Make creative your competitive edge; unlock insights and inspiration from 100,000+ ads, rooted in emotional response, to predict and improve your creative’s business impact. Access every Ad Of The Week in our Topical Ads categories.
The fashion and clothing category isn’t known for 5-Star ads – we’ve only seen a handful in the UK and all but one are Christmas ads. So for a non-festive fashion ad to get 5-Stars it must be doing something special. Outdoor clothing brand Regatta’s new Autumn and Winter ad, created by agency driven, does it and makes it look easy. It’s our highest-scoring non-Christmas fashion ad ever, by telling a simple, emotional story with a meaningful truth at its heart.
The ad, “Memories Are Made Outdoors”, is about a mother and her reluctant teenage son, who we see out hiking in the countryside near Manchester, enjoying the outdoors as they climb up to get to where they can enjoy a beautiful view. As they climb over stiles and ford streams we get flashbacks to the pair of them when the boy was much younger, in his welly boots and puddle suit, taking the same trip. Once they reach their destination the teenage boy sheepishly admits to his Mum how much he enjoyed it.
It’s a touching family vignette which artfully blends past and present. The ad includes some of the most effective creative elements a commercial can, pieces of showmanship that we know work to drive long term effectiveness and build positive impressions. There’s the human connection between Mum and son, for instance, creating that all important sense of between-ness that makes characters on screen feel alive to us. And there’s a very strong sense of place, with shots of the English landscape, rolling fields and dry-stone walls.
Those creative elements pay off with a remarkable 5.5-Star Rating on Test Your Ad, in the top 1% of all UK fashion ads – in fact it’s our highest scoring non-Christmas ad in the category. The ad is also in the top 8% of Fashion ads on short-term Spike Rating, where it gets an exceptional score. So this is an ad which, given the right investment, will grow Regatta’s brand and drive immediate sales too.
Graham Drury, partner at driven, the agency who made the ad, had this to say about it: “Regatta is a wonderful brand with a longstanding connection to everyday outdoor life. The ‘Memories are Made Outdoors’ idea taps into the experiences families have out there and tells a story that’s both personal and universally relatable. It’s a refreshing approach for an outdoor clothing brand. We’re looking beyond adventure and into the emotional connections and memories that families make in the great outdoors.”
Drury nails here the way the ad is moving subtly against category conventions – this is a peaceful, charming outdoor ad, not one about roughing it. But as a platform “Memories Are Made Outdoors” also taps into a deeper sense that people, especially young people, need to get outside and enjoy formative experiences in the countryside and in nature.
It’s an emotional truth viewers clearly respond to, perhaps feeling like modern life denies a lot of kids the kind of experiences shown here. It’s no coincidence that Regatta is also a partner of Manchester charity The Outdoor Collaborative, working with them to give young people the kind of experiences the ad shows. That experience is at the heart of the ad, and the record-breaking score shows how well it resonates.
“Regatta is a wonderful brand with a longstanding connection to everyday outdoor life. The ‘Memories are Made Outdoors’ idea taps into the experiences families have out there and tells a story that’s both personal and universally relatable. It's a refreshing approach for an outdoor clothing brand. We’re looking beyond adventure and into the emotional connections and memories that families make in the great outdoors.”
Graham Drury
Partner, driven
Create 5-star ads
The more people feel, the more they buy
The most effective ads boost sales and drive long-term growth. They do it by making people feel more - building positive associations with a recognisable brand. We predict sales and growth impacts by measuring emotion, letting you make ads that entertain for commercial gain.
