Our Vote for the Best Ads of 2018 (And Why We Loved Them)

By Lily Whorl

Advertisements are forever evolving as ideas are used up, and creativity continues to flow. From the field of marketing us here at Planful love to keep up with current advertisements and their success. Last year felt like a crazy year, and the world of advertisement did not disappoint. So, for your entertainment, the following list contains our vote for the best ads of 2018: 

ManScaped –  “Trim the Crack with Confidence”

Brief: ManScaped is a men’s grooming company with a sense of humor. This advertisement begins with a trick on the eyes. ManScaped showcases one of their razors in this simple video ad, which they used for digital ads on social media.

Why we love it: It immediately grabbed our attention then made us chuckle when the ad finished. Not only did it showcase ManScaped’s sense of humor, but it highlighted one of their products front and center. This video was so simple yet so impactful, and that’s precisely why we love it. It doesn’t always take a massive production to create a successful video campaign.

MGM National Harbor Casino: Personifying each day of the week

Brief: MGM National Harbor gave the days of the week their personality in their advertisement series. Each day has its characteristics and communicates to the viewer that MGM is a perfect place to be, any day of the week.

Why we love it: It was a clever way to advertise their casino without doing the same old thing as every other casino ad. It had the main character, the day of the week, being negative, which is hard to do successfully for an ad trying to promote your business. It stood out, and, to us, it nailed precisely what each day of the week would sound like if it were human.

Highlight the Remarkable campaign – print ad series for Stabilo highlighter

Brief: Stabilo, a company that manufactures pens, highlighters, and other art supplies used their products in an advertisement in an interesting way. When using a highlighter, it’s most common to highlight the most important or outstanding aspect of the the image or paper. Stabilo went a little deeper. They used old photographs and highlighted aspects further in the background. In one image in their advertisement series is a photograph of a room filled with around 200 people, Stabilo chose to highlight one woman in the far right corner. This woman, though a small speck in the background is Katherine Johnson. Katherine Johnson, the Nasa mathematician responsible for the calculations resulting in Appolo 11’s safe return to earth.

Why we love it: Going back to advertising roots of print ads – the simplicity of the ad while also sharing a piece of history is what makes this campaign so phenomenal. Stabilo found their opportunity to literally highlight important women in history who don’t seem to receive enough recognition and for this, we love them.

Google’s “Home Alone Again with the Google Assistant”

Brief: Google took an all-time Christmas favorite, “Home Alone” and incorporated their new technology to create a viral commercial that was shared and loved by many.

Why we loved it: Nostalgia is a familiar feeling around Christmas time, and Google hit the nail right on the head with this advertisement. Google’s unique creation of updated Home Alone scenes with Macaulay Culkin caught not only our attention but the eyes of all generations.

The 1990 film has never lost relevance, and Google recognized this. As each Christmas season comes and goes, it just continues to gain popularity. Though many things have changed since the filming of the movie, especially in technology, Google sought this out as an opportunity to showcase its Google Home technology and equipment in an unconventional manner.

Burger King | How to do the Whopper Detour

Brief: Burger King took an unconventional route to advertise its app. Through this push, they managed to incorporate its prime competition: McDonald’s.

Burger King sold their famous Whopper for a penny through the app, but there was a catch; to get this deal, you had to be within a certain distance from a McDonald’s.

The company claimed they were “turning more than 14,000 McDonald’s into Burger King restaurants. Sort of.”

Why we loved it: We’re never afraid to push the limits and clearly, neither is Burger King. This ad was so out of the ordinary. This campaign trusted that customers would drive to a further location to receive the one cent coupon, and they did. These results showed success in the advertisement while proving that Burger King was confident in their food.

We hope you enjoyed Our Vote for the Best Ads of 2018 (And Why We Loved Them) but if you didn’t get your fill of fun advertisements in this article? Check our vote for the best ads of 2017, here.