Episode 87 - Savanna Cider Ad Reviewed by FARFETCH, PepsiCo and Unilever
In this week’s episode, we review the Savanna Trial ad created for Savanna Cider by Grey South Africa and chosen by our partners Contagious. It’s the dry humour the brand is already known for, after clips such as “Survivor” and “My Friend” and a great social media presence. But, our guests only rated this ad an average of 2.3 out of 5.
While it’s more of a PR stunt, leaning into a recent supply shortage and trying to be funny about a #CancelCourt, is this ad clear about its aims? Are they launching a product or apologising? Does it work to do both?
Watch the full episode to see what our guests Anna Cussell (Global Senior Social Media Manager at FARFETCH), Fiona Benmayor (Associate Manager of Media Innovation & Partnerships at PepsiCo) and Adrian O’Brien (Global Lead for St. Ives Brands at Unilever Skincare) thought about it.
Transcript
Advertisers Watching Ads Ep 87 - Savanna Cider Ad Reviewed by FARFETCH, PepsiCo and Unilever
The following transcript is automatically generated so may not be 100% accurate, but will give you a good idea of what was discussed.
Tom Ollerton 0:00
Hello and welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. This is a weekly show where brands discuss other brands' ads. My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of Automated Creative. We're brought to you by our partners, contagious.com, who've found some of the ads. We have a vote and we come up with the ad to talk about. And before we get to that, let's meet this week's guests.
Anna Cussell 0:27
Hi, I'm Anna. I'm the Senior Social Media Manager at FARFETCH.
Fiona Benmayor 0:31
Hi, I'm Fiona Benmayor. I'm the Associate Manager of Media Innovation and Partnership Development at PepsiCo.
Adrian O'Brien 0:37
I'm Adrian O'Brien. I'm a Global Lead for the St. Ives brands at Unilever Skincare.
Tom Ollerton 0:43
Right. Let's see this week's ad.
This ad is part of Savanna Cider's dry humour clips where they're not afraid of poking fun at themselves or at stereotypes. It's made by Grey South Africa. They've also come up with other campaigns like "Survivor" and "My Friend" for the brand. Okay, guys, what I'm going to get you to do is vote on a scale of one to five. How good you thought this ad was. So three, two, one... A two, a three, and a two. Right, wow. Okay. So let's dig into this a little bit. Fiona, what's actually going on in this ad? What's the wider context here?
Fiona Benmayor 3:01
Savanna Dry Cider was experiencing a lot of supply chain issues when it came to late 2021, and people were very frustrated with the brand. So what they try to do is head on address that and really embrace the transparency and lean into some of their weaknesses. So I believe in collaboration with Grey WPP, the agency, they kind of developed, this creative to really kind of lean into where they were struggling and show to people that they were really trying to overcome supply chain issues. And it kind of went really nicely with their kind of tagline of making sure no one ever goes dry because they did actually like they, they were actually having that challenge. So they really leaned into like their kind of brand ethos and embraced a level of transparency, which I think was refreshing for the consumer.
Anna Cussell 3:54
I think what was really nice about it is that it sounds like they were doing a lot of social listening, and they actually identified the conversations that were happening about them, and that's how they got initially that opinion around that frustration that's coming from their consumers. And they took that and they interpreted it into what was their own brand tone of voice. It worked for their brand's tone of voice. I think it worked for kind of addressing their key consumers that they were looking at.
Adrian O'Brien 4:20
I do really like the strategy of kind of leaning into one of your weaknesses and kind of owning, you know, an issue that they've had. I slightly feel like it's off brand. I don't think it directly links into the way they've behaved as a brand, but here it felt like they were much more obsessed with getting a, I don't know, a PR statement out. It felt like I was reading a briefing document.
Anna Cussell 4:42
Yeah, I mean, I think that like they were trying to be humorous, but actually it was a bit more cringy funny than clever funny.
Fiona Benmayor 4:48
It was on the lengthy side. So it was... I found it very challenging. I did feel like the objective one of apologising overshadowed the launch of the new product per se.
Tom Ollerton 5:01
I felt that it was, it was done in a sort of quite cartoony kind of way. Did it need a more straighter approach?
Adrian O'Brien 5:07
I was going to say, I don't think it needs to be serious. It was just poor acting. I wouldn't have watched it to the end if I wasn't doing it as part of this.
Anna Cussell 5:14
When you look at the other stuff they put out on social, like they do a lot of memes. They do a lot of things that feel really connected to what people are kind of talking about or saying on social. And this just felt like you can be funny, but I think the storyline, and it was the overacting, I think, that then just lost me. And I think part of this, I think I read somewhere, they were supporting comedians or something. So you think they would have leant into those contacts, leant into that a little bit better to kind of execute it in a bit more of a real humour way.
Tom Ollerton 5:45
So what would have made it better? Fiona, what would've been your builds here if you'd seen this execution before it went out?
Fiona Benmayor 5:50
If someone wasn't really aware of the social media meme culture, they could be a little bit out of touch. But maybe that was their core audience. So if it was wasn't, I think, like it could have been kind of brought down a level, but I'm not sure like what would have, per se made it better. What do you guys think?
Adrian O'Brien 6:07
I think the reality of consumers walking into a bar and going, "Where's my Savanna?" Like, there's enough humour and drama that you can create in that and the kind of comments online, that was more than enough chatter from consumers, I think, without having to create your own humour. You know, them joining the conversation may have been better than trying to create a fictitious environment.
Tom Ollerton 6:31
But don't you think they've been quite bold, like they've really sort of taken this to the extreme and in no small budget, I wouldn't have thought, to produce this? Is it more common to see brands respond to problems, supply chain problems just as a kind of amusing "Oh, look, how funny" useless PR type social post? But to actually go make an ad, like, isn't that the smart thing here that they've gone like as far as they could have possibly gone in some way in terms of spend, at least? Or am I missing the point?
Adrian O'Brien 6:58
I don't know what the resolution is. It's not... It's not like they've got a solution. Their solution is the can in this ad. And to me, I would have focused on that much more. You know, the backlash on the can on social media is that it doesn't taste like my Savanna, or it's not the same. It just felt it became way too sterile, way too formal, kind of a press release type piece rather than focusing on kind of the consumer and the solution they're offering.
Anna Cussell 7:22
I think they could have gone down more of a corporate route, right? But they chose not to, and I think that's probably what I like about it. They could have just been like, "Hey, guys, there's a supply issue, you know, we're going to get some cans out for everyone. It'll be fine." But instead, they chose to lean into it more creatively. I just think the execution of the creative could have probably been done a bit better.
Tom Ollerton 7:41
So Fiona, what do you think that brands watching this ad can learn from it?
Fiona Benmayor 7:45
I feel like some of the brands I work on are so large that sometimes owning up to a supply chain issue can have more backlash than not, which is kind of what we're talking about, but personally, I do appreciate it. I would want brands to kind of lean into it a little bit more, probably could have been more social mediafied, right? Like, mediafied or more like taking a lighter tone and just said like articulated the same thing in a more light touch way that would have made it like a more 360 approach. I think instead of, like, develop... They didn't really have much of another choice, in my opinion, because, what?... Are you going to develop really a product campaign when you don't have products on the shelf? So they were just trying to...
Adrian O'Brien 8:29
They do with the can. They do have a product, but...
Fiona Benmayor 8:32
Yeah. But people didn't like it as much...
The last ten seconds of the ad.
Anna Cussell 8:36
I actually think the approach is actually a good one. I think the execution is where they've let themselves down, if this is meant to be something that lives on social, maybe more of a simplified message would have really helped land what they were trying to achieve. The fact that it was, you know, almost two minutes long. I would never watch anything that long on social for two minutes, but that's also because I am who I am. You know, landing that message in a much smarter way using your creatives and influencers in a much smarter way. You can still be funny. You can still kind of bring that tone of voice through. You can still do everything they did. But I think just make it really simple for people to pick up quickly.
Adrian O'Brien 9:12
A really nice strategy of facing into the challenges and addressing it head on. But I think the big element to learn for me is whether you want to be on the defensive or whether you want to be proactive about your solution. And they're very much a brand that kind of pokes fun and has a laugh. And it felt like this put them on the defensive and made them very apologetic as opposed to pushing forward with what they're offering the consumer, which was a new can, for example.
Tom Ollerton 9:38
Thanks so much for joining us, Adrian, Anna, Fiona, and we will see you all next week.
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