‘No more excuses for not calling your mother’, Singtel tells busy Singaporeans
Singtel is teasing young Millennials with its 4G network, claiming it will provide little escape from their nagging mothers anymore.
In a cheeky short video, created by Goodstuph and The Smart Local, a young man is shown perpetually unable to get his mother off the phone despite going into a number of locations where signal would not normally reach.
The awkward video call starts in the office, with the mother lamenting her son’s failure to come home for dinner and take his family on holiday –much to amusement of the man’s workmates.
Although the son tries to ‘run away’ and lose his phone signal by entering a lift, going into an underground tunnel, rowing a boat into open water, both his 4G and mother remain persistent.
However, the three-minute video ends on a positive note when the son realises the importance of spending time with his family on Mother’s Day.
Deciding to stop running away, the man agrees to go home for dinner and his triumphant mother smiles knowing her persistence paid off.
The video then ends with the tagline that Singtel’s network is as persistent as your mother.
Conceptualised in a joint effort by Singtel, Goodstuph and The Smart Local, the video was then executed in two weeks by the latter’s content arm.
Credits
Director: Julian Reyes
Cinematography: Julian Reyes / Dominic Shimizu
Script/Producer: Joyce Yang
Lead Talents: Nicholas Yeam / Doreen Quek
Production Assistants: Jereld Ang / Clement Lee
Eleanor Dickinson is the editor of Mumbrella Asia. Eleanor joined the Asia platform from Dubai, where she acted as senior reporter for Campaign Middle East.
So the insight and target market is what exactly?
I vote for: emotional manipulation for a bunch of mama’s boys.
ReplySharing a comment from Neal Moore which I saw in a similar thread.
“What consumer insight did The Godfather or, for that matter, Iron Man have? This is just good content, great storytelling of the type that most traditional agencies – be they creative, PR or media – aren’t capable of because they are simply not storytellers (no matter what they change their job titles to!).
I encourage more brands to work directly with journalist, filmmakers, musicians and other artists to create genuinely good content as opposed to the extended ads that most of the ad industry churns out under the guise of “content”.”
ReplyNo idea who Neal Moore is but I disagree slightly. Brands should not be so worried about creating ‘good content’. Stick to ads. At least some people are still watching them. Stop trying to be “content creators”. We already have journalists, film makers, musicians, etc., who are doing a great job of this. Adding a brand to the mix will either put people off the content, or – even worse – will be a waste of money as it won’t do anything for the brand. To use one of Moore’s examples, who wants to watch the Godfather made by P&G?
ReplyA 3-minute story that could have been told just as effectively (if not better) in 30 seconds.
Why do so many brands believe their potential audiences are open to wasting their time on stuff like this?
ReplyI think the point here is storytellers can create 3 min videos people want to watch and share on social. That is why this video performed well.
Those with the “stick to ads” mentality don’t even realise it’s possible or they’ve never had success with ads on social media. Or they’re trying to replicate TVCs on social media, using the wrong format for the wrong platform and wrong generation.
They’re stuck in the 30 sec ad mould of thinking, believing they have to force-feed audiences content in as little time as possible via paid media.
ReplyIncorrect
These “storytellers” (really?) are creating 3-min videos they *think* people want to watch and share. But it’s really not happening. Where is your evidence that this video performed so well? I had a quick look around and couldn’t see this.
My point is not that the 30-second ad is the solution. It’s that if you are going to do long form video, make sure the idea and execution both fit the format and progress the brand. What we have here is exactly a 30 sec ad that has been stretched into 3 mins in the pursuit of some kind of added gravitas. I get it. Nagging mother. Long suffering son. Reversal at the end. I didn’t need 3 mins to give me that understanding.
ReplyMy HDB lift inside no signal
Replyyeah only 4G+ compatible phones will have 4G inside the lift. What phone u using?
ReplyHave your say