Have you gotten more into guided-meditation or relaxation apps over the past few months? It's a great way to dial down the chaotic noise of anxiety and uncertainty that's filled our minds over the past few months.
(Quick, completely unpaid plug for my fellow parents: the Moshi app is a worthwhile subscription if you find that mellow stories, sound effects and music help your kids get to sleep. They even have a Patrick Stewart track, which knocks me out like a tranq dart to the neck.)
Brands have dabbled a bit in the guided-meditation space, but usually as a joke. It's like how brands embraced ASMR without really embracing it earnestly—with the notable exception of the Oddly Ikea campaign, whose 25-minute ASMR video was actually perfect.
Today we featured an interesting experiment out of Argentina. There, a rideshare app called Cabify has released a social video that was probably quite simple to produce, even in quarantine. That's because it's basically just a simple image of two cartoon eyeballs and a voiceover.
The spot asks you to imagine your first post-quarantine trip out of the house as you go to visit someone you care about. Since it's a ridesharing app, the brand integration is pretty straightforward.
While the spot, from Havas-owned agency Hoy, has a few rough edges, the concept is one worth thinking about. Are advertisers doing enough to really play in the space of imagination, especially at a time when consumers are basically just sitting around the house instead of driving around and looking at out-of-home?
I'd love to see what a savvy brand like Airbnb or Delta could do with this as a way of building pre-excitement among travelers while they're prohibited from traveling.
Have you seen any advertising that makes good use of imagination rather than trying to spell everything out visually? I'd love to hear about it at the email below.
David Griner
Creative and Innovation Editor, Adweek
David.Griner@Adweek.com
