West Village Girlies This One's For You!!!

If you have schizophrenia I would highly suggest you NOT watch the latest ad from Beats with Kendall Jenner, promoting the new Beats with customizable ear cushion things.

With that said, if you do not have schizophrenia, like myself, you would probably think this is a good ad. Check it out, created by Uncommon Creative Studio:

I feel like the goal for this campaign should be for Beats 360 to be a part of the official West Girlie uniform. Because that was the first thing I thought of when I saw this: “oh yeah this is gonna take over the west village.”

The creative itself is pretty interesting, and I think it’s really easy for brands to just get their celebrity talent, do something simple, and call it a day. Is part of that because of budget constraints? Potentially. But when you’re Beats (owned by Apple), you have no excuse to not make something cool. So who are you gonna call when you need something cool? Uncommon Creative Studio is a pretty good answer.

If you don’t know, Uncommon is the ad agency that has done award winning work for The Ordinary, rolled a giant hairball down the streets of NYC, and also works with Instagram. A lot of craft, a lot of cool, and I think they create something here that makes a lot of sense.

Is Kendall Jenner a little over exposed? Sure, but she still has significant motion. I think she still signals what is considered cool. And I think that with this spot specifically, she’s the main character of a solid story, so you aren’t really as reliant on star power alone to move people or keep people interested. Here’s what a member of Adidas’ Global Brand Marketing team had to say about the ad on Twitter.

The general consensus online seems to be that this is good, it’s creative, and people are almost upset that it’s as good as it is. It’s probably Kendall Jenner’s best ad ever? I have no scientific reasoning for that and I’m not even gonna fact check myself. But I just have a feeling:

You know what also gets me excited? This ad creates such a solid foundation for more creative work from other influencers heading into the holiday season, no less.

I think that’s what you get when you actually pay for a great ad agency. They are considering the staying power and how “sticky” a campaign is, as opposed to creating something strictly for virality. By most metrics, this campaign isn’t necessarily “viral”, but I don’t think that should be the goal.

This foundation built around wearing the different cushions for different occasions is now effectively communicated, and can continue to have fun executions with legitimately endless influencers and talent. I bet this will be a similar thing as when people make the jokes about what color notebook was for which subject in middle school.

Like the neon green is clearly for when you’re getting your morning vanilla iced matcha latte at Blank Street. That’s obvious. But what about the pink??????? Pink for Pilates??????? I mean doesn’t alliteration still MATTER!!!!?

Ugh. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. I’ll be doing some boots on the ground reporting over the next couple of months to find out for myself.

Yo thank you for reading. A couple things I want you to know about:

1. Check out our Live Marketing News Show Tues-Thurs at 12pm ET. We interviewed Nick on that show yesterday and we break down the biggest stories in advertising and marketing as they happen.

2. We are doing a Live Live Show IRL in NYC on November 4th for our 100th episode. It’s going to be the most entertaining industry event of all time. Early bird tickets are still available for a limited time. A lot of people are buying tickets which is awesome. Buy your tickets here.

3. If you have an entry level job you’re hiring for in SPAM (Social Media, PR, Advertising, Marketing), please consider submitting to our newly launched job board! It’s free to post.