Feature of 5 Memorable Advertisements in Southeast Asia

Advertising is one of the most important components of marketing. Advertising is crucial not only to increase profits and sales but also to ensure greater awareness, customer loyalty and intended brand image.

However, as people are exposed to various media and content every day, advertising is becoming more challenging to grab the attention of the audience. Furthermore, the expectation of the customers is increasing, requiring greater creativity and an effective marketing message.

So, if you are one of the marketers struggling for creative and effective advertisement, check out the article below. The following are some of the great advertisements in Southeast Asia with the name of designers and writers. Each advertisement promotes different messages and values using unique styles. Moreover, they have successfully targeted the audience with appropriate strategies and messages. So if you need some fresh marketing ideas, check out their advertisements!

#SLIDEINTOTHEFEELING – Coca-cola

Using Coke’s iconic dynamic ribbon, Coca-Cola came up with a creative guerrilla marketing campaign for Valentine’s day. Using a ribbon-shaped curvy bench, Coke promoted bringing people together. According to Dee Reyes, Associate Creative Director, “The idea was inspired by something so simple – a silhouette of a couple sitting together on Coke’s dynamic ribbon”. Using such a simple device, Coke visually brought people closer together.

The bench was installed in Suanluang Square, a popular location in Bangkok. Moreover, Coca-cola produced people’s interaction into a film and shared it on social media, reaching more than 588K audience. In the video, people were not limited to a heterosexual couple but friends, mother and daughter, and other relationships. Such diversity enabled Coca-Cola to communicate its messages more relevantly and meaningfully to a wider audience. Furthermore, Coke could effectively promote its core values – diversity, equity, and inclusiveness.

Directors

Executive Creative Director: Joaquim Laurel

Associate Creative Director: Dee Reyes, Rudy Zulkifly

Art Director: Iris Teoh

Art Director: Sunny Chuang

Copywriter: Yasira Yusoff

Funeral – Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS)

The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) was a ministry tasked with building a “cohesive and resilient” society in Singapore. Today, MCYS is reconstructed to the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF). The ‘Funeral’ is a TV commercial launched by MCYS in 2010.

The ‘Funeral’ is a 3-minute film that looks at relationships in a different light through a woman at her husband’s funeral. The woman begins her eulogy with an alert that she is not going to sing praises or talk about how good he was. Instead of the usual eulogy, she addresses the issue of marriage like her husband’s snoring and farting habits. The audience laughs and she continues her speech. She then talks about how his imperfection made their relationship perfect and the value of imperfection in a family.

The film reached more than 2.7 million views via television, cinema, Facebook, and YouTube. Furthermore, heart-rending and highly sympathetic messages promoted universal marriage and family values to the audience. It also won several awards including Gold at Spikes Asia, Grand Prix Golden Kancil, and Advertiser of the Year awards at KL-based Kancil Awards.

Directors

Art Director: Yasmin Ahmad

Executive creative director: Chris Chiu

Recipes for Delicious Kitchen – IKEA

In 2015, IKEA launched the brand-new IKEA METOD Kitchen range. This time, they went beyond just releasing a product catalog. Instead of the usual marketing strategy, IKEA produced creative and clever video advertisements.

Unlike usual advertisements, which introduce ways of using products, IKEA created a 60-second video, full of visual metaphors. For instance, lightbulbs were cracked like eggs, nails were measured and added like ingredients, and all the kitchen products were fried in a pan like real food. By the end of the video, the ingredients were then cooked as a miniature IKEA kitchen, implying how simple, easy, and fun it is to create and customize a dream kitchen using IKEA products.

The advertisement targeted Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, reaching more than 300K views on Youtube. It is one of the memorable and creative advertisements that effectively grabbed the audience’s attention.

Directors

Executive creative director: Scott Mcclelland

Creative director: Tinus Strydom & Maurice Wee

Senior art director: Gaston Soto

Senior copywriter: Omar Sotomayor

Woof! Top Foodies review food for dogs – Furry’s Kitchen

Furry’s Kitchen is Singapore based company that sells dog food. It promotes human-grade dog food with no preservatives, additives, or by-products. One of the challenge Furry’s Kitchen faced were promoting the quality of their product. In most cases, customers were not very aware of specific approvals or ingredients by Furry’s Kitchen. Terms such as AVS approved or CE certified were not very effective in showing how their products are safe and high quality. Furry’s Kitchen thus came up with a very direct marketing campaign.

Partnered with celebrity chef Justin Quek, Furry’s Kitchen created a 2-minute marketing video. Furry’s Kitchen invited top food influencers in Singapore for tasting their product, dog food, processed by chef Justin Quek. In the video, ingredients out of the plastic package are fried, mixed, and shaped nicely on aesthetic plates. Then, chef Justin Quek, who conceptualized the 3-course degustation meal serve the food to famous influencers. Furthermore, after tasting, they share how much they liked the food. For instance, famous guests like Julius Lim, food critic at Channel 8, and The Strait Times mention the high quality of the food, how much they enjoyed it, and their willingness to recommend it to their followers. Finally, by the end of the video, it delivers the core message ‘If Food Influencers Loved It, Imagine Your Dog’.

This video was effective in many ways. Firstly, it showed how their product is high quality, 100% natural food, and safe not only for dogs but for humans as well. Also, by inviting well-known influencers in Singapore, the video added credibility as well as relevancy. Last but not least, the social media posts by the influencers circulated the product and company further.

Directors

Creative Director: Guilherme Camargos

Associate Creative Director: Jonathan Ollivier, Aritra Dutta, Alessandro Agnellini

Copywriter: Winona Wee

Art Director: Benjamin Tan, Qian Hui Tan

Director of Photography: Jaye Neo

#SmileStrongBersama – Colgate

The pandemic has brought significant change in our lives. Due to the COVID-19, we encountered new confusion, uncertainty, sadness, and fear. Furthermore, the pandemic has destroyed the livelihood of many people as well. In such a depressing moment, Colgate came up with a new marketing advertisement that encourage people to rebuild and overcome. The short advertisement illustrated the power of a smile to promote change even in the unforeseeable future.

The video introduces four women who are not in the most supportive situation. People around them do not support or understand their goals and effort. Instead, they discourage them by undermining their effort and dream. However, rather than giving up, they respond to the challenges with a big smile. Unlike how we expect, they show how simply smiling can motivate them from continuing their challenging journey. Through these women, Colgate promotes the significance of taking an optimistic view in any situation. Especially in a pandemic era when everyone is in some type of negative situation, Colgate shows their support and positivism through the advertisement. Furthermore, for every 5 smiles collected, Colgate donated “Box of Smiles” to the marginalized communities and refugees of Malaysia, showing how they are really part of improving the pandemic era.

The campaign was featured across TV, digital, in-store, eCommerce, and public relations. Furthermore, the advertisement reached almost 300K audience through social media.