Weekly
Digest
#15
World’s Sexiest Travel Guide
Ah, Valentine’s Day. It’s why you make reservations or make yourself a second drink. Whatever your mood on this pink and red holiday, no doubt you’ve seen the usual paraphernalia: heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, cards adorned with glitter hearts and birds, or worse, partially wilted Target/Monoprix flowers.
This year though, one brand has cut through the clutter to provide a well timed, on-brand piece of work that brings their “Feel Everything” promise to life. Skyn, an Australian brand of non-latex condoms, put together a travel guide detailing the best places to get intimate around the world. Using a master list of hotels curated exclusively for Skyn by GQ and Condé Nast Traveler, the company narrowed it down to just 30 properties for the guide, available in print and digital.
Skyn recruited 12 couples via an online campaign to test the properties (and their products of course) for three months in search of the most romantic, and conducive, locations. Couples were asked to document their experiences along the way through photos and videos, many of which were included in the final product. The recounting of their experiences ranges from lush to make-Christian-Grey-blush, so proceed with caution, or better yet, abandon.
It’s no surprise that our beloved City of Love takes the top spot with Hotel Edgar, as well as two other properties around Paris and one in Marseille. In what has to be the world’s most apropos agency briefing, Skyn partnered with Paris-based shop Sid Lee Paris to handle the creative. Vive l’amour...vive la France.
Un Coup du Coeur
French car manufacturer, Renault, teamed up with Publicis Loft to create the brand’s first animation, promoting their range of electric vehicles. Valentine’s Day can be an especially hard sales push for automotive companies. That’s what makes this activation so noteworthy. On top of going the animation route, relatively uncommon as far as car commercials go, Renault found a way to make a compelling tie-in to this rather distinctive holiday.
The Pixar-esque short film tells the story of Lars, a postman who’s struck with un coup de coeur (a crush in French) for a beautiful woman on his route, Karen. The story of course gets a happy ending after the post office upgrades Lars’ delivery truck to one of Renault’s silent electric cars. The spot ends with a caption that reads,“Everything starts with an electric moment.” Wink, wink.
The brand’s clever emotional appeal to an otherwise straightforward product feature brings together something as universal as love with something as unromantic as the silence of electric cars. Patrick Lara, Managing Director, Publicis Conseil, said, “The Postman film is a different approach to other EV content that Renault has produced in the past. We hope this romantic and funny story will drive closeness and familiarity with Renault’s audience this Valentine’s Day.”
Ads like this showcase the power of emotive storytelling, which makes all the difference: you can be a brand that gets lost among the masses or one audiences feel a connection with long after the campaign ends.
Agency: Loft Publicis Conseil (Le Loft)
Director: Akama
Producer: Wizz
Animation: NKI
Photo credits: Renault (top post) and Sweet Ice Cream Photography (bottom post)
ADVERTISINGAgencyAutomotiveEnglishFranceHospitalityHotelsParisTravelValentine's Day