Oh, Nothing… Really

Client: Buyagift / Smartbox Group

How do you cut through the Father’s Day gifting noise and drive brand awareness with a very conservative ATL and BTL content budget? Well, it turns out, the most effective way is through good old-fashioned humour (…oh and the subversion of family roles!).

We used core insight that dads really do know what they want for Father’s Day, despite always saying they want “nothing”. Our ‘Oh, nothing… really’ campaign sees long-suffering Alfie endure his father’s not-so-subtle hints to gifts he’d like to receive - all of which are available on Buyagift.com. The result? A TV spot and a social edit with humour at its core. We leaned into the “cheese” without crossing the line or risking our audience feeling that the brand had gone too far. Our relatable, cheeky set of spots achieved upwards of 2.5 million impressions in only one week and organic social views of 3,651, which for a page with only 20k followers was a huge achievement! I guess what’s considered funny is subjective isn’t it? Our content may not have been LOL but that wasn’t what was needed here. The subtle humour within the scripting, directing and delivery made our ads fly! We helped raise brand awareness and highlight the experiences that Buyagift had to offer at a time when competitor brands, such as Red Letter Days and Virgin Experience Days, were targeting the same audiences – but were doing so with MUCH larger ad budgets than ours! And that made us smile!