Tesco’s Subway Supermarket
Check this out — a really awesome idea from Cheil Worldwide.
We love how the agency stepped outside what we tend to think of as “traditional advertising.” This is more than just an ad. It is a business solution to a business problem that hits the mark strategically, tactically, and creatively. Here, the agency actually created a new sales channel for its client by thinking creatively about emerging technology and consumer behavior.
More than making us smirk or think of a brand in a new way (as good advertising should), Tesco’s subway supermarket actually solves a problem in our lives – a problem we might not have been aware of before seeing the solution (as Steve Jobs said, “It isn’t the consumers’ job to know what they want”). It is something truly new and truly interactive, and therefore truly memorable. It delights by surpassing my expectations of what a product in this category (supermarkets) is meant to deliver on, and it makes us think that Tesco really cares about making their customers’ shopping experience better.
We think we will start seeing more and more work like this come out of ad agencies. Just as people are better judged by what they do than by what they say they do, advertising that delivers on a brand promise in and of itself is more effective than advertising that simply relays a brand promise creatively. Importantly, seismic shifts in the way consumers interact with media are now allowing marketers to create unique and engaging experiences – like this one – that stand above advertising in print or on television.
It is the agencies that can think creatively at the intersection of technology, strategy, and consumer behavior, and who aren’t afraid to develop products for their clients, that are best able to produce groundbreakingly effective work today.
