Campaign Review: The weird and the wonderful
This fortnight in Campaign Review, Yango's head of strategy Eb Yusuf, Oblong Creative's founder and CCO Justin Ruben, and Mediahub's strategy director Chlöe Cripps take a look at recent campaigns from Milkrun, Belong, and SBS.
In Campaign Review, Mumbrella invites industry creatives and strategists to offer their views on recent ad campaigns.
Brand: Milkrun
Campaign: ‘Milk It’
Agency: Abel
The verdict: The strategy is lost, but this is a fun, playful spot.
Eb Yusuf, head of strategy at Yango, gave it a 2/10 and said:
As an avid Milkrun user, I felt this was a missed opportunity. There are so many insights to be leveraged here and it makes use of none.
Speak to any time poor, working parent and you’ll quickly find out that Milkrun is the place you go on Sunday night when you realise you forgot to do the school shop, or purposefully avoided the notoriously packed Sunday arvo supermarket aisles.
This and so many more use cases could have been leveraged…
I’m not sure who this ad is for, but it’s certainly not for me. I’m no prude, but it feels unnecessarily graphic; at the same time, it doesn’t go hard enough to be truly quirky.
All I know is, I’d have loved to be a fly on the wall during this pitch meeting.
Justin Ruben, founder and CCO at Oblong Creative, gave it a 7/10 and said:
This spot has a playful tone and has a fun energy about it. I like the way they’ve pushed the casting and art direction in a weirder direction. I imagine they’re aiming at a younger audience so want to give it a bit of a Gen Z vibe.
Weird is great if backed up by a strong strategy or insight. I’m not sure what the strategy is here, it doesn’t really create a reason for me to choose Milkrun over Uber who are also doing fun ads.
I’d be interested to see where they take the line ‘Milk It’ and how it comes to life in other channels. Doesn’t totally deliver for me.
Chlöe Cripps, strategy manager at Mediahub, gave it a 7/10 and said:
It’s a big old battleground for grocery/delivery convenience — many competitors have leaned into creative that showcases what can be delivered but this speaks to why you’d get it delivered — it’s selling convenience.
The creation of the audio DBA is a standout for me — you can already imagine ‘Shall we milk it?’ becoming part of everyday conversation when you can’t be bothered to run to the shops.
I also really like the contrast they’ve drawn from the laborious old school task of milking a cow to the near-instant convenience of getting packaged goods delivered to your door. It’s a clever way to highlight how far we’ve come — and how far convenience culture has taken us — so we might as well take advantage of it rather than feeling bad or lazy!
Brand: Belong
Campaign: ‘Data Rich’
Agency: DDB Melbourne
The verdict: Eye-catching and fun. Maybe a bit cringey though…
Eb gave it a 5/10 and said:
I like a spot that can quickly shortcut a message. Sure, it’s not the most cinematic or original piece of advertising I’ve seen all year, but it tells me what I need to know and it does it quickly.
While I like the use of real talent, like UK rapper Taz, the emojis and bling execution feels a little outdated. I’m not quite sure if this is trying to appeal to a Gen Z audience, in which case this feels like it’s trying too hard, or a Millennial audience, for whom this may feel too juvenile. That said, its cringey nature may ironically make it more memorable.
Justin gave it a 7/10 and said:
Belong seems like a great brand and has done some lovely work in the past. I like the attitude of the brand and being a disruptor in the market.
This spot is fun playing off the world of modern rich with the bling and then adding the element of old money with the old fashioned people.
I didn’t get the use of opera and rap until I read the press release, now it makes sense, I’m just not sure a consumer would really get that. Hopefully the song will get stuck in peoples head.
My main issue with the spot is that it doesn’t show me the benefit of being data rich, it talks and sings about it, but the benefit doesn’t come through which leaves me feeling a little flat.
Doesn’t hit enough high notes.
Chlöe gave it an 8/10 and said:
Having worked on campaigns in the past I know that mobile providers love to speak to package deals, GB’s and 5G, but this campaign positions it differently — as wealth.
In a time where money is tight and the cost-of-living crisis looms and plays into all our purchase considerations, why wouldn’t we to buy in to something that will make us feel rich? Even if it is just in a data sense.
I also love the bling and gold chains as they’re typically applied to wealth, and not something you’d typically see from a telco category which tends to remain more serious.
The OOH is eye-catching and the consecutive placements in OOH work so well in being eye-catching as well as being able to get across the product benefit.
If only my data bank was actual wealth, how much do you reckon 2.12TB is worth?!
Brand: SBS
Campaign: ‘We Go There’
Agency: Droga5 ANZ
The verdict: The first 10/10s of the year.
M-rated spot available to view here.
Eb gave it a 10/10 and said:
Bravo! I am a sucker for a good audience insight, and no one does it better than Droga5. This campaign really gets the SBS audience.
In an age of hyper-personalised algorithms and keyboard warriors shouting into the echo chamber, our world has never been more philosophically divided. This ad immediately shows you where SBS stands and who its audience is.
My marker for a great campaign platform is, does it have legs? And this one certainly has some big, beautiful naked ones. I adore the simplicity of the out-of-home executions, particularly “News that recognises the other 192 countries on the planet.”
What a clever, bold and instantly iconic campaign.
Justin gave it an 8.5/10 and said:
Definitely my favourite of the bunch. I really like this. I imagine half the challenge with this type of brief is to highlight all of SBS’ content in an interesting way and use some type of vehicle for it. So in this case they’ve used a streaker to run through all the types of shows they have.
This feels very SBS, and they’ve further added to the idea by making it something you can only watch on SBS thanks to the full frontal nudity. Something I appreciated in my teenage years.
The production and direction are also great, and I like the seamless way they take you through all these different environments. The comedy is handled with a lot of subtlety other than the nudity.
Congrats to the clients and all the contributors on making such fun work. Very ballsy execution (I couldn’t help myself).
Chlöe gave it a 10/10 and said:
Round of applause to SBS and Droga5 — this is a brand campaign that genuinely cuts through the noise. I’ve never seen a video creative quite like that.
What stands out most is how the campaign is built from a clear truth: SBS shows what other BVOD channels don’t. They’re not promoting a specific show, but a mindset of rebellion — which feels different.
From an execution point of view, I love the contrast. The TVC is loud and busy — showcasing the variety of content on SBS. The OOH, on the other hand, is simple and minimal, leaving space for your mind to wander. Both communicate the same idea, just in totally different ways. It’s a strong articulation of SBS’ point of difference in an increasingly fragmented media landscape.
My attention is captured — I love it.
As told to Lauren McNamara.
If you are a senior creative or strategist who would like to take part in a future Campaign Review, please email me at lmcnamara@mumbrella.com.au.
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Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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topics
Abel
Belong
Campaign Review
Chlöe Cripps
DDB Melbourne
Droga5 ANZ
Eb Yusuf
Justin Ruben
Milkrun
SBS
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