Author Archives: James Grant

Five of the best online ads of April: Reading is Fundamental, EDF, TicTac…

A great example here of how how effective video is at telling stories, we still recognise the importance of traditional media, especially when it comes to a child’s education. That’s why we like this ad from Reading is Fundamental in the US, highlighting the importance of the written word. Yes it’s a bit twee, but the idea of getting famous characters from books into modern settings to get kids interested in reading is a good one.

Read more »

Five of the best online ads of March: DollarShaveClub, Alzheimers, NSPCC…

Trying to create an ad as irreverent, funny and memorable as the Old Spice “man your man could smell like” is a gargantuan task that many have tried to achieve, and almost universally failed to do.

However, DollarShaveClub.com is within a whisker of being just as good. From a migrant worker to a bear, this ad is better than good. In fact, we’d go so far as to say it’s “F***ing Great”. Read more »

Ten of the best online ads of February

A lot of fan-fair around The Guardian’s open journalism campaign, Three Little Pigs – but did it live up to the hype? There was a comment on here last week that many of the ads we chose for January’s highlights didn’t have concept. The sort of interaction we’re looking for. However, you couldn’t accuse this of not having a concept – surely? Very interesting and right out of the BBH playbook.

Read more »

Ten of the best online ads of January

First up from January is Volkswagen’s Super Bowl teaser campaign, The Dog Chorus. No wonder the Empire has gone to the dogs if this is all Darth Vader can muster to strike fear into the hearts of the rebels.

An amazing idea executed beautifully. Now don’t get me wrong, I can see in the Twittersphere that ‘Star Wars’ themed ads are hitting overload – but this a nice follow-up to VW’s excellent ‘Dark Side’ video last year. Read more »

Top 5 Trends in 2012…for the video space

As one year starts to morph into another, its time for that perennial favourite – the trend predictions! Now, firstly predictions are a dark art as we all know and secondly, just like Rome, trends aren’t going to pop up overnight, they already exist – I am merely predicting which ones I think will come nicely onto the boil in the next 12 months… Read more »