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The results are in and New Zealanders have spoken. What’s the secret to securing a spot in the top five? Resident New Zealand ad expert Carl Sarney, Head of Strategy at TRA, weighs in on what makes the top ads so memorable.
Survey after survey, one of the stand-out favourite ad components uniting the top favourite ads is creative commitment. Creative commitment is an effectiveness strategy identified by James Hurman and Peter Field. It outlines three crucial commitments brands can make to embed their campaigns more deeply in the public’s consciousness.
The first crucial commitment is sticking to a recognisable creative platform over the long term – such as characters or consistent use of brand codes.
The second is media spend, brands need to have a sufficient share of voice in their category. This doesn’t necessarily mean having the biggest media investment, it’s about having a share of media spend vs competitors that is proportionate to your market share.
The third is executing the recognisable platform across all touchpoints. The top favourite advertisers on TV are extending their famous characters and taglines across cinema, out-of-home, print, radio, and digital, as well as through owned touchpoints like websites, stores and packaging.
One story, spread as big as you can afford to spread it, is creating highly effective, enduring icons that are loved by the public. It’s good news for everybody – campaigns loved by the public tend to drive results that are loved by the C-suite too.
ASB stays in first place with their ‘stay one step ahead of scammers’ ad, keeping Ben and Amy ahead of rival ANZ this quarter.
While it’s not the only ASB spot to get mentioned this month, it is the latest. At a time when fraud and scam cases are making headlines, watching these much-loved characters go about avoiding scams has clearly struck a chord with New Zealanders.
ASB exemplifies strong creative commitment. Their ads continue to use their loved characters to illustrate how ASB is helping everyone stay one step ahead – from product demonstrations to sports sponsorships and now their Scam Hub initiative. All these messages are unmistakably ASB and they’re landing. The public is loving it.
ANZ has retained their number two spot with another strong example of creative commitment. The latest in the Sharma family series sees a milestone unfold for the family. As viewers watch the family celebrate Claire’s two years in business, ANZ illustrates how ANZ can help with the HOWTWO Small Business Support program.
Like ASB, this latest ad from ANZ isn’t the only one in the series to get mentioned. In the battle of the banks, there is a clear winner – creative effectiveness. Commitment to a singular brand platform across messaging and touchpoints is keeping both brands in the minds of New Zealanders, over and over again.
Tina from Turners is fast becoming a loved personality in her own right. She’s described as hilarious, vibrant, positive and charming. There’s no mistaking who the ads are for – Turners gets full credit. Not only is Tina’s name humorously linked to the brand, but Tina wears a staff uniform and every story masterfully focuses on her love of selling cars.
Sean Wiggans, General Manager of Marketing at Turners, points to a key effectiveness principle behind the campaign – focusing on one message. In 2022, the campaign picked up the Marketing Supreme Award at the Marketing Awards and was awarded two gold Effies. Since then, the results have continued to accelerate – with the campaign delivering another record profit at the end of March 2023.
Stickman has been the face of PAK’nSAVE for 15 years and is still making Kiwis laugh. This campaign is a masterclass in long-term brand building – the character, voice and yellow and black world are all instantly recognisable, distinctive assets.
Stickman is a consistent reminder of PAK’nSAVE’s brand positioning. Everything the brand does, including its no-frills advertising style, is to save customers money. This consistency and focus is what has helped PAK’nSAVE fend off fierce competition.
While some favourite ads come and go, others stay in the rankings for the long haul. Genesis is yet another high-performing brand that has adopted a long-term creative commitment strategy and won. Genesis has jumped three places in the rankings since December.
Genesis has built an enduring platform to talk to multiple proof points. Kiwis are getting to know more about the family with every execution.
A new entrant to the favourite ads rankings. New World has been running brand ads for some time but their latest effort has finally landed them in the top five.
What’s unusual about this favourite ad is the storytelling. While most favourite ads focus on telling one story, New World has managed to tell three mini-stories all within one ad.
Supermarket brands have the challenge of appealing to a very broad audience. In this example, New World has managed to represent a young couple, a father and daughter and an older lady with her carer. It’s a smart way of signalling that everyone shops at New World.
A particularly clever element about how the story comes together is when the emotional high-point, involving an ‘I love you’ sausage roll, takes place outside a store with a great big New World logo in the background. When ads telling stories about food could easily be mistaken for other brands, incorporating brand codes into the emotional high point will likely help New World stick in people’s memory.
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