Ads That Made It Big In 2018

As the year draws to an end, we pick up some of the biggest trends in the advertising industry in 2018 and also bring you a list of the ads that made an impact with their powerful, sensitive, impactful or humorous story-telling.

- Samarpita Banerjee

The year 2018 has put our focus right back on long-format story-telling in the ad universe. Throughout the year, we came across numerous long-form ads that held our attention in an otherwise cluttered space.

As expected, more and more brands are increasing ad spends on Digital, and thereby putting more focus on the kind of stories they want to tell. It’s no longer simply about telling engaging stories, but also about making sure that the consumers don’t skip ads within the first five seconds.

The festive season this year saw a lot of e-commerce brands investing big bucks on advertising. Be it apparel platforms like Myntra or online marketplaces like Amazon and Flipkart, or even furniture brands like Pepperfry, we saw e-commerce players come up with some heart-warming campaigns to woo consumers.

As always, a lot of brands took up relevant social issues and talked about them. One campaign that broke our hearts and made us smile at the same time this year was Vicks’ #TouchofCare campaign that spoke about Nisha, a young girl with Ichthyosis, a genetic skin condition. The transformation of Nisha due to the love and care provided by her adoptive parents Aloma and David Lobo, forms the crux of this digital video. This is the second edition of Vicks’ campaign, and was as liked as the first video that told the story of Gauri, a transgender mother and her adopted daughter, Gayatri.

Agreeing that emotional and purpose-driven stories continue to have an impact on the audience’s mind, Kainaz Karmakar, Chief Creative Officer,