Clever Creative: A Bolt of Brilliance

Today’s Clever Creative talks about how Virgin Media’s recent campaign is a Bolt of brilliance. The ad features 100-meter-dash World Record holder, Usain Bolt, and shows a lifetime of hard work, support and dedication in 10 separate 9.58-second segments (the time that shattered his own previous World Record). It uses powerful lines about the importance of speed throughout the ad including, “Do you know what 9.58 seconds feels like? Like your whole life passing under your feet.” It shows Bolt’s grueling training regimen, footage of him at the 2009 Berlin World Championships (where he broke the record), and lighthearted animated sequences that break up the seriousness of the ad. From the minute you hit play, until the Virgin Media logo appears over footage of Bolt’s take-off, you are entirely transfixed.

Why our GEMites liked this clever creative:

So what makes this ad so great? Well, what better way to promote the speed of your broadband services than to have the world’s fastest man do it. A lot of companies will use athletes as spokespeople, especially around the time of the Olympics, just to seem relevant. However, not every company uses these athletes in a way that’s suited to their brands. If your company sells unhealthy fast food, it doesn’t make sense to have a healthy athlete (that probably isn’t allowed to eat junk like that) as your spokesperson; yes, we are talking about McDonald’s. It’s nice to be on top of current events, but you should never force the brand’s image to fit the spokesperson, or vice-versa, just to do so. Fortunately, Virgin Media found a way to tie an Olympic athlete into their brand’s message flawlessly, and for that they earn a gold medal.

Why our fellow creatives should like this:

We don’t think you should love the ad because of who they used, but instead you should love it because of how they used him. Virgin could have taken the easy route of showing Usain Bolt running and having a narrator say something like,” Usain Bolt may be the fastest man on Earth, but Virgin Media has the fastest broadband speed.” However, they decided to entice viewers with a cinematic story of Bolt’s road to success and slip in the fact that their broadband speeds are also fast. Today’s society, especially in the Millennial generation, doesn’t want to be sold anything, and have a strong mistrust of marketers and advertisers. This makes our jobs harder, of course, but it also forces us to be more creative. It drives us to think, “How can I advertise this product or service without the consumer feeling like I am pushing it onto them?” Virgin Media’s creatives thought like that and ended up producing an ad where you get so sucked into the story that you almost forget they are advertising their broadband services to you. Ultimately, creatives should love this ad because it leaves the consumer to make the connection of the importance of speed and broadband themselves, without feeling like the advertiser pushed an idea, product or service on them.

Let us know what you think, and look out for next week’s installment of Clever Creatives!

If you’re looking for some clever creative of your own, feel free to contact us.

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