It Starts With a Swipe
Tinder has acquired a reputation as a hookup app. It Starts With a Swipe campaign is Tinder's attempt to soften its image as a platform for meaningful connections. It succeeds thanks to a clever concept that makes the app's potential for facilitating serious relationships feel authentic. From shopping for bedroom furniture together to keeping a toothbrush at their partner's place - green flags for blooming long-term relationships - the ad has a feel-good factor. Looks like it isn't lost on people - since the launch of the campaign, user sign-ups at Tinder have increased.
Amazon's Super Bowl commercial will bring a tear to the eye. It tells the story of a dog and his family during the COVID-19 imposed lockdown. It begins by showing how life played out while families were stuck at home and pets had their human parents for company. Once lockdown was lifted, pets felt alone, and some went pretty berserk, almost tearing the house down. Amazon's ad shows how one family helped their pet deal with their absence through a compassionate strategy. Watch the ad to find out more!
An unlikely friendship blossoms when Robert De Niro and Sex Education Star Asa Butterfield bond over simple things like eating and going to different places. The message, promoting Uber One, a membership that covers Uber rides, food, and deliveries, at discounted prices, is as clear as it can be. De Niro lends the ad star power. But the highlight of the ad is the easy chemistry between the two actors, who're seen traveling around London together and eating as they go places.
#5 5 Star - Nothing University
This ad from India for the popular chocolate 5 Star by Cadbury (not sold in the U.S.) is relevant for video marketers everywhere for its funny take on artificial intelligence (AI). The ad imagines a world where AI will do everything, leaving office-goers free to do nothing all day long, something they'd relish no doubt, with a 5 Star in hand. The ad features witty post-AI life skills imparted by Nothing University, including Buying Time, Pretending to be Busy, and Acting Busy. Nicely executed and never going over the top, the ad sticks with you.
When you feel safe, you can be truly free for life. This is the main message of Volvo's ad for its electric car and what better than to promote what the brand is best known for - safety? The ad conveys emotional security and safety in various scenarios. Featuring the pop star Seinabo Set, professional skateboarder Sky Brown, and Paralympic athlete Lui Cuiqing, For Life treats everyday moments with a gentle hand and underscores Volvo's reputation for stellar safety.
Coca-Cola's ad takes you on a journey through some of the most famous works of art. It takes place in a museum, which is bursting with activity but for a young man (an arts student) who's dozing off. Andy Warhol's Big Coca Cola painting comes to the rescue, transferring a bottle of the drink from one masterpiece to another, until the Girl with the Pearl Earring hands it to the man. Cinematic and educational, Coca-Cola's ad is a visual treat and sure to spark a discussion on the art pieces it features.
Fiat will no longer make gray-colored cars and their ad announces said intention in perhaps the most dramatic way possible - by dunking a gray Fiat into a giant can of orange paint. It features a Fiat executive explaining how the company has had a good run with its gray cars and is ready to burst with more color. He alludes to the colorful nature of Italy, and the joy, passion, love, and optimism it represents. He then drives into a piazza where a crane lifts the car and lowers it into a 10,000-liter paint can. All of this happened for real, with no CGI effects, another reason to love the ad.
Parents come first, IKEA next. The genius of IKEA's ad is in spotlighting parenting while remaining content to be in the background. It starts by briefly featuring a few of its popular baby items before moving to heartwarming images of parents cradling their young or engaging with them. The ad celebrates the bond between parent and child while conveying that it's ok for their products to remain unused while the precious bonding happens.
Lay's ingenious ad imprints itself in your mind. It, after all, features football star Lionel Messi, but in a way you'd never expect. In the ad, Lay's decides to welcome the footballer, widely considered the G.O.A.T, to the U.S., by bringing 807 goats to form his face on grass. Simple and memorable, it easily brings a smile to the face.
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