Emma de la Fosse’s Top 10 Ads of All Time
Emma de la Fosse’s glittering career has taken her from Joint ECD of OgilvyOne London to CCO for the Ogilvy Group UK and on to CCO of Digitas before settling as CCO of Edelman UK.
Below are her ‘Top 10 Ads of All Time’, although some aren’t technically ads.
Nonetheless, they're brilliant examples of creative thinking.
1. Say no to No Say - The GLC (Greater London Council)
The ads for the GLC in 1984 had a profound effect on me.
The posters were up all around the Hammersmith One Way System, and I’d beg my mum to drive around and around so I could gaze at them.
The red tape one was actually bound up in real red tape.
My first job in advertising was working for the guys that wrote ‘If you want me out, you should have the right to vote me out’, Paul Leeves and Alan Tilby.
Client: Greater London Council (GLC)
Agency: BMP
2. Oadby & Wigstone Council
After Tilby & Leeves, I began working for the legendary Dave Trott.
One of the examples of great creative thinking he told us about was Oadby and Wigstone Council’s solution to their flyposting problem.
Removing illegal posters cost them thousands until, for a total cost of £240, they started pasting bright orange ‘CANCELLED’ notices over the ads for bands and gigs.
Within days, flyposting had dropped to zero.
As Dave said, Oadby & Wigstone Council stopped thinking like prey and started thinking like a predator.
3. Angostura Bitters
This is another brilliant piece of problem-solving Dave told us about.
Angostura Bitters can be added to many different food recipes and cocktails.
However, once opened, the little bottle with the quirky, over-sized label was usually pushed to the back of the drinks cupboard, so people forgot about it.
The marketing question was, “How do you get the bottle out into a light, bright place where people will see it every day?”
The creative solution was just two words: “Keep Refrigerated”.
Now, the bottle was relocated to the fridge door even though its alcohol content is over 45% and doesn’t go off.
Of course, it does no harm to keep Angostura Bitters in the fridge, and it certainly did no harm to the sales figures.
4. The Great Schlep
Another inspirational creative guru called Dave is David Droga.
When ECD of Saatchi and Saatchi London, he brought together the so-called ‘below the line’ creatives with the so-called ‘above the line’ creatives, and the results were extraordinary.
David is a brilliant thinker, and this is one of my favourite creative solutions of all time.
Barack Obama is a fan, too.
In fact, he has the agency Droga5 to thank for his presidency.
Do watch this 2008 Sarah Silverman YouTube video. Absolute genius.
Client: Jewish Council for Educational Research.
Agency: Droga5
View it HERE.
5. The Trash Isles
A brilliant insight was at the heart of this wonderful idea in 2018 that was worth millions of pounds in earned media.
How do you bring a vast floating morass of plastic the size of France to the attention of the UN?
You turn it into a country with its own flag, president and currency, thus forcing the UN to recognise it.
An additional bonus M the work used wit rather than emotional bludgeoning to get its point across.
Client: LadBible
Agency: AMV BBDO London
Read the case study HERE.
6. Michelob - Contract for Change
One of the key findings from The Edelman Trust Barometer was that people trust businesses more than politicians to make the desperately needed societal and environmental changes.
This is an inspirational example of such a change.
It’s also a testament that B2B doesn’t have to mean Boring2Boring.
Only 1% of American agriculture is organic. Michelob, one of the largest brewers, realised that the first step to helping more farmers make the change to organic crops lay not in one-off stunts or emotional ads. But in a fundamental shift in the way they did business with farmers.
Client: Michelob Ultra
Agency: FCB Chicago
Case study HERE.
7. Buy Back Friday - IKEA
This piece of work from 2020 is one of the reasons I decided to join Edelman.
Like ‘Contract for Change’, it’s an example of what can happen when creatives are allowed near the top table, getting in front of a CEO, not just a CMO.
Black Friday is, in my view, another unwanted import from the US.
So, what does an environmentally conscientious brand do when confronted by consumerism on steroids?
It flips the narrative and owns the conversation.
Not a one-off stunt, this became a first step in IKEA's transition to a more circular, sustainable business model.
Client: IKEA
Agency: Edelman
THIS is what The Guardian newspaper had to say about it.
8. Compare the Meerkat.com
Great insights can come from search data.
Back in 2009, VCCP was tasked with launching an online comparison insurance website.
At the time, the internet was flooded with price comparison websites, so the key search term ‘Compare’ was very expensive.
As a new company, Compare the Market didn’t have a big budget for SEO.
Data revealed that although the word ‘Compare’ was costly, the word ‘Market’ was not searched often and was, therefore, much cheaper.
So, the brief was “Get people to search for the word ‘market’, not ‘compare”.
So, the Meerkats were born.
What seemed like a crazy hare-brained idea based on a silly wordplay was a stroke of digital strategy genius.
Client: Compare The Market
Agency: VCCP
HERE is the original launch ad with Aleksandr Orlov.
9. The AA - The Fourth Emergency Service
I love this radical repositioning of a breakdown service that was getting lost in a commoditised marketplace.
Rather than attempting to justify the brand’s price premium by making it more empathetic, agency HHCL “went for the commoditising jugular”, in the words of brand strategist Richard Huntingdon.
They simply lifted the AA out of the Breakdown Service morass and placed it next to Fire, Police and Ambulance.
Thus, in 1998, ‘The Fourth Emergency Service’ was born.
As Huntingdon says, “Wouldn’t you pay more for an emergency service than a breakdown service?”
People agreed, and the AA saw hugely successful results.
Client: The AA (Automobile Association)
Agency: HHCL
View the launch ad HERE.
10. Wendy’s - Keeping Fortnite Fresh
Something a little more frivolous to finish but still an idea born of an insight. In this case, from some gamers who, in 2019, found a way Wendy’s could join in the new Fortnite ‘Food Fight’ game for free.
Up to this point, brands could only get involved in Fortnite by tweeting about it from the sidelines or getting involved in costly partnerships.
Wendy’s found a way in: as a player.
By choosing a skin and joining a team, Wendy’s could go toe to toe with ‘Team Burger’ smashing up the freezers where they kept their beef. Because, as we all know – WENDY’S. DOESN’T. DO. FROZEN.BEEF.
Client: Wendy’s
Agency: VML
See the case film HERE
If you liked the above, you’ll enjoy Rory Sutherland’s Top 10 Ads of All Time.
Alternatively, join the many others learning how to make great advertising by enrolling in our Advertising 101 course today.
