Creative Director’s Choice: David Shadpour of Social Native on Zillow’s relatable ads
Creative Director’s Choice gives creative directors a chance to highlight the work they think is the best out in the ad world — the ads and campaigns they believe are making a difference.
Zillow features real users in its ads
This week, David Shadpour, founder of Social Native, discusses user-generated content and how Zillow's latest ads make the best use of that content.
When it comes to creating a connection with consumers, a key trend I've been seeing more and more across brand advertising is tapping into consumers as a source of content creation. We’ve already seen it in the past, with successful results, such as Apple and the ‘Shot on an iPhone’ billboards, Doritos’ ‘Crash the SuperBowl’ campaign and GoPro, who has been long applauded for its customer-focused marketing strategy that highlights the real-life adventures its product captures.
A recent example of leveraging UGC across brand advertising that I particularly love is Zillow. Its most recent TV spot features families as they move into their new homes, capturing the frustrations and joys of making a place your own. It's rough, but it's real. And it re-imagines advertising as we know it. The spot avoids the high-gloss, high-production look typically found in TV commercials, and instead focuses directly on relationships with consumers and their everyday lives. By showing real families that love Zillow, and what Zillow offers them, the brand empowered consumers to be creators and as a result, humanized the brand's messaging. People trust friends and family over traditional ads, and Zillow's engaging and personal ads perfectly cut through the noise with authentic content and relatable emotion, something all brands can benefit from.
For brands looking to execute a memorable TV spot, don’t be afraid to leverage your consumers in the right way. In our always-on world, ads that truly resonate are those like Zillow's, which answer consumers’ resounding call for authenticity, relevance, diversity, and relatability. If you show your consumers that you understand them, they will instill their trust in you to provide a useful product.
David Shadpour is founder and chief executive officer at Social Native, a company that helps create branded content.
See the work by clicking on the Creative Works box below.
To see the latest creative ads and campaigns, visit The Drum’s Creative Works section. If you or your creative director would like to be featured in our Creative Director’s Choice, please contact Kyle O’Brien.
